Another one bites the dust

Since I am totally fine now, I think I'll post this. Warning: it's a bit graphic, but I am healed now so no need to worry.

Well. I fell off of a motorbike last week. Tony and I were on our way to a seitan workshop last friday and were crusing along on our scooter. Ahead in the road were an Indian couple and a herd of cows, and as we approached them one of their bulls with painted red and blue horns ran out in front of us in the middle of the road. And the Indian man that was walking him had just let go of the rope apparently. Tony was driving and tried to turn away from them and we ended up swerving and falling onto our right sides and getting dragged a bit along the road. It happened so fast. All of a sudden I was up and pulling the motorbike off of Tony's legs and moving it to the side of the road to examine the damage. And by the time I got over there the Indian couple and their mass of cows had vanished. I like to say that if Tony was a woman and had to cover up as much as I did that it wouldn't have been so bad for him. Because my long sleeved shirt and pants saved me a lot of skin. But I also lost a lot. So there we were shocked and on the side of the road halfway to Auroville. Tony was bleeding everywhere. His left hand had a missing chunk like someone had taken a melon baller to his skin. His left knee looked like a jawbreaker cut in half and was white with how much skin was missing. His shirt was ripped and his shoulder scratched but not too badly. His right forearm and right shin and foot were all tore up and everything was bright red. I took out a baby wipe from my purse and just stared at him wondering where to apply pressure. I headed to his knee and tried to dab some blood and his hand was horrific and I had no idea where to begin. We were both in shock. I didn't even cry, I was so relieved that we both hadn't hit our heads or broken anything and had lived that these wounds seemed like nothing to me at the time.
Luckily a few people from Sadhana were going to the seitan workshop and Jess and Tom drove past and saw us standing there shocked and covered in blood and pulled a u-turn. The scooter was fine and after Tony gathered himself enough to get back on a motorbike they whisked us up and drove us back to Sadhana. Again a Beach reference. We stumble into the camp covered in blood and tore the fuck up man. Its friday so everyone is hanging around enjoying themselves. Until we show up totally recked. Yorit knows a deal about homeopathy and pretty soon we had Raja and Yorit and Louisa and Daniel cleaning us up. It was when we got back to Sadhana that I finally saw my injuries. Yes my pants had largely saved my legs. I only skinned my knee a bit but the pants bore the brunt of it, and my havannas even saved my feet a bit of skin as well. But the shirt I was wearing was very thin and practically buckled from the dragging. Holes in the shoulder and elbow led me to believe earlier that there was some damage there. When I removed it there was a layer of my own skin from my shoulder attached to the shirt. My shoulder, elbow/forearm and top of my wrist were completely scraped of skin, it was pure white. But I was still in shock and not even in that much pain. Tony was screaming as they poured turmeric on his open wounds and tried to clean them. And yeah, the turmeric on a fresh wound. Not a walk in the park. And they bandaged us up and I was still feeling alright. A lot of pain from the cleaning and the turmeric but I was feeling alert and pretty much alright.

It wasn't until later when I was laying on my bed covered in my mosquito net staring at the ceiling that my mortality hit me. I just lay there crying for a good long while. I can't believe I didn't die. I can't believe I almost did die. I could've hit my head and ended up in a coma. I could have never seen Sean's or my family's faces ever again. I freaked out. I spent the rest of the night in a daze just zombie like wandering through the main hut. Dinner was had and Gilly cleaned and re-dressed our wounds. And poured this purple iodine on our wounds that I'm starting to get a little bit worried about. Like eh, this purple shit was poured onto my tenth under layer of skin and if other skin grows over I'm going to have warshak blot test tattoos all over my forearm and wrist. So hopefully this shit fades.

