Work on the Farm

I wake up and I am exhausted, my arm has an awkward cramp, my legs feel like they weigh 200 pounds and my back seems to resist bending over. This is a pretty regular occurrence in my life now. I am use to running, standing for 8 hours at work, and lifting 50 pound boxes but not squatting for 6 hours pulling weeds. When picking weeds there are only so many positions you can stand or sit in when the ground is wet.

One, the Indian squat:

Two, the kid technique. "It's just dirt. Deal with it! Sit in it!"

Three, the American technique -- Stand, bend over, and ruin your back. Smart, right?!!!

Well, I have yet to learn which one I prefer because they all start to hurt after a couple of hours. Don't get me wrong I am not forced whatsoever to pull weeds all day with no breaks but I want to get it over with so I keep chugging along. I know this usually results in starting to pull weeds in another field but I don't mind. I do it because I am excited for the other things I learn and if pulling weeds has to come with learning to make natural pesticides and liquid manure it is all worth it!

Everyday I am learning so much. My favorite experience from last week was making the liquid manure. Damdul is such a great teacher. He briefly explains how to make the solution and then leaves me to be. Beau was there to help me with this project and Damdul helped us a lot with making the first batch.

Beau and I began by smashing some jaggery (molasses) with a rock. I felt like a cave man....or woman.....

Jaggery is one of the most important ingredients for making liquid manure. It attracts and feeds microorganisms which will digest and work its magic to better the solution. For nearly any kind of liquid manure or compost it is important that it is alive. In the liquid manure there should be a white fungus growing and you can almost see the solution moving back and forth. In a compost there should be ants, worms, and centipedes squirming with every handful.

After mashing the jaggery and blending it with water then you blend some ground wheat with some water. Once these steps are both completed you can begin adding the cow urine and cow dung. How do you do that? Just like you do everything else, just stick your hands in it and weigh it out. I expected to use a shovel or bucket to get the cow dung but Damdul taught me that hands work better and as far as getting the urine, all you do is stick a water bottle in a bucket of urine until it is full and then repeat.

I don't think I can be grossed out by anything anymore except, maybe, eating fish.

I think that just about finishes up the process.... just through it all in the bucket, add water and mix.

These experiences are ones that I never expected having. I never thought I would be living in a jungle, in India, in a Tibetan community, farming. I constantly think, "I wish I didn't have to write all the papers required for the class I am taking. The classes don't help me with my major. I am an Exercise Science major not a Plant and Wildlife Science major." But in the end I realize that despite all the papers and extra work I will be able to look more legit when I apply for med school and say I went to a Tibetan community in India to help at an organic farm that works to train other farmers in the area. Also I will be able to tell my children about my experiences here. Every day I think about all my family and friends I want to come here and experience the different cultural beliefs and customs.

Last week, I think it was Thursday, I got to go do freakin' offerings at the monastery!!! OH, it was so EXCITING!!!! I looked like trash. I was gross from working on the farm pulling weeds for a couple of hours but how can you deny the opportunity. The Guys at the farm were going to the monastery in camp #5 so at lunch time Damdul asked if I would like to come. My heart was shouting "YES!!!". I sat in the kitchen as everyone got dressed in their nicest clothing and overcame my feelings of not being dressed nice enough. When everyone was ready we drove the TATA to the monastery. It is such a nice car. It had red and black immaculate leather covering the seats and despite how dirty the farm is there was not a spot of dirt inside the car. All the way there the Guys talked, laughed, and sang. I saw them in a different light than on the farm.

When we got there they paid their offerings to the monastery and Damdul bought us each a kata. Instantly, the rain started to fall. It is what we all had been waiting for. Sangi (Spelling?), one of the Guys, and I stood there and talked for a bit before we got up the nerve to take off our shoes, walk into the rain, and escape into the monastery. When we got inside we did 3 prostrations. I was lucky I learned how to do this from Rinpoche at the Karuna Home. Afterwards, I followed the Guys to His Holiness alter where we each placed the kata, touched our head to the alter and said our prayer, and then proceeded to the Buddha's alter. At the alter we each placed a monetary offering and touch our head to the alter and then proceeded by saying our prayers silently.

After exiting the monastery we circled the temple clockwise, took a few pictures and on the way our a monk offered each of us a spoonful of whitish stuff.... not knowing exactly what it was I did just as everyone else did. I took the spoonful in my hand and drank it. Yep, it was fermented!!! It took some time before it clicked that it was probably wine. I guess that is what comes with the experience. I am ecstatic that I got to be a part of this experience. I don't think many people have the opportunity to worship as other do but now I can say I have and I would do it again in a second. I realize more and more how we are all alike. Whether you are from India, America, or Mexico everyone has their way to ask for blessings and for the Buddhists this is one way.

