Blisters and Backaches

Well! I certainly had an interesting day this past Sunday.

On Saturday, one of my favorite students and soccer players asked me to go to her farm with her. I told her I'd go and wanted to see what it was like. I got up early on Sunday morning and went to her house. Her family has 8 kids. We were all piled up in a truck. Haha! Pretty interesting experience in itself.

They had a pile of chopped off grass stalks in the back of the truck (along with half of her family). So, I asked what they were going to do with those. She told me we were going to plant them. I'm thinking... Oh, Ok. How hard can it be? Just stick some grass stalks into the ground and call it a day, right? Then I asked her how long we were going to be there. When she answered with "All day long," I began to doubt myself and wonder what I'd gotten into. There was no turning back at this point.

Next stop? The market. You gotta have something for later to eat. She and I got out of the truck and went to purchase some things. She said to me, "Do you like fish soup?" And I just told her I'll eat whatever she eats. We ventured to the back of the market where they have all these buckets full of fish, eel, and frogs. Alive. And picked up a couple of fish in a bag. Eventually, they stopped moving...

To the FARM! When I say farm, you're probably thinking of some nice little red barn and fences with chickens and pigs inside. Stalls with horses. Maybe a pond with some ducks. Meeeee toooooo. I thought this too. I was so incredibly wrong.

We turned off onto this really bumpy dirt road and stopped at a shack, got some hoes and shovels, and drove to the next bamboo hut thingy. And I took a look at the "field." Fallen trees everywhere. No gate or ladder to get over the barb wired fence. Just some tree branches to climb over. Thus began my first day in my life doing intense manual labor for 8 hours. FOR FREE... Haha. With small hoes and shovels, we plowed out rows of dirt and planted the entire truck full of grass stalks (which are itchy). We ate fish soup as a family outside on top of leaves. Apparently this is a make-shift picnic table. And we sat together squished into a hut and listened to the dad tell stories while it rained. Never in my life could I have experienced a day like this in the USA. I went home with a sore body and blistered hands and crashed at 8pm.

Experiencing life here makes me all the more thankful.
I've always had food on my plate, and my baby soft hands have never known such work.
Count your blessings...