A Jewel on the Ground

I'm back at the base camp of the organic farm where I'm volunteering. I've been here a week, and I have another week to go before GOA!!! Gahhhhhh!! Exciting India.

This week has been a wild one. Wild, I tell you!

I'm learning so much about myself in talking with others and finding this place of solitude. I think this farm and work will be good for me. A nice respite from the chaos and stress that I've created for myself.


I'm reminded of this song when I get all crazy/worked up:


In choosing to do one thing we choose not to do another. To travel I choose to not live at home, to not work, to be on my own. Sacrifice of a thing must always be made in decision-making. No matter how much one wants, one can never have it all. For shame. For shame. And so, Mick Jagger & co. spring to mind from time to time:


When I got off the bus, Sattvic (an older Italian gentleman) was at the crossroads to drive me the rest of the way to the farm on the bumpiest, windiest road - ever. In describing the farm to me, he said, "this place is like a jewel on the ground." I clasped my hands together in anticipated delight. It's true; birdsong 24/7; there's a stream just below where I'm living and I bathe and do my laundry there; dragonflies dance above every surface from the rice paddies to the palm trees; mountains surround the as far as the eye can see. Pure magnificence all around, and when you turn the corner, just when you thought you saw it all, there is more to behold which makes your heart cry with joy of the beauty beyond anything you could imagine.

Given that it is a farm, there is work to do, and since the rainy season is coming to an end there is a lot of weeding and general farm maintenance to be done. WEEDING!! (My mother would be so proud to know that I do it without complaint!! And actually enjoy it!! Ah-wha?!) One day we (me and Sebastian - I'll get to him) had to dig holes for a fence because a neighbor's bull kept leaping over this stone wall and would eat the rice - I actually had to chase this bull, but he was too quick for me. Punk! But it's mostly been weeding. And weeding. And guess what? More weeding. My hands are covered in scratches and stained with mud and clay that might never come off. Ever. And I'm pretty certain I now have either Carpeltunnel's or arthritis in my right hand (and unrelated to weeding, but I think I broke my left knee because I tried to force myself into full lotus position - you don't do that. Crap!) from all the work. Seriously. But not really.

And since it's nature, there are a wide variety of the creepy crawlies as well as the awe-inspiring beautiful creatures (and the mischievous monkeys!!! They stole our bananas!!). LEECHES!! There are leeches here. Not like the big, fat ones from "Stand By Me" but like murderous little inchworms standing up on the leaves, sniffing for your blood (Sebastian said, "What can you do? They are made to suck our blood." Word). I was happy yesterday because I didn't have a-one on me, and while I was writing a letter (old school! you know with a pen and paper and you put it in an envelope and you go to the post office and you buy a stamp and you put it in the mail, and then some 5-7 days later someone is really happy when they open up their mailbox and see something other than a bill - oOOH!) I had a sinking feeling, so I reached down and felt on my foot, and BLAM! on the bottom, in between my toes was the fattest, greediest leech I've encountered. And since your blood apparently doesn't want to clot after, I was bleeding for at least 30 minutes while Seb and I played an intense few games of YAHTZEE! and 10,000. So, yeah, I jinxed myself. They don't hurt, they're just creepy and annoying. And I've seen the BIGGEST spiders in real life here (alive, not dead like the tarantulas they fry up at the bus stops in Cambodia - vomit) with their egg sacks under their bellies - all in preparation for Guam - they're as big as a baby's head. And jungle rats!! A cross between "Lady and the Tramp" and "The Princess Bride"'s ROUS's they're big enough to steal/eat a baby. (What's with me and baby measurements?!) And yesterday, Seb showed me a SEVEN FOOT LONG snakeskin he found walking back from the base camp. SEVEN FOOT!! I do NOT want to meet that mister in the forest on my walk home!! No no!

The food is mind-blowingly delicious! And I love eating with my hands! It's like every meal is Medieval Times, except there aren't any jousting shows to accompany.

There's so much more to write. I've been writing a lot in my journal every day, making discoveries, and writing letters, but now that I'm on the computer I'm overwhelmed with the sheer volume of what I've written. It's not that I don't want to share it with you, I do, it's just I need to finish another letter and then go to the post office and head back up the mountain.

One more thing before I go though (ooh! I haven't even told you about the people here yet [they're all Krishna devotees, but they don't push their beliefs on you which is a marvelous thing], but that will have to be a post in itself. Sheesh!), on the way down the mountain, Amrit (a 57-year old Jew from Connecticut) asked me what I want to do, and I answered that I have no clue other than to write. I'm confused right now, as to what I should be doing and where I should be doing it, and how I should do it... oy. Anyway, he said that that was a wonderful thing because it reminded him of this thing that Deepak Chopra said about how it's good to be at a crossroads with no clear direction because only then will you be open to new opportunities that are coming your way and that you hadn't thought of before. I think that's pretty nice, and hopefully that's the place where I am these days... hopefully.

As always, peace and love, people. Until next time...