farm life and such

So pretty much one week ago exactly I got out of the taxi that had taken me from the bus station in Tunuyan to the end of a dirt road 15 minutes or so out of town, paid the driver with too big of a bill (but he gave me change, no worries), put on my backpack (not actually so huge and waful as I initially thought) and headed towards the house at the end of the road. Some people were standing in the yard, I introduced myselñf, they looked confused, and asked where I wanted to go. I said Rincon Madre Tierra and they pointed me back the way I came and probably laughed behind my back as I walked away...good start. Went back to the kind of ramshackle house I passed before which, turns out, had a sign with the right name, knocked on the door and..nothing. I looked around the house, wandered past some mysterious half finished other buildings, found another kind of house where no one answered, and went back to sit on my pack by the road. There was no one there as far as I could tell, but I had definitely communicated that I was coming that day in a confusing Spanish phone conversation -earlier, and it was only like 6 so I decided to chill and make friends with the cats.
After like an hour there was still no one there. I wasn´t quite pnaicking, but curious...
Evenutally an oldish man and a little kid came around the corner and showed some recognition when I introduced myself! Thank god. They even mentioned Aviva´s name...but there was no sign of other volunteers, something about them being in Mendoza (where I had been until like 4 that afternoon, oh well). So Jorge and Nacho took me inside, gave me some oranges, and we attempted conversation. Nacho told me he was 5 and a lot of other things about the pets, etc really really quickly, then watched Winnie the Pooh while Jorge gave me a talk about how their farm is not a pyramid (with some people higher than others) but a ¨plano¨and how everyone is a person regardless of skin color or country and then put on a movie about the implications of quantum physics on our reality.

Eventually I went to the casa de voluntarios (other house) and eventually the other volunteers showed up. There´s been one new arrival since then, and Aviva left on Thursday but now we have:
-Pumita, 24 yr old from Dan Fran who is trying out WWOOFing in Argentina between surfing in Brazil and possibly other things ona trip of undetermined lenghth
-Hayden, 22 yr old from Vermont, takign some time off from school to dot he WWOOFing thing here, improve her Spanish, etc
-Kiley, 28 yr old from Kentucky, independent film maker? Travelling in SA for like 6 months, only dabbling in WWOOF
-Julian, her Colombian BF who only speaks Spanish
-Marko, 60ish expat who hates the US with a burning passion and has been around here for about a year, next stop India
-Jared, 19 yr old from Portland taking tiem off from school to travel in SA whose claim to fame is being drugged and the robbed 4 times on the same night in Buenos Aires
And then the familia, Jorge and his much younger wife Azucena, there kids Paloma (10) and Nacho (5), 5 cats and 3 dogs

We work from 9ish to 1ish, lunch and siesta, then 4ish to 8ish. This week there´s been lots of work on a house for more volunteers which we are weaving out of branches and will then cover with mud, also digging up and preparing to transplant little trees, also cultivating artichokes, watering trees, cleaning the casa this morning. Cleanliness is VERY relative. Maybe 2 showers a week, when we build a fire to heat a limited supply of water. In terms of cleanign dishes and tables and the house in general.. well, we do what we can but the standards are just so completely different. The food is great when Azucena cooks, but I´m definitely fighting cravings for meat and sugar (we went out for lomos--steak sandwhiches--and ice cream on Aviva´s last night and it wad the BEST THING EVER). It´s possible to buy snacks and supplements (cheese...chocolate...) from soem little stores closer than town, but I´m trying to hold out.

Farm work/life is definitely tough, but so far I think I´m getting what I want from it. Experience of a different lifestyle, sense of accomplishment, personal challenge, etc. Lots of interesting/nice people to get to know, further attempts to learn Spanish (I´m the only one who isn´t close to fluent). I think one more week should be a good amount of time, after that I have to decide if I´m off to Tucuman to volunteer in a city hospital or another farm in Salta.

Random things..
-so far I haven´t gotten sick (KNOCK ON WOOD)! My mom´s recommendation of a pepto bismol tablet and packet of EmergenC a day may be working...
-THE ANDES ARE AMAZING. You can see them from pretty much everywhere on the farm, except for when it´s cloudy
-apparently like 80% of the people in this area die of cancer, possibly because the land is so polluted with chemicals? weird. tragic.
-OH I FORGOT on my first full day here (last sunday) we went to an organic farming/biodynamics conference at someone´s farm like an hour away that included: philosophy discussion, hippie dancing, vegetarian potluck, digging up bull´s horns full of some mysterious fertilizer mixture

I took lots of pictures of the farm, etc but this computer won´t upload them... maybe next time