Logo

So if you remember I wrote a piece called the "Happy Gardener" which was about teaching children the value of hard work and the importance of the farmer. This was heavily ironic because this lesson came from the least qualified individual in the entire country at the time. Since this city boy has left the states I have felt that a lot has changed inside of me in a short amount of time. I completely welcome this change and I nurture it with a daily regiment of exercise and the study, however I wanted to sit and reflect on it today.

Since we last saw the fields they were covered in trash bags with small individual holes that I had plotted. Now it is a jungle of untamed weeds and leaves.

Before:


After:


Now as you can see these holes have produced a good yield of vegetables that will help to feed this town as well as the students at the school. There is something that is wholesome and refreshing about this that makes my entire trip out here seem worth it. Namely because the children can see and appreciate their work while they are eating. Something that I had to wait 23 years to learn from being brought up on a diet of processed, hydronated and sugar laced foods in the States. Here are some of the rest of the pictures that I took that day.

Here is some pictures of Clint and our co-teachers Lauren and Florence:



Here is a picture of Andrew and I chilling in the back:



And here is a picture of me with Sunny, Amy and Mandy:



The finished result:




It's been a wild couple of months out here but somehow everything still feels new. Every time I venture from the safety of the school, which is all the time, I always returned more enlightened than the last. Although I, admittedly, retain some core aspects of my prior personality that refuse to change with the rest. I still take on more than handle. I still analyze every situation to its smallest element. And I still laugh at my own jokes (I'm sure that even if they fully understood English they still wouldn't laugh). Be that as it may I see one aspect of myself that is growing with unbridled determination. That is my anxiousness to go home. Not because I miss that states (I am sure that I will one day) but because I want to bring back my new level of understanding and apply it. Until then I will continue to cherish these days and let my determination guide me through the unknown.