Things I've done in the past few days I have never done before in my life:1. Wheelbarrow. And my god.. we wheelbarrowed like crazy for the last two days.
2. Handled worms and bugs with my hands (albeit gloved hands hehe!)
3. Petted a hen and spoon feed it live worms. We have an injured hen with a broken leg and its pretty spoiled!
4. Speak so much mandarin in 4 days to our Taiwanese wwoofers. Boy am i struggling, but its fun to work the brain and try to improve my so called mother tongue without feeling silly or embarressed.
5. Eat so much vegetables and so little meat - something we've been meaning to do but always never do...
6. Use a compost toilet (no flush, no water... only a seat above a hole in the ground and saw dust)
7. Slept so early - 9pm yesterday coz we were sooo tired!
I feel stronger just with 4 days of hard labour. The first couple of times ptich forking the wood chips from truck to wheelbarrow and ground to wheelbarrow etc... my back and arms and neck were aching and I couldnt last more than 5 mins. But today, I could go on for a while without feeling totally shack. It's a great feeling. Feeling strong. Maybe some day I can be as strong as the bangladeshi workers who slave to build singapore for us back home... Just check out how muscular and hefty I'm looking in this photo! Scary...
It's only Monday, but I am already dreading the relunctance to go when we have to leave this sunday. I dont think anyone can leave here without feeilng emotional..When the 2 Japanese wwoofers we met last thursday left the next day after a month of staying here, I thought how it must be so hard to leave when you're in such a beautiful place, doing the same thing for one whole month and then just leave to go back to your old life or to another life. The Japanese are also not the most affectionate people... they just waved and bowed goodbye at each other after spending one month with one another. Unlike Europeans who kiss and hug even if they've just met.
Anyway, we had a great time today, despite the hard work again... we started at 6am today! Coz we thought we'd try to avoid working in the hot sun (it was my 'bright idea). We chatted alot in the various different languages... Japanese, Mandarin, English and Swedish... and its nice that everyone understood and laughed at my lame jokes. hehehe. Its great. We even sang as we worked.
We have an off day on Wednesday and we're going to check out a lake and go to an On sen (japanese hot spring!). Noiceeee! It's strange but also nice to have a 'day off'. Coz we're only here 10 days, and this doesnt entirely feel like work.
Some thing I've definitely noticed is how diligent our Jap wwoofers are at doing their work, cleaning, cooking, doing the hard labour... yet they are also very very chilled out. For example while pitch forking & wheelbarrowing the chips all day, they were efficient and strong themselves, but didnt rush anyone else. And if mistakes were made, they just laughed it away and say its ok. They didnt worry terribly if we were late, stupid, lazy, inexperienced, soft... they were forgiving, patient and so nice. I found myself at times wanting to direct people to do things a certain way so that its more efficient... but I stopped myself as I thought, if these people who've been here so long aren't telling me what to do...why should i tell anyone else how to do stuff? I realise I needed to chill out alot more. Alot of times, Bjorn and I bicker because we both think we know the best way to do something... anything! It' really stupid. If we just learn a little patience and understanding, and not feel the need to control every aspect of our lives, people will be way more chilled out. I'm happy I've taken this one thing away with me from here. It's so fulfilling when you take away something positive that you never expect to.
Jason will be most pleased you've learnt the art of patience. Especially if you guys ever cook together again.
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