Saturday we decided to go to the hospital and have them clean and dress the wounds and then get a guesthouse for a while to prevent infection, and be in a sterile environment away from the Sadhana dirt and the staph infection that's been going around there. After breakfast we headed to the Auroville health clinic and had the flesh ripped off my arm as the bandages were removed. Then a torture session with a heavy handed Indian nurse who scrubbed and scraped and patted and cleaned and finally bandaged up my poor wounds. And I will say this. It was painful. It was like find a happy place make sure to breathe wish so bad you could be on drugs pain. I haven't felt pain like this in a good long while, in fact I'm not sure I ever have. My pain tolerance is unparalleled at this point. And after the torture session we went to Pondicherry.

The original idea was to stay at this ashram in Pondi but it was full so we ended up at Ganga guesthouse. Which was nice, pretty clean and had a good rooftop area to chill. But it was right on the street in Pondi, hella hot at night and just not what we needed to heal. So after an afternoon of relaxing and trying to not be in pain and a bad idea of going out to dinner, we decided to head back to Auroville.

Ahhh. That's what i felt upon arriving in Gaia's Garden guesthouse. Large bright white buildings flanked by towering green trees and palms and glorious red and purple flowers, birds chirping lily ponds little moats circling all the buildings, statues of Ganesh reclining amongst the flowers. Juli Squared (Juli and Julia) decided to stay with us as well and for less than 10$ us a night per person this oasis was ours. Complete with private bathroom, airy windows and a private terrace. We also got our laundry done and used the kitchen to make some mac n cheese mom sent me. And this is where I've been for the past four days. The first day I relaxed on the terrace because I was still wearing my bandages but yesterday and today I left them open so I've been keepin indoors. We have had so many visitors. I feel so much love coming from Sadhana every day, its magical.

Wilson came to visit us in Pondi the first day we were there. Then Jess and Jeff came to visit us along with Sheila the first day at Gaias. Then a surprise visit from Stacy, Raja, Josh, Tobin, and Sheila that night. And always with delicious treats and things. We had lunch from Sadhana delivered by Stacy and Daniel, pizza/movie night with a big ol posse, Nicolas and Aram stopped by to say goodbye cause they're leaving as well as Seb and all the others headed to the rainbow gathering up north. It is so great to see friendly faces when you are confined to a room(a beautiful, peaceful room. but still). I've really relished the wind moving through the room throughout the day, and frequent naps, and lots of water, and I've been reading and relaxing in this beautiful atmosphere.

There have been a few moments of incredible pain. Removing gauze that has grafted to my wounds, cleaning out with surgical solution and iodine to prevent infection. Even water burned like the sun for the first few days. But I might be over the pain marker at this point, and I can see some scabs forming, and I look forward to going back to Sadhana and seeing my friends. Although sadly many will have gone by the time I return, but this loss is all a part of living. Which, thankfully I am.

I've been in a lot of pain, but I've learned to breathe through it and send it somewhere positive. I know I will heal, and I will learn from this experience. I value my life immensely. I love Sean with everything I am and want to spend many many years alive together. I love my family and my friends and do not want to go on without them. I am so grateful for my health and for my rapidly healing body and I cannot wait until I am strong again.

