Earthly Connection – Part 2

After an exciting day of site seeing it was time to get down to work. For the next two day it was only going to be me and the family working on the farm in Tingana. On the weekend two of the members of the group Activismo en San Martin (the place that I am working for) were going to join us. This was going to be my first experience working on any type of farm so i could not wait to get started.

What made working on this farm so exciting and fulfilling was that everyone worked together. The whole time I was here I did not what the time was or sometimes even what day it was. I work up most of the time when I heard the family get up or from our natural alarm the roster. I woke up every morning greeting the family and my first job was to get oranges for the juice. The husband was making a pole for getting down the oranges in the tree when I got up. The pole was very simple; at the end of it a “v” shape notch was cut into it. He then led me to the orange tree that I was going to get the oranges from.

It is funny that even though I do not Spanish that well and the family does not know English well we are still able to communicate. He showed me very quickly how to them get the oranges down from the tree. The best oranges are at the top of the tree and usually at the ends. I did try climbing the tree but found that there were a lot of ants in the tree that I did not feel like messing with. Using the stick is easy; you find the orange that you want and place the “v” cut out on the stem he orange is on. Then you twist the twig and it comes off very easy and it is a pretty quick process.  

After I collected the oranges I headed to the kitchen to give them to the wife. She then piled them while I went out and helped with the coffee seeds. After the seeds are de-husked you have to rinse them with water and then drain them into a mess bag. Firstly you have to take out all the seeds that are floating on top of the water. These seeds are not good enough for the exportation of the seeds and are sold at a lesser price to the local community. Yes we foreigners get the better of the coffee seeds then the local community here. They get the lower grade although here in Perú coffee is not consumed a lot as much as in North America. After the draining of the seeds you then take the seeds to a tarp that is stretched out on the ground. Here is where the seeds will dry in the sun for four days and then will be shipped out to other companies to process them and then packaged for sale.

After getting all the seeds out on the tarp it was time for breakfast. The wife took a rebar piece and started to hammer it on the side of the house. This was the signal for the family that it was time for food. At breakfast I got to have a taste of my hard work in the morning collecting oranges. Man the orange juice tasted amazing and so fresh, probably one of the best orange juices I have ever had.

After a good hardy breakfast I got my tutorial about picking coffee seeds from the tree. It is very similar to another type of picking fruit and it is very relaxing. It was nice not to work under pressure and in a stressful environment. You just go from tree to tree picking away making sure to only grab the reddish fruit from the coffee tree. It is also nice to work in a secluded area without any cars, transit and people everywhere. It is you and nature. You take moments from time to time to here the forest come alive with all the animals that inhabit the forest. There are a lot of bugs that do bother you and at times I would find myself very cautious when picking the fruits. I always made sure that I did not grab a spider or a bee.

After getting buckets full of fruit I dumped the buckets in a area attached to the de-husker. The area will fill up with water later to soften the husks of the coffee fruit before they are taken off. After a good mornings work I headed in for a good meal and then relax just outside of the kitchen and watch the animals play. Though the work is not hard it was hot out and I have not worked in two months. So I grabbed my ipod and listened to some music and thought for a bit.

I have been doing a lot of thinking on this trip, it has really influenced me. Up to this point I have experience so much in my travels and sometimes you do not get a chance to reflex upon what you have experienced. There have been many times that I have thought about becoming a farmer. In Perú you experience many events where it brings you closer to the realities of how food is processed. In Huancayo I was able to experience the treatment and the selling of animals in the big Sunday market and also got to learn much about herbs and other plants I am new too. Also in Huancayo there is a very big market of fresh produce that is sold by the local farmers of the valley. Here is where you grow and even stronger connection to food because you get to talk to the farmer or the workers of the farm first hand. Now in Tingana I was experience the relationship with humans and the farm itself.

After a good thinking session I then headed back to work to another part of the farm where there was more coffee seeds. IK was able to get a good amount of work done and when I finished I met up with the husband and we both headed in to the kitchen for dinner. Here in Tingana I really got to practice my Spanish and it has been interesting hearing the different accents and speech patterns of each area in Perú. In the coast Peruvians speak very fast and very relaxed. In the mountains the people much slower and are very serious when they talk, they a pretty straight to the point. In the jungle the speech is slower than the coast but faster and more relaxed than the mountains and it is much more understandable for me.

After dinner we relaxed around the table drinking tea and they were asking a lot of questions. I answered as best as I could and it seemed that I was getting the message through and I was listening very well. After the healthy conversation with the family we all headed into the house and went to sleep. It was a good day of work and getting out my thoughts that I think was much needed. I like to think a lot and if I do not get the time to think it all out I find that it is hard to function sometimes and I can get a little stressed out. Working with in a very quiet and calm setting soothes you and makes you very calm, like nothing in the world can bother you at that point.