This week was a very eventful and exciting week. We began on Monday by traveling from Matagalpa, Nicaragua to the island of Ometepe. We left nice and early at 8 AM and took private transport to the beach town of San Jorge. During the four hour van ride, we slept, listened to music, talked and eagerly awaited our arrival in San Jorge. When we got to San Jorge, we ate at a restaurant where we either were served, beef, chicken or veggies, with fried plantains and rice. What a surprise that we ate rice! We then got on a boat and headed towards the island. One big cultural difference in Nicaragua, is the importance of life jackets on a boat. While they are mandatory to have on boats in the States, in Nicaragua, it is mandatory to wear the life jackets for the entire ride. Rachel informed us that this was because there was a big boat crash a few years back, where many people died, so they now take boat safety very seriously in Nicaragua. When we got off the one hour boat ride, we took a van for another hour until we arrived at Project Finca Bona Fide. We were then given a tour of the farm by the local staff, and we moved into our homes for the next two weeks. The rooms have no walls, but a roof and some bamboo. We sleep on bunk beds covered by mosquito nets, and occasionally have scorpion and spider friends join us in our rooms. The showers at Bona Fide, are awesome! They are outdoors and have a great view of one of the two volcanoes on the island. The next morning we woke up nice and early to start working on the farm! The days are split up as such. We wake up at 6:00 (very early) and have morning meeting at 6:30. We chose morning chores to do, including working in the garden, in the plant nursery, moving rice husks from one farm to another, weeding, and cooking breakfast. We work for an hour and then eat a well deserved breakfast, always featuring Gallo Pinto and starfruits from the farm. Following breakfast, we have another meeting at 8:45 to discuss and chose our 3 hour morning jobs. These jobs are more intense and require lots of hard work. The jobs include, cutting trees with machetes, to help protect the young growing trees, digging holes, planting and watering in the garden and plant nursery, making and working with compost and helping to prepare lunch. Everybody has the opportunity to do all the jobs, and by the end of our two weeks, we will have done everything. The activities in the afternoons vary from day to day. Some days we have workshops on topics including, Permaculture and Fermentation. These workshops are taught by the staff at Bona Fide, who demonstrate their passion and love for these topics. During the permaculture activity we watched a really great documentary about the topic and how it affects cities and communities in The United States. On other days, we have free time to relax, which comes in handy with the very busy and tiring schedule. At night, before dinner, there is always a dinner question. These questions have included, where is your favorite spot to watch the sun set?, if you could only listen to one band and album for the rest of your life what would it be?, and if you had a tree that could grow you anything, what would it grow? Nobody is allowed to eat until the question has been answered, and it is a really nice time to share and learn about everybody else in our group and in the farm community. Following dinner, we are free for the night. Many people like to talk in the kitchen or tree house, and others like to read and relax. Most nights, we go to bed pretty early, because the days are long and tiring and start very early. On the weekend, there is no work or chores. On Saturday, we got to sleep in, which was appreciated very much by much of the group. In the afternoon, after eating a quick lunch, we walked to the bus to go to the beach. The beach was so much fun. The water was very warm and the views were incredible. We played frisbee water, had chicken fights and swam a lot. There were also great places to buy smoothies and relax. We were at the beach for 2.5 hours, and we then took the bus back to the farm. However, we got on the wrong bus, and had to walk a lot longer than anticipated. We stopped at a few stores to buy snacks. Peanut butter has become almost a necessity for majority of the group. We then ate dinner at a local restaurant, which was great, because it served meat, unlike at the farm. Majority of the group ordered a Nicaraguan classic… a bacon cheeseburger. Even those who are vegan, found really great food. We then also got banana cake or a brownie with vanilla ice cream, for dessert.
This week at Bona Fide was very fun and very exhausting. We can’t wait to see what happens in the coming week at the farm.
Please check back soon for photos!