A typical day

Life here at the ranch continues on, isolated from the rest of the world. It is a strange feeling being so cut off from the rest of the world. No phone, no internet, no news, nada. Presidential primary elections have vanished from daily discussions; no one knows which teams will compete in the Super Bowl; natural disasters, gang violence and world famine rages on as we quietly sit here eating each of our three wholesome meals a day; Hollywood lives on without us noticing; we aren’t even up on our Britney gossip! Part refreshing and part disorienting, I am learning to adjust to life without cell phones (definitely don’t miss) and my email (definitely do miss). I find myself daydreaming of logging onto my gmail and checking the bounty that surely awaits my hungry eyes within my inbox. But alas, that must wait. For now, life is contained within the boundaries of the property line and when I venture beyond its borders – even for a quick run across the street to pick up a case of juice – I really feel I am “getting out.”

Every day here is different, but full of learning. I rise at 5:00 am if I am on the breakfast shift and cook a feast for 35 before 7:00 am. Pinto, a fancy name for rice and beans, is always on the menu. After consuming meal numero uno for the day, I help clean dishes and tidy up the kitchen area. We then have a daily meeting between the interns and volunteers to coordinate the day’s activities. After morning meeting, we work on various projects throughout the ranch. Most of my energy has been spent working on the couple’s cabin; we are close to enclosing the third wall but are still waiting on a bamboo delivery to install the window frames. Other days I have worked in the kitchen preparing lunch and the afternoon snack or had an orientation on the tool shop and proper tool usage. At noon we commence meal numero dos – lunch. Once again, rice and beans are on the menu. After lunch our time is usually spent working on our own projects, which can be everything from furniture projects to gardening to ranch maintenance. Currently I am making a cedar shelf for the kitchen. I am hoping to use natural branches as my l-bracket supports, but this is dependent on finding the perfect ramas (spanish for branches). When said branches are found, I will surely have my first opportunity to wield a machete! Yahoo! Jungle Jennie awaits. At around 4:00 pm, after our “strenuous” day, we have an afternoon activity to exert ourselves – usually ultimate frisbie (I rock at disk chucking) or horseshoes (can only manage to throw the shoe into the jungle, thus ending the game until the following day when shoe can be fetched from the wilds of the thick overgrowth). Getting ridiculously sweaty in the tropics is quite possibly the most heavenly way to end a day. At 6:00 pm it gets dark, so our athletic endeavors come to a close and we hit the showers to clean up. My new shower local is at the Hankie, which means I am showering outdoors looking into the vast jungle...that is if I had a light. At 7:00 pm we have meal numero tres: dinner. On the menu: rice and beans. After dinner and more dish duties, we wind down the evening with games, chatting or a quick beer at the Pulperia. The Pulperia is the social hangout of Mastatal. Then it is to bed to bed (before 10:00 pm usually), which always involves me tiptoeing around as my roommates are out before 9!