Hola. The group has gotten very good, at becoming very comfortable, very fast. After a long day of travel, we arrived at the Bona Fide Permaculture Farm. Permaculture is a design science, an agricultural system that is the most sufficient, simple, and sustainable way of human life. A system in which every element has multiple functions, and every function has multiple elements. We started off the week with a brief introduction to permaculture, and the following day began our services. The day began at 7am with an hour of work, followed by a lovely breakfast, and three more hours of work. We had opporunities to work in the nursery, garden, compost areas, and other various jobs. One of my favorite jobs was the chopping down of banana trees with machetes. Did you know that banana trees grow only one bundle of fruit in their entire lives? That is around 20 bananas each tree, then the tree becomes only a place for shade. If there was a fear of insects before this week, Im sure the fear has been cured. We hung out with scorpions, tarantulas, centipedes, and other insects of all sorts. Theyre really not that bad, unless they want to be. Otherwise, theyre good company. Hahaha just kidding. Luckily, the insects minded their own business, and we minded ours. The group participated in many awesome activites including, but not limited to… lectures on the topic of permaculture, tincture making (a natural medicine), the cooking of empanadas, basket weaving, and more. There was one experience that caused a bit of controversial, but civil and interesting, conversation. This was an optional attendance to the slaughtering of Mary, the cow. Every Friday night at 1230 am (it is at this time due to temperatures, and minimal bug exposure), there is a cow slaughtered. The meat is then sold to businesses and families on the island, and feeds the town for a whole week. The brave, and daring souls that participated in this viewing was non-other than our vegetarian friend Kerry, Ottilia, Jelte, Ariana, Danny, Audrey, and Angie. This was quite a hot topic, for we have three vegetarians in the group! Also, the mass-production and mistreating of factory food in America, is an absurd problem. The group conversed the different view points, and, of the disconection between people and their food, in America. The responses of the brave souls were that, I quote- It was not that bad, it was cool to see the humane way of slaughtering beef, very interesting. End quote. Every Saturday night the farm supports local business by eating out. We all went to a lovely restaurant called, Cafe Campestre. Lots of us ordered a hamburger. Photo credits below are given to Ottilia- she calls it- Angie Eats Mary. Thank you, Mary the cow. Rest in Peace. Today, we stay one more night on Ometepe Island. Tomorrow, we are off to Playa Gigante. Rakufu.
