Farmlife

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Dear all,



A day after my first story I got a stomach virus and was in lots of pain for a week. Stayed in the house for 4 days and started feeling better. Decided to leave Paraty and go to Trinidad for a few nights before leaving for the farm. Trinidad is a very small town just a bit more south from Paraty. It has lots of amazing beaches and the town mainly consist of tourists. There is one main street and after two days you recognize people that you have seen on the beaches, in the restaurants and on the street. Its quiet cozy and I was lucky to find a hostel opposite a cafe that had live music. So on my arrival day, I heard live reggae being played from my balcony. It was a great band and I went to have dinner there and it was a lovely evening. The next day I walked down a few beaches to a spot were you have natural pools. Its very beautiful and you see fish swimming and have lots of rocks you can chill on. It was raining that day and although that sounds boring, it was nice because it was not so busy and you could really enjoy the nature without seeing hundreds of heads floating around. On my way back I had a lovely swim in the sea with great waves. That night it was pizza time with live music in a different restaurant. A guy playing guitar and singing great Brazilian songs. Real holiday ambiance :-).

So now my farm experience. I have been here two weeks and it has been quiet an experience. I shall start by telling you a bit about the history of this farm. The farm is located around two hours from Sao paulo near a small town called Morungaba, I think they have around 14.000 inhabitants. This farm is located around 15 min from the town. The main road you take up to the farm consist of old coffee farms one after each other, well so they use to be. The main houses still remain and were build in the 18th century. To grow coffee you need lots of space because of the beans that have to be dried. So all these farms are huge. But around 1982 there was a illness that killed all coffee and since then no coffee has been growing here. A lot of farms after that stopped producing. This farm was bought by Joao, the father of Isabel in 1985. Isabel is Davids wife. David is a Frenchman who two years ago started to use a part of this farm to grow organic vegetables. Joao is a very wealthy man with different houses in Brazil. The main house on this property is a very large old plantation house. With around 8 bedrooms and bathrooms, a large garden and pool, dining room, large veranda and beautiful kitchen. When the family is in the house (no one lives here), they have three people working for them making sure they have food, the house is cleaned and the kids are looked after. The farm is about 60,000 hectares and they have 1000 cows that they have and sell to butchers. Besides that David has a small patch around 14 hectare were he grows only vegetables that he sells to private people and restaurants, all in Sao Paulo. What he grows: various salads, cucumbers, different kinds of courgettes, eggplants, different herbs, oker, pumpkin, carrot and the list go's on.

So this was the introduction. Now when I arrived on a Saturday, I was introduced to Isabel and the three girls, that by the way don't live on the farm but in Sao Paulo. They come over to the farm for a weekend ounce a month.

Anyways, so I suddenly arrived in this complete different world with lots of luxury and nice conversations. On Sunday Isabel parents came over for the day and we had more good food, wine and talks.

Of course on Monday my reality of a Wwoofer began. David has built his own house just up the hill from the main house and thats were I was staying. I started Monday at seven O'clock. I got introduced to Elsa who was harvesting Okers. Elsa is one of the workers. On the farms they have about seven people working. Elsa is 44, has five children, 4 grandchildren, and nearly no teeth. She started working when she was 13 and ever since working in the fields. Elsa and me clicked from the second we saw each other. After an hour working I knew most of her life situation and we worked for an other hour in silence. Her main buddy in the field is Osario, he is 77 and turning 78 in a few months. He says he will be working till he is 80. His back is hunched for over but he works like a beast and doesn't complain a bit. Years ago he went to see a doctor because his spine was all wonky. She pushed everything in place and ever since he never had any pain.

Well, these two weeks I have been working side by side with these two diehards. Oh my god what a respect I have for these people. The work that I have been doing these two weeks, has been really tuff. Mostly what they do is clean the weeds from the vegetables and planting new plants. Both these two jobs consist of bending for over or shoveling in fast tempo for hours after each other. Meaning your whole front body is bent to the ground and moving very fast. Elsa is a speedy Concalles. She works in such a high tempo it is very difficult keeping up with. What you must not forget is the weather. The first days we had burning hot sun hitting us.

So they work from 7 till 12 and then from 1.30 till 5. Elsa walks two hours a day to get to the farm. They get paid 1000 RS a months which is about 333 euro's. Its kind of bizarre grasping this all after having felt the hard work they do. Doing this work made me come to think of all the people all over the world that work on the farm to have an income or just a bit of food which is barley enough to live from. Elsa feeds 5 mouths and takes care of her daughters baby.

The first week was hard but still somehow ok. The first day I worked 11 hours. In the afternoon I helped out with the washing of the vegetables. This is were they pack the crates for the delivery. By Thursday my back was sour from bending for over and my hands were covered in blisters from the shoveling. By the second day one of my blisters between my thumb and pointing finger burst opened and hurt like hell. I thought I couldn't work anymore because it was were I was holding the shovel but even though people felt a but sorry for me a bandage was enough to keep moving on. Later I realized that this is just tuff work and injuries are a part of the struggle, lol.

What I really enjoyed was the contact with Elsa and the other people on the farm. Most people that work here also live here on the farm. One of my neighbors, who works in the house, has lived here for 30 years and all her children were born on the farm. Its a small community. This part of the region is very country. They actually have actual cowboys and Rodeo is hot here. Also on the farm they have lots of lovely horses that they use for working on the fields to herd the cows.

After a week Carnaval arrived. David and Bel already told me there were gonna be lost of friends coming over and it was gonna be one big party. Well the first bit was true, the second bit was partly true. In total there were about 15 adults and 15 children. They all stayed from Friday evening till Wednesday. I mainly stayed for lunch and dinners, that ended around eleven o'clock and by that time I was already dead tired. It was nice meeting new people but also a bit much after my hard labour week.

During the end of my second week I was picking grass out patches of carrots. I talked with Elsa about her life, my life and about life in general. I asked her what she was thinking about during the work. This was a question I had wanted to ask all week because I noticed how my own mind was going all over the place. She answered that she was just only focused on her job. And sometimes thinks about what she will eat or about men in her life. She said the secret with this job is or with all the jobs in life is that you have to do it with love. If you have love for what you do its not difficult. She said she loves her job. I already told her after a few days I had a lot of respect for her and everyday that respect has grown. She told me she is use to being with 'her ass to the moon' a Brazilian expression: 'na bunda da lua' for the position you are in with picking grass or planting. Na bunda da lua had been quiet a hell for me and staying happy was getting difficult. But my end of my stay on the farm was near and I still enjoyed her company and in the end I was also enjoying the sight of a clean new patch.

I planned and month here at first but now will be going to travel to the Amazon with a friend. Something I have been looking forward to do for a very long time and Im so excited. We will be traveling by bus and boat. A 49 hour trip by bus and then two days on the boat. A whole new adventure is about to start.

Thats all for now. I hope it wasn't too long of a story in between the busy life's you all live. Be grateful and love to all of you from me.

As they say here: Vais com deus (go with God).

Ciao, Laura

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