Sadhana Forest

These past two weeks have flown right on by me. I've met some incredible people, eaten some amazingly delicious food, and worked and sweated oh my! All this week I've been rising at 4:45am to begin yoga for an hour before first work shift begins at 6:30, then choose from either reforestation, eco dome building, gardening, cleaning, brekkie cooking, compost scoopin, poop stirrin, hand washing laundry, or any other random task around the community that needs to be done. Then breakfast which is a delicious fruit salad which alternates between acidic fruits and sweet every other day and some porridge with jaggery. Then second work takes place from 930 to 1130 and a variety of the same jobs or different can be done during that time. We each have jobs to do each week, everything from filling up the water around for hand/bum washing to feeding the dogs, safe key holder, main hut cleaner, wake up person( someone who sings or plays music, or hugs people to wake them up in the morning). Last week I was second work coordinator, this week I'm the dog/cat feeder. The easiest job is safe key holder, you just have to open the safe once a week,Juli did that one last week. And you can swim in the mud pools to cool off and do a mud mask, hop on the back of someone's motorbike to jet into Auroville for some helado and other delicious goods, or just lay in a hammock in read all afternoon.
Honestly, I'm having the best time and I don't know where the time has gone. I haven't really read any books or writen much or even drawn much. But I've been talking and talking and playing and joking around with all the awesome people I've met at Sadhana forest. Sheila, a beautiful Scottish soul whose singing almost brings me to tears and who even taught us traditional scottish dance last night. Tony, my Salt Lake City hommie who can tell some dead baby jokes like you wouldn't believe. Nicholas, the Belgian multitasker who everyday reveals a new skill, dancing, guitar, harmonica, french, spanish, thai massage, photography, and the list goes on...and who has very bad motorbike luck, two flat tires and one break down in like a week. Becca, a Yale painting student who came to Sadhana on her spring break and who every single day surprises me with something new and amazing and intruiguing and beautiful about herself. Jenny, the cutest English traveller who is sweet and shy and who has dreadlocks down to her butt. Seb, also english and man does he love his tea, and his manual labor, and his Indian head bob, which he does magnificently. Maddie, Australian and an artist she is organized and so funny and sings a beautiful Juno duet. And Yoav her boyfriend who sometimes looks like Jesus with his long beard and loincloth style sheet skirt, and who quotes forest gump and lebowski endlessly. Mohana and Malcolm, this cute Australian couple who meditate before and after meals and who sugary sweet and kind. Constance and Silva, French couple who are also very sweet and funny as well and so cute together it makes me a little jealous sometimes. Conan, Dutch chef du jour who makes the most bomb ass food ever such as this Indonesian dish with peanut sauce that i can't even begin to tell you about it was soo GOOD! Janine, who's cute German accent enlivens first work duties every morning which is not easy to do at 630 am. Inbal and Almog, who just left today sadly, both Israeli and a bit shy at first but so much fun to be around and Inbal is one badass yoga teacher. Of course Nadav, a tall hillarious Israeli guy who meditates and is aweosme to cook with. Julia, who is American and moving to Seattle soon so I gave her a full list of vegan restaurants to eat at when she goes there. Arno, from France who plays a good hand drum, and guitar and who is drawing up a storm every chance he gets. Small world as it is, Josh and Tobin are two guys from Seattle, and both went/go to UW and Josh was in my class, lived in Mercer during the same time and I even remember meeting him at a party at Matt's house sophmore year of college. So there you go. Running into someone from the same college dorm in a commune in India. Just another day. Josh has got the New York Jewish guy thing down to a T. Except he's from Seattle. But whatever, he's great comic relief for sure! Carrie and Greg, American. soo just loved hanging around them and swapping travel tips and stories and using heavy sarcasm. Of course Aviram and Yorit, the founders of Sadhana forest who generously open their community to all of us, and their children eight year old Osher, who is wise beyond her years and very kind; and baby Shalev who started WALKING since I've been here. And who is quite possibly the happiest baby I have ever seen in my ENTIRE life. If I ever have kids I want them to be as happy as this baby. Stacy said the other day that it reminds her of high school cause you can't really go anywhere cool and you just hang out all the time. Which is quite true. And more true cause I'm too chicken shit to ride a motorbike so I'm at the mercy of anyone with a car(aka moped) who can give me a ride and then i just go wherever they're going. There are tons of amazingly huge snakes, I saw one but it was little, so we're always on the lookout. And rats. And geckos and incredibly large buzzing beetles and bees and ants on steroids. I also watched baby Shalev eat a ball of salt today. She didn't spit it out. But I watched the whole process of disgust unfold on this one year olds face and it was hillarious. I feel comfortable and at home and it is great to be surrounded by friend. The vegan food is doing the body good, and the ice cream on the side is a slight slip up but whatevah, this place Richy Rich in Auroville is simply amazing. Many people left today and many people came recently, a few sweet Swedish girls, and some others I've yet to really meet but look forward to all of it. And If I've forgotton anyone thats because I'm soo playing the hot game in this internet cafe and have to get out of here.
Also. I shit my pants.
That's right everyone. I didn't know if this was blog appropriate, but after the Argentinean balls incident, I figured I had to devulge. Plus it is funny now. Not too soon, the INCIDENT occured last week. After about two days of being in India, I got such bad diharea that I couldn't make it to the bathroom last week. TWICE. On my third day of shitting my brains out and a little puking AND after the pants-pooping incident of 09'( aka pulling a Charlotte) I decided to cave and took a Cipro and I was better in less than 24 hours. Amen for some meds man. And anyone who has traveled through say, India or Bolivia or anywhere else and can join this particular club... I salute you, and I join you at last.

