Animals should be friends. Not food.

Well, we´ve been living at Guillemo´s for four days now. The owner of the previous farm we were staying at is coming back on Tuesday to shut it down for the rest of the rainy season. All of the other WWOOFers left yesterday for different locations. Lydia and I are slightly worried about running into the owners since we sent out e-mails to all of the other WWOOFers who were planning to come and told them the truth of the situation.

Living at Guillemo´s has been really nice but also rather challenging also. It seems as though everyday Lydia and I are coming to terms with 7 harsh realities about ourselves.

1. We have no survival skills
2. We don´t know anything about life outside the western world
3. We´re lazy/selfish oversized babies who expect people to take care of us 24/7
4. We have no idea where our food actually comes from or how much work that food requires to produce
5. Only knowing one language is not enough
6. We are incredibly weak (both physically and mentally) and not as independent as we thought we were
7. There is one large beheemoth chancho (pig) on the farm that wants to eat Lydia and I

Needless to say, this whole experience has been extremely humbling.

Yesterday... What a day.

Starting off, Lydia and I were informed that we were going to be milking the cows in the morning. Neither Lydia nor I have ever milked a cow. I don´t even like being in the same field with a cow. They are big, strong, and unpredictable. They could kill me with one swift kick. It was a very strange feeling to be squeezing milk out of this living animal. The cows seemed to have this look of disgust/shame on their faces. I didn´t blame them. Not only did they have to go through the torture of having some humans pulling on their body parts, but they also had to have both their legs and their horns tied up and be separated from their calves. Luz (Guillemo´s wife) put both Lydia and I to shame with the milking. Lydia and I had squeezed out about 2 cups of milk while she had filled up about 2 gallons. We are wusses. After this experience Lydia and I are both seriously considering living the vegan lifestyle. The look in that cow´s eye is haunting me.

I don´t know what Luz and Guillemo were up to yesterday, but they decided they were going to traumatize us with numerous animal scenarios. Right after we finished milking the cows Luz took Lydia up to feed the chanchos (pigs). Lydia was spraying out the barn and I was feeding them bananos (green bananas). As I was walking around feeding bananos to the pigs I got some of the banano juice on my shorts. The pigs smelled the banano juice on my shorts and as I walked past them they tried to eat my shorts off of me. The first pig that I fed was pretty pissed at me. I don´t know what his problem was. He wouldn´t stop squealing and giving me the stink-eye. His squealing and wailing about blew out my eardrum. I guess next time I´ll remember to wear ear- plugs and spandex pants.

When we finished with those tasks the most traumatizing situation occurred. Luz got out the bags. There were four white feed bags. She handed one to both Lydia and I and told us to hold them out in front of us. She opened up the gate where all of the chanchitos (piglets) were. Out of nowhere she swipes this little speckled piglet by the ear and tosses it in Lydia´s bag and closes it. Right after that she snatched another and tossed it into my bag. Lydia and I just sort of stood there and stared at each other not really knowing what to do. I´m pretty sure many cuss words came out of our mouths. What the hell were we supposed to do with chanchitos in feed bags? Both of us had numerous thoughts running through our heads as to why we would possibly put chanchitos in bags. Were we supposed to suffocate them? Beat them with sticks? Give them a bath? Throw them in the river? Keep as a souveneir? Luz told us to take them to Guillemo. Lydia and I hustled down a muddy hill both carrying bags with chanchitos in them who were squealing and squirming like crazy. We met up with Guillemo and he had us follow him to his truck. He took my bag from me and started to laugh at my traumatized facial expression. After he took my bag he tied it to the side of the truck as if it were just a bag of feed or something. He made some comment about how he´s sure I never get to do this in the United States. As I walked back to the chancho barn Lydia was walking my way with another chanchito in a bag. She asked me where to take it. I told her to follow the sound of the shrill squealing. As I was putting chanchitos in the back of the truck Lydia was helping Luz put more of them in bags. Supposedly, Luz dropped a chanchito in a bag and it fell on it´s head. That little chanchito did not squirm or squeal on the way to the truck. After this whole debacle Lydia and I still were not sure what was going to happen with the poor unforunate chanchitos. We were relieved to find out that Guillemo was giving them to a neighbor. Despite the fact that they were not on the way to the slaughterhouse, Lydia and I were greatly disturbed by carrying chanchitos in bags. We are hoping that this is not a common chore that we will have to participate in.

Guillemo and his family have been beyond welcoming to us. We eat most meals together and typically spend the evenings talking with Guillemo and Luz. Our spanish is getting better, but we are still far from fluent.

Guillemo is very confident that both Lydia and I should get boyfriends in Costa Rica. He likes to talk up all of the Tican men. He said that we could have boyfriends in Costa Rica and in the United States and neither of them would have to know about it. Guillemo always has this little twinkle in his eye like he is up to something. His mannerisms and demeanor are a little too similar to our own grandfather.

The kids at this farm are also ridiculous. Guillemo Jr. is quite the character. He is your typical 12 year old boy. The other day he asked me what were some bad words in English. I told him that poo pooey was one of the worst. He giggled and kept on saying it over and over again. Sometimes he´ll sneak up behind me and whisper that in my ear.

Daniella, the youngest daughter, isn´t as innocent as we thought. She is quite the little drama queen.

The oldest two daughters, Fernanda and Nicole, are both really nice. We haven´t had too much interaction with them yet.

We´ve been pretty spoiled lately as far as food goes. It is avocado and mango season at the farm. Lydia and I are averaging eating about 2 avocados a day. On Wednesday they took us down to the sugar cane field again. Lydia and I were both force fed about 5 pounds of pure sugar. The whole experience of sugar processing is really fascinating to watch. There were some local neighbors there helping out as well. By the end of the sugar processing everyone had a major high and probably too much energy. The sugar high didn´t last long for Lydia and I. Daniella dragged me back to the house and wanted to play a game. As we were playing the game, my left eye started to black out andI became really dizzy. It felt like someone had just taken a really bright flashlight and stuck it right in front of my eye. I went back to Lydia and I´s room and took a 3 hour nap. Apparently, my body does not like to consume that much sugar.

Luckily, not all of our work has revolved arond carrying chanchitos in bags and milking cows. We have mostly been helping Luz in the garden, cooking, and washing dishes. Luz is the epitome of woman. She is very intelligent, hardworking, and caring. Luz recently found out that her sister has brain cancer. The cancer started out as a tumor that they were able to treat, but now it has spread all over the rest of her brain. We are constantly amazed at how Luz is able to continue caring for her family and us with such strength despite the fact that she is dealing with all of this. We are glad that we can be here and at least attempt to help her out with some of the work load.

Lydia and I haven´t decided how long we are going to stay at this farm. We are planning on staying around a month as of now. There are a couple of other farms that we are considering going to so that we can learn more about permaculture and reforestation.

It´s strange to think that this coming Tuesday marks our 1/3 mark of this trip. Whether this trip has gone by fast or incredibly slow... I´m not really sure.

Now that we are staying at Guillemo´s farm we will probably only make one trip to town a week. Whenever Lydia and I talk about going into town once a week we feel like we are characters on Little House on the Praire. "Hey pa, can you get me some calico fabric and some sweets from town?"

Here are some more pictures... Mostly from the sugar cane experience.

The trail to the sugar cane field.

Tico koolaid.


The sugar hot tubs.


Sugar cane.


The blazing fire.


Daniella. This picture is a perfect depiction of her. My eye was starting to black out at this point.

Hasta luego.