Traveling Beans

back in the city

i have just returned from my first lengthy stay in el campo, and I must admit, I am thrilled to read about the adventures that kris and jackie are having, as well as to think about and reflect on my own...
thinking back on the last week, a few images in particular come to mind, the dirt floor kitchen with the open fire under the stove, a huge black cauldron of beans churning, and a pot of coffee off to the side that is dipped into with small mugs at every meal, the sun streaming in, so that when you look one way, everything is illuminated, and looking the other, everything appears in silhouette. i also recollect fiels of corn, covering my head with a malanga leaf to serve as a rain hat, and wearing nothing but rain boots for the last five days. It gets muddy up in the campo!
back in the city, things feel like luxury, like in comparison, everything here feels like home. A fluching toilet, streets, cars. In comparison, the campo appears quite remote, where all that passes are the buses three times a day and the occasional truck usually full of local hitch hikers in back.
there I have been experiencing and learning, recognizing different spanish, different customs, a different pace of life. I am definitely having to reaccustome myself to the slow pace of the countryside, where, although everyone gets up really early (like five!) there seems to be little to be done during the day (at least until the harvest starts in october, or the corn harvest starts in three to four weeks). either way, i am learning a ton, trying to figure out how to tackle this project, how to insert myself into a small community, what kinds of questions to ask, as well as how to make tortillas, figure out what´s going on in the telenovelas the whole family watches, how to play pool, and how to walk down slippery mud trails without plummeting through rows and rows of mature corn.
It is an interesting thing, this being here alone, experiencing, experimenting, absorbing. The experience for all of us is obviously about much more than our projects, it is about finding ourselves, what we want to do, what part of this project and this world really ignites our passions. For me, it seems to be the organizing, the validation, the human interaction. Living and knowing, learning that even as I am here, people are visiting gas stations in Manchester, VT, sleeping on Rainbow Rider in Great Harbor Peter, BVI, entering the grocery store in Ashland, Oregon, and sitting on beaches or in dorm rooms in other parts of the world. It´s about expanding our consciousness and ourselves. a big experience, so many thoughts to write just on the weekends when i get back to the city...

posted by Hilary King @ 7:15 PM