custard apple

Have you ever tried a chirimoya? The English name for it is a custard apple - what a perfect description of the fruit! Sweet and creamy and bright. I had never tried one before I got to this farm, but I used to see them at home in the fancy grocery stores. You should treat yourself to one. This is my daily breakfast experience.

hi mom!

I forgot to write about Thanksgiving!

I've been out of the country for Thanksgiving a couple of times before, and it's always a little strange. It's not like being away for Christmas, where everyone knows what day it is, even if they're not a Christian society. Thanksgiving is particularly American, and even if someone has heard of Thanksgiving they don't have an understanding of what it is. So though I've tried to celebrate it on my own before, I've never quite felt successful.

This year was an exception. My job here, at this farm, is to help, but that job has been presented in a very general way. I got it in my head I wanted to cook up a Thanksgiving meal, so I presented it to Petra - the woman of this farm - in this way: let's invite a bunch of folks over for a yummy meal and ask of them an hour or so of work, then we can all put in together and get some project done on the farm that wouldn't get done otherwise. She liked the idea, and suggested we pull out a tangle of living and dead agave plants so she can put in a tree.

There are several chickens running around this farm. Once in a while they get in the garden and eat what we are trying to grow, but in general they clean up weeds that are outside the garden fence. No one knows where they are laying their eggs. There is one old cock who has a terrible cock-a-doodle-doo and who is just a general nusiance, so Petra told me that if I could catch him I could cook him up for the dinner. It's no easy task to catch a free range rooster, and from what I've heard it's no easy task to pluck and prepare him either. By chance, I caught up with him the day before T-day, but the children begged me not to hurt him so we ended up with a veggie-loaf for the centerpiece of our meal. Other than that, there was lots of fresh veggies, fresh baked bread, mashed potatoes, gravy, garden salad, and several pies.

The guest list wasn't very long, but I don't think our table or kitchen could have handled much more than what we had. And the amount of hands present for the agave project was perfect - there was a struggle involved, but in the end we won and the agave lost. I thought a lot about home and family and friends on that day. It felt good to be American that day, which certainly isn't usually the case with the reputation that our country has in the world right now. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Gran Canaria and WOMAD

I've spent the weekend on another island; I hopped over to Gran Canaria with Rigo and Vero for the WOMAD festival. Four nights of music from around the world, though we only attended two. The Canary Islands have been experiencing a severe drought this year, and even though we should have been receiving a lot of rain since before I arrived, the weather has been disappointingly clear. But I was told that it always rains for WOMAD and this year was no exception. Several times the sky opened and poured down without mercy, daring the crowd to stay for the music. We dared: people were huddled together under trees and sharing an umbrella between three or four, willing to stick it out for the music.

I didn't get to see much more of Gran Canaria than the capital city of Las Palmas, but I'm gold it's a really beautiful island, so I look forward to another opportunity.

Back on the farm now, the place looks great for all the rain. Weeds come easily out of the soft earth, the garden is brilliantly green, and the place has a generally cleaner, fresher look to it. It is strange to think of this place as home, but it felt like coming home when I returned here after four days away.

this is where i live

Hi there. Long time, no post. The computer at the farm doesn't work with this website very well so I had to wait until I saw Rigo in La Laguna in order to write.

My farm is called Finca Limon. Finca = farm (without animals), Limon you can figure out on your own. It took me a couple of days to adjust to life on the farm. The little room where I live (see video) was very dirty and I was warned that there are a couple of rats that have been getting in at night. I spent the first night cowering in a tent inside my room, exhausted but waking up at every noise. The next day was dedicated to making my living space habitable and comfortable. The rat situation is now thus: I definitely hear them wandering around at night in the trees and sometimes across my roof (which is just corrugated fiber glass; I can see and hear everything that wanders across it), but they don't seem to want to come inside and I don't give them reason to (no food in my room, etc.) so all I have to deal with is the noise. I'm learning to deal with it.

The rest of the farm has a general feeling of disorganization that at first I found disappointing but I'm starting to find endearing. There is a family that lives and works here - a mother, father, and three young daughters, but there's far more work than any of them can / are willing to do. So the WWOOFers who come are pretty much free to do as they please. Find something that needs to be done and do it - that's the deal. Sometimes there's more direction than that, but not often.

Yesterday my work day took place in the kitchen. Everyone in the household eats the mid-day meal together at about 2:30, so daily a meal to serve 8 or 10 people has to be prepared. On the farm we have a lot of big squash that need to be eaten up - green outsides with orange flesh; they smell rather like pumpkins. I pieced together some recipes from the internet and ended up with a fantastic soup. I was quite proud of the outcome. I can't very well make squash soup every day, so I'm very open to recipe suggestions; keep in mind that my ingredient options are limited: plenty of fresh veggies, basic spices, trying to avoid dairy (because there are some vegans among us), and no option to pop on over to the supermarket for that one obscure ingredient.

