"Will Work For Food" - Farm #3

Hello Family & Friends!

Happy Juuune! We recently just passed our 6 month mark of being abroad - crazy! It's been so wonderful :)

We just finished up 3 weeks on Farm #3! It was located four hours outside of Cusco in a beautiful, lush part of Peru that we are going to call the jungle. We're not sure if it was actually the jungle... but it looked one & damn there were lots of bugs. haha To our surprise we found ourselves back along the trail we had actually hiked with Jackie's family to Machu Picchu! Jackie's internal GPS sensed the familiar surroundings on our drive there. We showed up & realized we had actually had lunch at the restaurant next door, which belonged to the farm owner's brother! Because of this, we saw tourists come through the area every day, and each day smiled at their perplexed face that said, "what are white people doing working here?" haha Some of them even took pictures of us working. Hilarious.

It was fun though to be on the other side of things & see the hard work & effort the families in the pueblo have to make in order to host the hikers. The work these Peruvians do is no joke, and during our time there we worked right alongside with them. In some of the cases I think we actually surprised locals with being females & cutting down trees with machetes on the street. We like it though, keep them on their toes & break some gender stereotypes :) It was a coffee farm & we picked coffee almost every day, and also got some weird looks from locals when we had to hike down the mountain with the bag on our back full of coffee beans. It was about a 30 minute hike up each day to the farm & most days we hiked down too, although sometimes we got lucky and caught a ride. We picked coffee, peeled it, washed it & dried it out. Then Tati, the owner, & her parents, who lived with us, sent it into the city to get roasted. It was great to learn about the coffee process, although the work was a bit monotonous. We swear we must have picked over a thousand coffee beans during our time there haha

While we'd love to say it was wonderful, that'd be lying. It was a great experience and, of course, there are always lessons & growth that comes from each place, but in comparison to our other adventures, it was hard. And not in terms of labor but in terms of living. When Tati smiled she was brilliant, but most of the time she was exhausted, over worked & not open to the laughter & light we tried to shed onto the place. Regardless, we kept each other sane by joking with one another & reminding each other of the incredible nature around us. Sometimes when things are hard & shitty, you just have to laugh. In lieu of this lesson, we present you with the following recapitulation of some of our favorite moments on the farm, in all of it's ridiculousness & humor.

1. Jackie's face turns into Quasi Motd. Thank yooooou bug bites, it's not like we don't already feel like frump balls.

2. Sweeping leaves out of planters due to Tati's OCD. May I remind you, we live in the jungle. AKA - there will always be leaves.

3. Grandma, who we actually started calling Grandma, throwing volunteers off the mountain to pick three berries on the top of a tree. Note to self: you need life insurance to work on this farm.

4. The conversation that occurred every single night, "Jack, do you think we're gonna get fed tonight?" "I dunno Gel, should we ask?" "I dunno, I don't wanna upset her." ..... Feeling like orphans & gaining a whole new understanding of what the sign "Will Work For Food" means.

5. Touching a poisonous caterpillar on my first day picking beans, and being told it was because I wasn't picking coffee correctly. Apparently, you're suppose to bend over the tree & check for caterpillars first. She did not tell us this. In response to the pain she told me it can spread up my arm & to my heart, telling me, "Let me know if it spreads past your hand."

6. Never really finding out what would have happened if the pain spread past my hand and up to my heart. Would I die?! We're still unsure.

7. Becoming terrified of picking coffee.

8. Going next door to the "store" and buying instant coffee... because we ran out of coffee in the house. I'm sorry, I thought we were working on a coffee farm?

9. Grandpa running to the shower in his undies!

10. Jackie saying out loud, to no one in particular, "I suck at using a machete." Tati's low blow, unnecessary response, "It's not the machete's fault." Ouch. We know Tati, we know!

11. Loving when guests would come stay at the "lodge" because that meant we were guaranteed dinner.

12. Having to carry down Grandma's coffee beans in addition to ours = continually falling down & body slamming the mountain.

13. Beginning to laugh in an attempt to not cry.

14. Scenario: volunteer #1 in the kitchen stealing a piece of bread to satiate hunger pangs. Volunteer #2 on the look out for possible sitings of Grandma or Tati.

15. Grandma pissed we're "sleeping in" until 8:30 on Sunday... our one day off.

16. Jackie being taught how to close the refrigerator door.

17. Secretly feeding the hungry, meowing cats with the thought process, "We know you feel. And if I have the power to feed you, I will feed you!"

All in all, we believe every experience is a good experience & there is always something to take away. On that note, it's a part of this journey that won't be missed. :)

We're currently about to wrap up our time in Peru and head over to Bolivia. We're really excited for these next few months in Bolivia and whatever it has to bring! Can't wait to continue the journey :)

With laughter & gratitude,

A & J