Weekly Reflection #3 This week was another adventure again because it was our first full week of living and weeding on the farm. Spending the entire week on Tortola was really cool because we really got to explore the island. We have had an amazing time in our bungalow and have discovered tons of new diving sites. This week, we really accomplished our goal in mastering scuba diving. This goal was especially realized on Friday when we dove with two newly certified divers and one diver who had not gone again for 30 years. Compared to them, who were really struggling with the simplest pieces of diving, such as descending, I felt that we had come a long way. I have noticed myself improve as a diver in my spatial awareness and how long I can get my tank to last—where at the beginning of the trip, I would return with 900 psi, I now return with around 1300 psi because I have learned to control my breathing more. Meanwhile, on the farm, I have learned a that organic farming is a lot of work
Posts
5:57 We got to sleep in today until 6:15 because it was a Saturday and we didn't need to do farm work. Saturday is market day, so we headed up to the top of the farm to pack all of the produce into the truck for Aragorn so he could go to market. We returned to our bungalow and ate some breakfast and hung out for a little before hiking back up to the top of the farm to drive to the market. We had to deliver some more produce to Aragorn there to sell. We hung out there for a while and met other farmers on the island. We met another really nice farmer named Sam who had worked for Aragorn since she was 17 but since has started her own farm on the island. We ate lunch at a cool coffee house/gallery with locally grown food. After the market, we had to go get to the dive boat. Today we went to Dry Rock. Bruce joined us again, along with two new divers, but they were diving with another guide. Frances saw a baby trunkfish!! But sadly, I didn’t even get to see it!!! :(((. I also read a
Here is a video of our cat, Good, bringing us a live present one day while we were hanging out in the bungalow. Please excuse our profanity, there is a swear dropped, but what else are you supposed to say when a cat brings you a live lizard (we aren't cat owners, we have no experience with this). Our cat was pretty sad after this that we didn't appreciate his hard work.
7:56 Last night I dreamt that I was taking the ACTs. I was in the AP lang/lit classroom but the far side was a massive dirt wall, because, our first three sections of the exam were weeding!!! Then, of course there was the reading section, haha, can't forget that. Well, I woke up and went into weeding immediately at 5:45. But Harry helped us a long today. Got to love Harry Potter, and books on tape. After only an hour of weeding, we helped Drake pick a bunch of basil and mint to sell at the market tomorrow. Then, we returned to our weeding. There is a small patch of rice growing, and while weeding it, it gave me small rashes on my legs and forearms. Then, we pulled from the dirt, cleaned and stacked 50 cinder blocks that the farm was giving someone. I got bit by a lot more fire ants. I really don't like being bit by ants. After we had finished our last day of farming, we returned to our bungalow, ate lunch, had cold showers, and quick naps and then headed out for some more
7:33 Again, we started the morning at 5:30, were finally able to make some eggs on our new burner, and were up pulling our weeds by 5:50. The first hour and a half passed very quickly with the sun behind clouds and the morning still cool. But, as the day reached out before us, the heat soon arrived. So, this morning we decided we should listen to a book on tape while we weeded. So during our 9 o’clock water break, we downloaded the fifth Harry Potter book. Jim Dale is the best narrator ever. Listening to Harry Potter made the morning go by much faster, because again this morning, our only job was weeding. Hopefully tomorrow, we will get to do some picking and preparing produce for the market on Saturday rather than weeding for 5 hours straight. In the afternoon, we discovered a new and rather quiet beach called Josiah’s with great waves, and we are making some chicken fajitas for dinner. Here are some photos of the bungalow that we have been living in. It is really gorgeous.
7:03 pm The first thing I do when I get up is to check the sky to see if we have clouds or sun. This morning, there were no clouds in the sky, so Frank and I knew we were in for a very sunny and hot day. We started out the morning with some weeding at 5:45. Sitting on our weed buckets is definitely the way to go. The morning hours are not too hot yet so it was fine weeding. At 7:34, we decided to go pick the newly dried beans. We thought there weren't going to many more to pick because we had last picked them on Friday, but already there were so many dried beans that it took us an hour and twenty minutes today. So fun!! Unfortunately, I stepped on two different ant hills, the ants ran up my sneakers and bit my ankles, then bit my hands when I tried to get them off my ankles. I hate red ants. Having picked all the white beans, we unfortunately had to return to weeding. We began a new bed today, which didn't have too many weeds, but did have a lot of ant hills, which I stepped o
7:25 pm We started the day again at 5:30 and farming started at 6. Today it was again cloudy in the morning so the weeding wasn't that bad. We also decided to sit on our weed buckets this morning while we weeded and found another bucket to put our weeds in. But today, we got a new task. We started picking the green onions, cleaning them all in a tub, and pulling off their roots and dirty pieces of skin so that they are prepared for the market. This was nice task because we got to sit on our root buckets and hide from the sun because the tub was in the shade. It was also very satisfying to pull off the dirty skin, so it was a nice morning. In the afternoon, we visited a local beach and swam and I read. I have been reading A Little Life , which is a really good book, but every page seems to wrench my heart out even more because it is incredibly sad. I can't put it down. More weeding and onion cleaning awaits tomorrow. Hours today: 5 Hours total: 83