socks
dearest parents,
i forgot to tell you. do you remember how in the airport you were worried that i hadn't packed any socks? well, please let lay all your worries to rest. they gave me some green fuzzy socks on the airplane. so everything is alright.
love,
julia
Guess what. I'm a farmer. This is interesting because affluent people do not farm. Less than 1 percent of the American population is involved in agriculture in the US of A. 100 years ago it was 70 percent. If I had not come here, I never would have experienced how good it feels to get up early in the morning and get really dirty doing something constructive. It is true however that I am not a conventional sort of farmer. Today I mixed termite dirt and cow poopie with water with my bare feet. This made a sticky mud stuff that I used to plaster bricks together to make an oven for bread. It was beautiful to build something. I also weeded the tomatoes. Yesterday I made peanut butter with a bicycle. Figure that one out.
I think the most interesting thing about this place is that it is contained. Perhaps that's not the right word, but it's the one I can think of. What I mean is that when I turn on the tap for water I know where it came from and how it was purified. When I get lunch at the Solar Kitchen I can ask the cooks where the curd or the squash came from and they can tell me which farm. And then I can go visit the farm. And help plant more squash or feed the cows or whatever. No one ever really wonders where their food comes from in the states. If you ask the cashier at the grocery store they can't tell you. And there's no way you can go lend a hand to those who supply you with food.
But. This is not the real India. So.
i forgot to tell you. do you remember how in the airport you were worried that i hadn't packed any socks? well, please let lay all your worries to rest. they gave me some green fuzzy socks on the airplane. so everything is alright.
love,
julia
Guess what. I'm a farmer. This is interesting because affluent people do not farm. Less than 1 percent of the American population is involved in agriculture in the US of A. 100 years ago it was 70 percent. If I had not come here, I never would have experienced how good it feels to get up early in the morning and get really dirty doing something constructive. It is true however that I am not a conventional sort of farmer. Today I mixed termite dirt and cow poopie with water with my bare feet. This made a sticky mud stuff that I used to plaster bricks together to make an oven for bread. It was beautiful to build something. I also weeded the tomatoes. Yesterday I made peanut butter with a bicycle. Figure that one out.
I think the most interesting thing about this place is that it is contained. Perhaps that's not the right word, but it's the one I can think of. What I mean is that when I turn on the tap for water I know where it came from and how it was purified. When I get lunch at the Solar Kitchen I can ask the cooks where the curd or the squash came from and they can tell me which farm. And then I can go visit the farm. And help plant more squash or feed the cows or whatever. No one ever really wonders where their food comes from in the states. If you ask the cashier at the grocery store they can't tell you. And there's no way you can go lend a hand to those who supply you with food.
But. This is not the real India. So.
posted by Julia at 3:36 PM
2 Comments:
Wow! It sounds very exciting and rewarding to be doing what you are doing. The peanut butter on a bicycle is most certainly one for the books. It's good you like farming, this would please your ancestors for sure. Do you also still plan to work in a school or is farming your chosen occupation for India? No matter. Enjoy.
julia. i like to hear your words.
that's what i have to say.
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