Day 10

Planting bed 3 before weeding

Planting bed 1 after weeding

Today is one of two weekly free days in which the volunteers can choose to go to town, hike the mountain, work on personal projects, or sleep all day. I woke up early and took pictures of the garden in its completion. I considered it a complete mess of weeds, oddly placed vegetables, and paralyzing tree thorns when I arrived but a week's worth of effort has brought it closer to an Eden.

Cement is needed from town so a group of four went to Tumianuma for some much-needed chocolate and to saddle up a donkey to transport a 100-pound bag of cement. Once again, we were inexperienced at securing the large sack. To make things worse, we had the equivalence of a large shoe lace to harness the load onto the donkey. And, this specific donkey was inexperienced in traveling on the path. He stopped to eat grass frequently so Mari, the German girl, was delegated to slapping the mule on his backside. I was leading the animal with a rope that did little leading and the heavy load was secured upon the back of the unstable donkey, and the other man was holding the precious chocolate along with everyone's bags on his back. I have to say that the constant stops to readjust the load upon the steep hills made this the most pathetic mode of transportation I had seen here yet.

My eyes began to open to the relaxed attitude toward the safety of the volunteers. When I returned to the farm I scoped for safety breeches and poor-quality labeling.

I also drew a map of the land used by volunteers based on my observations: