mainland

Helloooo! So, I left Cape Clear Island today. I was farming with Fiona for about three weeks, and I’m hanging around Cork for the next couple of days. Thursday I’m flying out of Dublin…then Tanzania (gaaaahhh!)

I feel like I’m coming out the other side of this farming experience more relaxed, maybe just more ready to go to Africa. We’ve done loads of work for Fiona, but definitely adapted to the slow, island way of life. Each day on Cape followed this pattern: We wake up, make some breakfast, and get to Fiona’s at around 9. Whenever we walk up the hill to the house, her two dogs, Lucy and Poppet, start barking, flipping out. We’ll kick off our rain boots (or gum boots? wellies?) and have a cup of coffee while we plan our morning—or Fiona will run off a list of little projects as she leaves for work. Usually the am jobs are finished early, unless it’s the endless weeding and digging kind of job. Either way, lunch is 12-2 and we make some food, drink tea, read books…this whole trip I’ve had tons of tea, all the time. At 2 we go back to Fiona’s, usually waiting around for a while (hanging out with the dogs, maybe making some bread or watching the Discovery channel), until she’s back from work. The afternoon jobs usually involve more walking around, heavy lifting, but are always done by 5. Then done! We go down to the harbor, get groceries, go visit our wwoofing buddies Lilly and Gabriel and the Craft Shop, explore cliffs or ruins, or just sit on our porch and bum around.

Emilie and I were working with three other Wwoofers at one point—Ben and Jade from Australia and Miriam from Germany. For the past week, Ben and I were the only ones around. We’ve been herding cattle, cleaning the chicken coop, doing more yardwork. I learned how to use the weed-whacker (strimmer, whipper-snipper…), so I now I’m constantly finding little bits of grass stuck to my clothes, in my hair. I was also practicing my cooking, and I would walk down to the harbor and around the Island almost every day.

Also, working for Fiona has been really wonderful—I’m so glad I got to be on the island, on her farm. I’m more than ready to move on, to see Cork and Dublin over the next few days and then fly to Tanzania. I’m a little apprehensive, of course, but completely excited to get there, meet everyone on my program and start something new.

As my trip in Ireland winds down, I’ve been going over everything that I’ve done, and everything that I’ve learned about farming and traveling. I’m glad I got to experience it both with Emile and by myself for a little while, and this is just the most beautiful country. More than anything, I’ve realized how important it is to me, to my experiences abroad, to really be able to really live somewhere—at Fiona’s I was able to unpack my backpack, to feel more comfortable here than most tourists are able to. Although our bathroom is grimy, there are flies in the kitchen (maybe breeding in our compost bin?), nothing every dries completely, and most things around the farm are falling apart, I just stopped noticing.

ok, please send emails. buckets of love,

becca