Thursday, April 28, 2011

Macroom for more


Rosie's pub
The day before I left the Devoy's I went to a traditional music festival in Ballydehob. I could not find anyone going there from Rosscarberry so I decided to hitchike there. I got picked up by a guy with a horse trailer. He was really nice and he even bought me a half pint of Murphy's at a pub he had to stop at. After about 10 minutes of talking he offered me a job in August as a wwoofer or au pair. We stopped at his house and I helped him feed his horses and saw where I would stay if I took the job. Then he took me into town and paid for my entrance into the show. His wife bought me a beer and showed me to the best local pub Rosie's. I stayed out listening to music until about 2:30 in the morning. I knew a guy in town and he offered to let me crash at his place since there was no way I was going to bet a ride at night. The next morning I got up early and he dropped me off at the best hitching site in town. It was good because it only took me about 5 minutes to get a lift. He was really nice and we talked about traveling and how it is the best thing and how you meet such great people on the road.

The Witcherly's aka my lift to Ballydehob

Pilgrims? no welsh dancers

I miss the Devoy's, but I have been in macroom for almost two weeks and I am loving it. This is the wwoof host I have been looking for. They are small and just produce enough for themselves. The days are slow and relaxed with lots of breaks for tea. She cooks great food and bakes delicious cakes and scones. I am learning so much. I think that I want something like this when I get a garden, or I could just tell my parents that I am going to plow up part of their land and start a garden and then move away. I don't think they would like that. I have always had a dream of looking out the back window and seeing rows of sweet corn. You are probably laughing at me but I don't care.

Stone wall and a shamrock the only thing missing is a redhaired guinness drinking leprechaun

stream down the road from the Cadec's farm (wwoof host)

They have three dogs that are just too cute. I want to take one them home with me. Lucy, Effa and Tyke make my time here so entertaining. Every time I go out to the garden Effa runs in front of me jumping in circles. She is so sweet and I think that hank needs a friend. I spend all of my free time playing with them. I can not get enough of their cuteness.

Fortunately there has not been any crazy things happening on this farm. The problem with everything going as planned is that there are not many good stories. I just wake up late and have a relaxed breakfast of muesli and tea. We chat of a while and then I go out to the garden and do a little work for a few hours and then we have lunch. Then I do a few more things outside with Mike. At night we have dinner and watch a movie.

This weekend we did go to a national park with their three sons. It was great fun to walk around with them and see all the plants and the estate. Every part of Cork that I have seen is stunningly beautiful. I am so glad that I decided to come. Thank you Michelle for telling me about your home county. I have been learning a lot about the IRA and history of Ireland. We watched a great film the other night Wind that Shakes the Barley. It was shot in the area and though it is not 100% accurate it is still a good take on the problems Ireland faced with England.
Simon playing with tyke and effa

Simon with dad Mike my wwoof host

Estate on National park

Since arriving in Ireland I have met a plant that I have grown to hate. I know that it seems harsh to say that I hate a plant, but this plant is a terrible beast that is out to get me. NETTLES It hid in grass and under spinach at the Devoy's and now at the Cadec's it just taunts me out in the open. Every time I touch, brush against, or sit on it I feel this intense pain like I have just been cut with a razor. Then my hand or whatever body part has come in contact with it starts to bun and then tingle. This last about a day. Yes it is terrible. Yes there is tons of it around the garden. Yes I was asked to clear a section of it with sears. My ass is still burning from where I sat on some while trying to get under a fence. Yes I had pants on. I guess that is the way life is.
Nettle

I am sure that you do not have nettles in Malaysia....Lucky.

Tomorrow I start my new job as an au pair for four Irish-French kids. Wish me luck.

Lulu

Saturday, April 16, 2011

All White Kurtas to Small Pink Bikinis


Graduation class photo...plus random Indian man who decided to join the picture
Dear Lulu,


It sounds like life on the farm is rather hectic. Good luck with the new hens! I think my jealousy level went down a few points when I read about all the crap that happened that past week, but then I read about the pubs and music and the level shot back up. Did you ever manage to go for that run yet? I am doing yoga daily and am trying to get into the habit of running on the beach in the mornings… but we will see what happens. I am still trying to catch up on my sleep after going about 48 hours with no sleep getting to Malaysia.

Yes I am in Malaysia now! I got here about two days ago and had Sofi’s smiling face to greet me! It was great seeing her again. So far Malaysia is great! I’ve got great friends, great beaches, warm water, sun, and cold beers. I can’t think of anything else I could need. It would be fun having you here too. It’s strange having Fifiji and Kikiji but no Luluji. Sofi, or Fifiji, says hi. Yesterday we rented scooters and toured around the island a bit. We went up a cable car to the top of one of the mountains. There was an amazing 360 degree view of Lankauwi Island. Then we drove over to a secluded little beach on the northern part of the island to cool off in the water. It is a hard life I lead.
Sofi and I at the top of the cable car

Ahh Malaysia!

As far as the yoga course, I can’t believe I survived! It was a strange feeling to leave the ashram after a month. The last week flew by and I don’t know how I managed to find the energy to get through all of my asana classes. I was exhausted most of that last week. We had a few amazing Indian dinners as our going away parties. We had to finish them with a hello to the queen! Sooo Good! A bowl full of chocolate sauce, cookies, bananas, strawberries, ice cream, and whipped cream! Wow, I wish I had one right now.