On that note. I'm outa here. Also I've decided to stay in India longer, see if I can't up my chances of another not quite making it incident. Just kidding. I just feel like Sadhana is a great place, it feels like a home, and I want to continue to explore what I can learn about myself there and I want to continue to voluneteer in this community. So another month or so in India so I can travel around a bit after about another month at Sadhana I think. Well, that's all folks.
Shitty Pants Andrews--Out!

India?

Hot. Sweaty. Mustaches. Cows. Saris.

That's what I've got so far. Landed in Mumbai. Took a cab to the domestic airport. Slept in the airport. Took a 5am plane to Chennai, waited in that airport for Stacy. Met Stacy. Took a 2 hour taxi ride to Auroville. The roads here are crazy. Good thing Bangkok was a little bit of a warm up. Cows and beautiful women in saris and kids and families on motorbikes and loud music playing buses with people piled on the roof and rickshaws wizzing in and out all over the place. And the mustaches. OMG the Indian men all have these hillarious 1970's mustaches and they just crack me up, every single one. Even in the airport women are cleaning the floors while they are dressed in beautiful sky blue saris. Its unreal. We found a cafe in the Mumbai airport and got samosas and watched the news on the comfy couches till we got kicked out at 1130 pm and had to sleep in chairs clutching all our belongings until we could check in for our flight. So luckily Stacy emerged at the Chennai airport and we had booked a taxi that took us FOREVER out of Chennai to Auroville, this crazy community that i really do not know much about so just google it. And drove through crazy dirt roads until we didn't and I guess we're here? We get out and stumble into this crazy community. There are houses built of bamboo and straw and tons of gringos around and we just kinda walk in. If you've seen the movie the beach it pretty much paralleled the scene when they walk through the first day and everyone stares at them amidst their tasks. So we walk into the main hut. No idea what the fuck is going on, and everyone is really welcoming but all i can think is this sure doesn't look like Buddha Garden to me. First off- no garden or signs of a farm anywhere, and there are tons of people here. Stacy found her friend from college and luckily he showed us around a bit and gave us the gist of things. And turns out by a slight misunderstanding, I thought we were going to a different farm than Stacy did and turns out it isn't even a farm, its just a community. And you volunteer in the mornings and the rest of the day is yours to read or do yoga or motorbike into town or swim in the mud pools. And at first it was weird but they had this awesome no talent show the first night followed by some Indian guys doing some awesome drumming and the next night an eco film projection. I spent the first day making these bunds to divert the water during monsoon season and then helping cook lunch for eh 50 people and dinner for 150. It was crazy long and sweaty but a good day all in all. And I'm sweating and dirty and took a bucket shower today which was awesome.I'm sure there's more but I'm sweating in this Indian Internet cubicle and need to bust out!