Today I came back to La Laguna with the fellow (from another farm, but part of the association to which Finca Limon belongs) who brings the produce to market. It took us 2.5 hours to make a 1 hour drive across the island because we had to stop at so many farms to pick up their produce. I was hoping to watch him in his route and learn it so that I could be the bring-the-produce-to-market person every once in a while, but after one day just observing in the market I'm sure I won't be able to do that. My Spanish is nowhere near good enough to sell vegetables to people who are in a hurry. Ah well, I enjoyed the experiment and I got a free trip to visit with Rigo (Vero is out of town) out of it.

Tomorrow I plan to make the kitchen my project. It's in an awful state of disorganization and even uncleanliness. If I'm to feel comfortable here, I have to work to make my environment as I desire it. With all this time spent in the kitchen and all this squash around me, I'm starting to feel the approach of Thanksgiving; I'm even itching to put together a little feast.

edit: I'm trying but I'm having a hell of a time figuring out how to get the video option to work here. Sorry, you'll have to wait to see my house ....

estoy aqui, por fin!

I'm exhausted. I smell funny. I'm here.

To my relief, my luggage was waiting patiently for me when I landed in Tenerife. Luckily Rodrigo picked me up at the airport because getting around with all those bags and a box wouldn't have been easy. After three days in transit, I'm glad to have something that is easy.

The sun was setting behind the hills so I got to see my new surroundings for the first half of the drive north. I'm on a tropical island off the coast of Africa, so you can imagine that the landscape is drastically different. Strangely shaped plants and trees and a constant coastline are as much as I know so far; I look forward to exploring tomorrow.

Now I'm at Rigo and Vero's place in La Laguna. She's been out of town for the last month, but returns home tomorrow evening. It's so nice to be greeted by friends as I enter this new place. It makes it feel somewhat like coming home. Well ... I plan to be here for long enough that I guess that's exactly what's happened. I've arrived at my new home.

moving right along

After two unexpected days in San Francisco, I'm continuing along on my journey to Tenerife. I'm in the Dublin airport now, waiting for my connecting flight. I spoke with my friend Rodrigo a few minutes ago; he is going to pick me up at the airport with a car so I don't have to figure out a bus or deal with my luggage alone. My luggage, by the way, has been located and should be waiting for me when I deplane in Tenerife. I'm completely exhausted, but glad to have everything working properly once again.

I've arrived! ... in San Francisco ... ?

I ran into a few mishaps in the course of my outbound journey. I didn't realize I'd signed up for so much adventure .....

1. When I checked in at LAX, I was told that because I don't have a visa for Spain and because I don't have an outbound flight American Airlines wouldn't be able to check me in for my flight. They were certain that Spain won't let me in. I don't know if they are correct or not, but there was no arguing with my check-in lady. So I had to purchase a ticket to leave Spain. I now am $300 poorer and I have a flight from the Canary Islands to Dublin on January 25th which I may or may not board.

2. The first leg of my journey was from Los Angeles to San Francisco. I was supposed to be one hour in San Francisco and then connect to Dublin and then to Tenerife. But San Francisco had heavy fog so my flight from LA left an hour late and I missed my connection. The next flight to Dublin/Tenerife from SF is on Friday. Fortunately, my brother lives in SF, so I have a warm place to live for the next two days.

3. My luggage (see above photo) is somewhere between Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dublin, and Tenerife, but no one will tell me exactly where until I land in Tenerife. I have been doubly assured that I'll have all of my things when I land in Tenerife - that this kind of thing is quite normal - but until I land there I can't be told where anything is because of [as if this is an adequate and reassuring explanation:] September 11. So luckily I've got access to my brother's closet because otherwise I'd be freezing right now.

So the plan is now that I'll continue my journey Friday morning, arriving in Tenerife Saturday evening. Cross your fingers for me. In the mean time it seems my choices are to laugh or to cry, and so far I'm laughing.

a few last good-byes

I ran into my elementary school principal Thursday night at Art Walk. His art work was all over the walls of a gallery: beautiful Dia de los Muertos prints. It was so awesome! He remembered me a lot. I was so happy.

He told me how to locate Mr. Martin, my 5th & 6th grade teacher. Mr. Martin was quite an inspiration to me; he's part of the reason I went into teaching. I found him the next day at the district office and had a few minutes to chat and reminisce. What a treat!