I am grateful for the Guys at the farm for showing me how to make an offering. They are wonderful people. I felt that by inviting me to make these offerings I was one of them. I am grateful for the family we are staying with. They are always finding ways to help us out, particularly Namgyal. He has tons of connections and uses them to help us. We love to sit outside and hear his stories about the military and experiences he has had. His mother, Ama, is a wonderful lady. She constantly is saying her prayers, spinning her prayer wheel and counting her prayer beads. She makes Beau and I feel included in the family with her sweet smile. Namgyal's brother is great too. We love to being included in the family by watching TV and eating dinner with them, hearing family stories, hearing about Tibetan traditions and history. There isn't anyone I rather live with.


Pics from our couple hour outing on Saturday:

 Beau and I pedal boating

 Beau and I on an Elephant (you wouldn't know it from the picture)

 The two Elephants at the park

Britany and Britney on the pedal boat

TOILET PAPER!!!

Oh how I love toilet paper! It can be used as packaging material, cleaning your glasses, wiping your nose, removing make-up, making toilet seat covers. making wedding dresses and most importantly wiping your bottom.

Naturally, I forgot the most important hygiene material on the planet. Don't get me wrong, I love wiping with my hand but there are some problems that follow. First, your hand is wet and you feel like it is the most unsanitary thing on the planet right after you wipe your bottom after defecating and then you have to open the door to wash your hands....Yuck! Second, in many cases the water spout is on the right side of the squatter toilet  and you have to use your left hand to wipe and in order to do so you have reach all the way around your body to get to the spout just to loose all the water as you steer it towards your bottom and, in some cases, you hit the handful of water right into our undies which leads to my least favorite thing about wiping, getting wet. How I hate having to squat on the toilet waiting for your bottom to dry and realizing it is nearly impossible so you pull on your pants just to realize that it is going to take a lifetime for it to dry through two layers of clothing. When I was talking to Beau I came to the realization that boys and girls have very different anatomy making it more difficult for girls than for boys. So, due to my passion of hating being wet I bought toilet paper.

I might consider my squattet-toilet-wet obsession the larger extent of my culture shock. I am adapting to the Indian head nod that many of the Tibetans use also. Here is a video that can certainly show it better than I can explain it.

I think it is really interesting. I didn't understand it too much when I arrived in India but the more I have interacted with individuals through interacting with rickshaw drivers, bus drivers, tailors, and friends I am beginning to understand the variety of things it can mean, including: yes, no, okay, and I am listening.

Now for the exciting stuff.....

 

 We are officially in the camps now. Our PAP's came on last Monday and we registered with the police on Tuesday and moved into the camps. I called Damdul, the manager of the Organic Research and Training Center (ORTC), and he asked me to start on Thursday. I have now worked 3 full days. I expected to work just a few hours a day but it has turned out to me a lot more (usually 7 to 8 hours a day). The first couple of days Beau helped me out to make sure I would be comfortable being on the farm by myself and knowing a little bit about the Tibetans I knew I would feel more than safe. 

The first day Damdul sat us down and talked to us about his plan for me and made sure that it was suitable with my plan for myself. We decided I would volunteer 4-5 days a week and one of those days we would discuss any questions about things I was learning. It has been the perfect plan! Damdul took us around the first day and showed us how to make natural pesticides out of custard apple leaf, lantana, boganvia, neem, and cow urine. The best part was that everything you could find growing on the farm. He helped us cut off what we needed from the bush and then it was our job to chop it all up. I really enjoyed his teaching technique. He would show us how to do it then just leave it up to us. By the end we had a wonderful slurry of natural pesticides.

The methods of the farm are very economical. Under U.S. law cow dung cannot be directly placed into a compost so they first make a slurry of 10 percent dung and 90 percent water and place it in a cement dome where it can build up methane gas. That gas is directed towards the kitchen where it can be used on the gas stove. Once the dung is sufficiently drained of methane it can be placed in the compost and eventually contribute to growing healthy plants. The plants are later sold and the remains are fed to the cows where the cycle can start again. It's really a brilliant way of cycling a single product, dung. The farm is mostly self-sufficient because it grows plants they can eat, they have a well to draw water, and gas from the dung -- very little things are outsourced at all. 

The next thing we learned on the farm was how to carry out vegetative propagation of sweet leaf (stevia). This is no short process though it is fairly simple. For certain plant species you can cut off the flowering portion from the root and use the mature sections of the plant to reproduce the plant. To do it properly you must cut the stem at a sharp, clean angle to allow it to absorb as much nutrients as possible so it can grow roots and continue plant growth. This project lasted the major part of 3 days and there wasn't even that much stevia and I will be doing some more in a week or so. Damdul informed me that his purpose in doing this is to plant 2 acres worth of stevia. Currently, the ORTC dose not export their products but by just selling it in India they make 150 rupees per kilogram. 

The other day it was my job to fish through all of the black pepper plants in the nursery and discard the dead plants from the live plants (80 percent were alive).  So I moved over 1,000 black pepper plants from one spot to the next. By the end of the day I was completely sore and it is not going away. I have been stretching, walking, and having Beau massage but I still feel like a crippled turkey. I am hoping the pain will leave soon because the work on the farm just continues. 

 Well, I think that just about does it. I am loving the people here and the experience is wonderful. Someday I plan on coming back because it is such a beautiful place. See for yourself:)