Thailand in a nutshell

Thailand Thailand where do I begin? I think I'll just ramble if that's okay. I love the food; everything about it. The freshness and spiciness and cheapness of it all. I love Thai iced tea and fried rice and banana chocolate pancakes. I love the 30 baht phad thai from street vendors. I could eat this food all day every day. Which I have been. The people in Thailand as well are warm hearted and kind and helpful except when they're hustlin you, which isn't too often. One thing I don't love is the streets and the traffic and the noise, I could do without crazy cars and motorbikes and tuk tuks swerving all around and honking all day and night. Cheap ass shopping and markets oh my! Massages. Inexpensive, sometimes painful, but awesome all the same. The King's glorious face on billboards and clocks and calendars and murals and well pretty much everywhere. Golden Temples and Buddhas and some of the coolest art and shiny craziness I've ever seen, only in Thailand. Not really Thailand but I'm including it here; Laos. I loved the baguettes and the cheap mojitos and the scarf buying. The slow boating and the bus riding I will always remember fondly because they taught me to be patient and I've carried it with me since. Tubing was a shit show but I loved it all the same. And I loved that hangover day afterwards as well. I will always remember the glorious week of fun I had with Jackie and Yumi when they spur of the moment decided to come and visit and I got to take them around and shock them with tuk tuks and street food and shitty train rides. And drunken buckets and street bars and chatting up new people and i did not love that hangover day no siree. Mostly it was just fun to see my friends and get to catch up and hang out no matter what we did. And although I was really sick, the time we spent on Railay was amazingly fun and relaxing and ohhh that ocean water. Eating at Mom's and drinking honey by the shotglass and bamboo tattoos and swimming with jellyfish and the kayaking adventures. I am very glad the Malaria scare went over well and negative most of all but it taught me as well to slow down and take it easy sometimes, and that sometimes not going according to the plan is just as good. I think I learned that most of all, that you can plan the shit out of something, but then life finds a way of putting its own spin onto things and you end up somewhere even better. Farming in Chiang Dao was a good time, mostly when I wasn't totally out of shape and going through sugar with drawls, but I got to meet some cool people and work hard and nap hard. Overall I loved my time here and I feel rested and healthy to begin my next adventure. And to begin the second half of my traveling year.

Chiang Mai Revisited

Well I've been spending the last few days chilling out in Chiang Mai. Recuperating from farming, aka eating whatever I want and hardly doing any physical activity (besides getting cheap massages every day). And I came to notice something. In all the countries I've been to, there is always one town I happen to accidentally get stuck in for longer than anticipated. And it's all because of the farming. You have to go there before to get near to the farm, and you have to go back there after the farm to go anywhere else. In Argentina it was Mendoza, in Australia it was Melbourne, and in Thailand it's Chiang Mai. Notice anything? All M's. Anyways I thought it was weird. And in all these places I spent a lot of time on my own, just wandering around. And unlike the other places I visit where there are things to see and sights to visit, by the third trip you've usually covered all the bases. So I've been getting more of an extended look, a feel of what it would be like to live here. I find my favorite restaurant, I got there a lot and I have my areas where I like to hang out. In Mendoza it was the Green Apple Vegetarian restaurant with the best flan and veggie buffet, and I went to the massive park a lot to go jogging and explore and read. In Melbourne there were many fave food spots; lord of the fries might win out, or the 5$ Indian buffet place. And I would always find myself around Federation Square and frequenting all the art museums or wandering through the many parks and of course the Queen Victoria Market. And in Chiang Mai, it is most definitely DA bakery. Where i go every single morning for the bad-ass breakfast, and these delicious wheat rolls that are fresh from the oven, fresh squeezed tangerine juice and the best home fries I've had since Silence Heart Nest in Seattle. And I wander through all the food markets and clothing markets and up and around the giant moat that encircles the city. And I've read like three books and I just keep trading them at all the used book stores around town. The down time is good and gives me time to reflect on life and prepare for going to India.

