Day 11

Neverland's pig

Last night the group of volunteers went to a festive event called Bingo Bailable in the nearest town, Tumianuma. I arrived during the early afternoon to the small town. There I purchased luxuries such as canned sardines, sweet bread, and chocolate. Normally, these items do not appeal to me but living in an isolated environment with pasta, limited vegetables, and white rice has made simple pleasure foods appetizing.

Anyway, the Bing Bailable consists of 30-minute intervals of playing bingo and then dancing in a group. As I ate my canned fish and sweet rolls the owner of the small convenience store told me that the nights' festivities were cancelled. I took the opportunity to head to Vilcabamba to spend a night in the house of a friend of Neverland's owner. I still have many questions about the longevity of the Vilcabambans and thought that maybe seeing the housing and lifestyle of a local can answer some of those questions. When I arrived to the friend's house I saw three very simple rooms with two teen-aged daughters, a normal kitchen filled with herbs, cooking utensils, and about 10 potted plants.

Today is the second of two free days on the Neverland Farm. I woke up early this morning and sat on the same plaza in Vilcabamba  upon which I originally sat when I first arrived to southern Ecuador. I watched people--mainly Anglo-Saxons--trail into the various high-priced restaurants of the popular town square. Tall, pale foreigners carried tubs of raw honey, shredded coconut, and various breads. This facade of "health" seems to be a money-making scheme to attract foreign money as the locals live a humbled life. As I look back on my first trip to The Juice Factory I recall that I did not need to speak Spanish to order my meal and that the customers were fair-skinned, English speakers. Similarly, the ads on the bulletin board outside were in English.

I took the trip back to the Neverland Farm extremely disappointed. Upon arrival I asked the farm's owner about this longevity. She explained to me that the hype had passed and the remnants were the few community members over 100-years-old, still working the land and walking miles each day.

Tree where pig had been tied for about one week

The pig needed to be fed so I went to see his portion of the acreage. The land where the pig was tied up was extremely well-tilled and the soft soil was farmable. I have heard of using both chickens and pigs to till the land before farming. The Neverland Farm should place its under-utilized farm animals in the gardens to eat the weeds that I spent my entire week uprooting.

Soil where pig ate the plants

Pig's current location