The Stove

What has happened to time? Seriously. Last I checked, it was September, and I was walking over a big, life-transitional hill into Massachusetts. It is nearly November, and whatever mind-altering transition I meant to undertake has gone by so mildly that I feel totally the same. Adventures are funny that way. You never notice the change.

Life on the farm is taking the hint from autumn and slowing down. We're having fewer groups coming to visit the farm. My Thailand garden has been reduced to stripes of dirt. Everyone seems a little more relaxed, a little less rushed, their "to-do" lists less cluttered. Maybe that's how autumn/winter should be.

However, we have had the SEEDS program for the past two weeks. SEEDS = 150+ kids and chaperones divided into 12 groups, touring the farm/global village, walking from site to site, each of which is manned by a different volunteer, in fifteen minute increments, except for the hour long village meal scheduled into their map and time sheet that informs the group chaperones when and where to go next. It's more than a little bit chaotic. Every employee/volunteer on the farm drops everything. SEEDS becomes all that matters. Making sure everyone has enough firewood, and the groups are on time, and that we have enough bowls, and that I have rice to cook, not to mention having to say the exact same spiel 12 times every 15 minutes, etc. It's like a huge marathon, two days in a row, two weeks in a row.

Health Note: Imagine standing beneath the Thailand house for five hours, keeping a fire going the entire time, breathing in wood smoke. For two days straight. It wreaked the worst kind of havoc on my lungs/body in general. Nose running constantly, eyes burning and red, total absence of appetite, vague crap feeling. I am so happy to be away from camp fire a few days. Bless the person who invented the stove.