Amee Doyer's Organic Farm

Clement and Amee Doyer are the owners of the farm. Clement is from Quebec, Amee is Lisu, from Burma. They grow oranges and pineapple and papaya and rice and rubber. There are palm trees and banana palms and mountains and forest all around. The border to Burma is close and many people working and living on the farm are from there.They have piggies and doggies and chicks and roosters and mama hens. There are large ponds filled with fish, and an even larger "pond" that is pig shit, covered with lilies which grow out of the muck. It is vast and borders a national park so it is very quiet. I use this term loosely as quiet must mean to many peaceful escape from bustling streets and cars and chattering. But quiet here is only a repose during the rooster's napping. Because if there is light out, the 30 something roosters and hens, (not even counting all the babies) are chatting and calling out to each other all live long day. And the other women on the farm are up with the birds, chattering away as well on cell phones or to each other about god knows what but it honestly never ends.
I arrived on a Sunday the day of rest and was introduced to Claire, their friend visiting from Quebec, and Henrikes, a German wwoofer who are both very nice. Henrikes and I got to talking and turns out this is one very small world. A conversation on Gotan Project turned to Argentina, talk of Argentina led us to discover that we both visited there around the same time. And we both wwoofed in Tunuyan. And she wwoofed at the farm that Guillme and Gabrielle went to after they left Madre Tierra. So we had an interesting chat about our mutual friends and about Tunuyan, and turns out she even met Sergio of all people while trekking towards Chile. I tell you SMALL. WORLD.
So the first few days I got killed. Seriously I am out of shape. I was sweating and pounding the water and taking a million breaks. We were hoeing round the orange groves which is long and arduous and frustrating cause you know the weeds are just coming right back. We hauled cow shit to fertilize the trees, we cleaned the lilies off of the pig doo doo, and we hoed some more. The work is hard, but rewarding. My shoulders and back began to adjust(with the help of some daily yoga) and after the hump of day two I was doing good. Sadly Henrikes had to leave but later that very day Byron, a wwoofer from Alberta arrived to assist with the workload.
The work hours are 6/day. Usually up at 715 to eat brekkie of rice and something and get started working by 8am. Work 8 till noon then siesta till 3 or 4 and then work two hours in the afternoon. And boy did I siesta. Long, sweet, two hour hammock naps in the warm breeze. I would wake up groggy and without a shred of desire to pick up a zappo, but I did, eventually.
The food varied from rice and veggies sometimes with mystery meat I would eat around, to potatoes of every shape and size; chips, fries, hash browns, home fries, you name it. Delicious fruit; pomelo, pineapple, tangerine, rose apple, green mango, papaya, banana (the good little stubby bananas right from the farm too), etc. Claire made crepes one afternoon and banana cake the next.
And the evenings were spent watching endless episodes of Grey's Anatomy. Now in my 'normal' life, this has never been a show of much interest to me. But after suffering through the terrible, creepy, violent movies that are on constantly in Thailand, I welcomed the unoffensive television drama. Clement has a great collection of tv shows and movies and so the nights floated by lazily watching one show after the other while indulging in some delicious fruit or butter cookie.
They have a really cool contraption to heat water for showers. By placing a tea kettle of water on this contraption backed by mirrors and facing it towards the sun it heats the water throughout the day to be used for warm showers. From past farm experience, at least Argentina style, I am content with any water, and therefor was content with cold showers nightly as long as I could rinse the dirt and compost and caca de vaca off of me.
On Friday night, even though we still had to work Saturday, Byron and I started early to finish early and trekked into Ban lo Pahan to get some beers and ice cream. Byron accidentally bought a bottle of Chinese moonshine thinking it was beer, and let me tell you the gulp i took of it set me back for the entire night. Nothing better than a cold(ish) beer after a long day and even longer week working out in the sun. And I didn't even mind combining the taste of my chocolate ice cream with the cool beer, it was perfection.
A week and a half flew by when I think back now, but I remember the time crawling by when I was hoeing and it was only 945 and still two hours till lunch. I had a good time more or less, the good balancing the not so good and the work balancing the well, laziness of my trip thus far. I even saw a cock fight. A legit rooster brawl, it reminded me of the crazy girl fights on Jerry Springer. Where they're held back for a while and then charge, and held back and then charge. Except these roosters would stare down and then fly at each other and stare down and then claw away, hard too till one was bleeding. It was actually a bit scary at times. But pretty cool in the end, when a third rooster intervened, this big regal fucker came in and settled the whole affair. Badass. I also worked expressing oil from niger seed on this massive industrial oil machine which was pretty cool, and the seed comes out in these black cakes that look like play doh or strips of blackened beef jerky, and these are then fed to the pigs and chickens, and the oil is used for cooking. Like the delicious french fries I had cooked in the oil. It had a sweet taste, the taste of the fruits of my labor? haha.
And now I'm back in the real world where I don't get three squares a day and have to pay for my bed and have the liberty to spend my afternoon wandering the city and reading. Its nice to be back, but the farm was a great break from it all, even if it was only a short one. I look forward to the Indian wwoofing experience and all the new craziness that'll bring!
Sawaat De Kaa!

The Odyssey (to the farm)

Three continents. Three farms. Three very different experiences.

Before there was the farm, there was the journey. I woke early after a glorious night's rest in Chiang Mai. Tuk Tuk to the bus station, two hour bus to Chiang Dao, and here are the directions as follows: Stay on the bus past the city of Chiang Dao, get off 3-4 km later at the first traffic light at the intersection of road number 1178. This can also mean stare out the window cursing your country for not teaching you the metric system and trying to remember the mile to kilometer conversion. look for the first traffic light. wonder what happens if you miss the traffic light. Get out of the bus. Walk 50 m to the left on the road to 1178 and catch a yellow sangteuw to Ban Lo Pahan. Sit in the sickeningly hot sangathew for a long while waiting for it to fill up. Also, must pronounce Ban lo PA HAn though or they have no idea what you're talking about. Sit in the sangathew and get stared at cause your a gringa, answer the general questions. Where you come from, where you are going. The usual frown and uncomfortable confusion at the "I'm going to work on a farm" comment. Stare out the window. Watch for a motorcycle shop on the left, get off. Get out and cross the road 1178 to the only street on the right. Hope this is the right street. That didn't really look like a motorcycle shop, but oh well, this is the only road around. Start trekkin.
Walk down this road, past the last house on the left (about 1 km, like i know what 1 km should feel like!) 100m further, there is the first and only dirt road on the left. Follow this lane and the power lines to the house at the end about 600 m. Walk down a road way too early that is dirt and almost get attacked by dogs. Wait for them to calm down. Realize your mistake. Slowly back away.Walk what feels like an eternity through what feels like people's backyards. Roosters and crazy dogs are everywhere. How are you to know which house is the last house on the left, couldn't you just walk forever?But finally it looks promising, a long dirt path up a massive hill past the last house on the left. It's dirt. You take it. You think to yourself, if anyone from my real life saw me know they would be pissing themselves laughing. Sweating, dirty, hauling her life on her back, maybe starting to panic but trying to be strong, Liz, hiking up some random dirt path past corn fields and rice paddies and banana trees all alone in Thailand looking for some farm where she will work for free? Oh yeah, and to think at this time last year I was blow drying my hair and painting my nails and dusting Aveda products on shelves and answering phones and making licorice tea.
Reach what you thought was the top of the hill only to realize it goes on further. You go further. Reach a fork in the road. Get slightly more nervous. Nothing in the directions mentioned a fork, almost get the phone out. Decide to persevere and take the right path. You see a woman in the garden, she waves! You approach, it's real! Not a mirage! You have arrived! Thank god, because you were this close to losing faith in yourself. But no fear. If you can find the farm, the hard part is over.