On graduation day our entire class went down to the Ganga (the holy river that flows right in front of the ashram) and took a dip. Well, three dips to be exact since that is the appropriate number of times you have to dunk yourself. So I had to submerge myself in the freezing water not just once but three times. At least it was really hot outside. After our ceremonial dip the affair quickly turned into an all-out water war. Everyone was splashing everyone. If we weren’t already a spectacle, ten westerners bathing in the Ganga, we were now. We had a crowd of Indians just sitting and watching and snapping pictures as if we were the day’s entertainment. We had a blast though and it was one of the highlights of my stay.
Water war in the Ganga!

My last Arti on the Ganga

I had to say goodbye to some amazing people that I got really close to in the ashram, but I have become accustomed to saying goodbye. It is the nature of my life right now. I guess there is a downside to traveling, but at the same time I would never have met any of the amazing people that I consider friends now if I weren’t traveling. I am hopeful that I will see them all again someday. It just gives me another excuse to travel more. Michelle, our favorite Irish lass, is traveling another month in India and then heading back to Ireland. Maybe you guys will get to see each other after all.
One last view of my ashram, Parmarth Niketan



Love,

Kiki

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

What Goes Up Must Come Down

The cows in Ireland are cute too


Kiki

I am so jealous that you will see Sofi in a few days. I miss our Swedish travel buddy. Oh, and you have been with Michelle for a month now. I came to Ireland to see her and you get to see her in India. It is just not fair. On a health note I can not believe that you let a strange Indian man stick non sterile things into your ear. If I had been there I would have advised against it. You know me though, always cautious. I don't understand why people think that I am the crazy one.

Anyway I have been busy getting into the Irish culture over here. Last weekend I went to see traditional Irish music in Clonakilty. There is a fiddle player there that is one of the best around. I got to Clon early because the last bus is at 6:50 and the session was not until 9:30, so to pass the time I went to O'Donavan's Pub to get a beer. There was a rugby game on and I sat at the bar (I later found out that it is inappropriate for women to sit at the bar) to watch and drink my beer. A Dutch guy sat next to me and ended up buying me two more beers (these are pints 500ml/half liter). I probably should have said no, but I did not have anything else to do so why not. By 9:30 I was buzzing and I walked down the street to the other bar where she was playing and ordered another beer. I was sipping slowly because I did not want to drink anymore, but I also did not want to sit without a drink. The music was great. Lots of musicians came to jam. Everyone takes turns starting a song and then everyone else tries to join in. There is just something to that kind of playing. With old men singing with there eyes closed and the whole bar joining in at the end.. The bar which is called Teach Beag (pronounced top yug means little house in Irish) is a small cozy bar with plants growing through the walls and warm lighting. It was really what I had been expecting in an Irish pub. Toward the end of the music I met a couple from Atlanta, Georgia that now have a house in town. I talked to them for a while and found out that he used to play music at Millsaps. What a small world. He also bought me another beer since I had finished my last one. Just so we are clear on the count that would be the fifth beer of the night, so yes I had 2 1/2 liters of beer. I am surprised I could still put sentences together. I knew a Danish couple who were singing with the fiddler and they graciously gave me a ride home but not before I randomly gave my email to this guy. I still do not know why I did that. The Atlanta guy told me to give him my email and at the time it seemed like a totally logical thing to do. I am pretty sure that I was trying to get a wwoof job at a fly fishing lodge but who knows. Luckily or maybe unluckily I have not received any emails yet.

The famous fiddler


The jam session

And now for farm news not related to my drunken outings. Wednesdays are always crazy. We have to fill the supermarket and restaurant orders before 11:00 in the morning. It is almost impossible to get everything picked, packed, and in the car by then. Plus after this we have to fill another big restaurant and supermarket order. This is usually the tricky part because we have to wait for a delivery of out of season veggies and fruit so that we can mix salad for the delivery. This week the delivery was 2 hours late because the driver over slept. He arrives and we are all waiting to help unload. We watch as the man trys to get the huge palate over a little hump on the lift at the back of the semi. He pushes it and it awkwardly tilts to the side and then back down and then it tips over the side of the lift. In slow motion we watch as the palate flips in the air, apples and carrots flying, to land upside down in the pond scummy creek/ditch. This is about 1500 dollars worth of ORGANIC produce sitting in green slim. Yeah nobody said anything for what seemed like ten minutes until Meriel (Sara the owner's daughter) said, "This is going to take hours to clean up." At the sound of that Sara starts picking up loose apples and telling people to get boxes from inside to put them in. At some point she gets a camera and snaps a few pictures to send to the company. After about an hour of trying to salvage as much as possible we had everything in the shed and had sent John with the delivery to Cork. At this point it is 8:00 pm the order is late by 3 hours and we have been working for about 10 hours. We still have to put the hens to bed and put all of that produce in the cold room. It is another hour before we are done with everything. Oh and just to top it off earlier in the day Remi busted the shit pipe while digging in the front yard and messed up making cement to fix the hen house. I was crouched down planting chard and lettuce for about 5 hours.  It was just too much in one day.
the shit pipe Remi broke
Meriel and Remi surveying the damage

Remi and I sorting everything

This weekend I went to market and I think that I got a job as an au pair for the month of may. It is really strange how things work out. I hope that I get it because at this point I need some income to keep myself going. I also got a free plum flapjack from a very cute young baker. He told me not to tell Ingrid, the owner, but I doubt she will read our blog. After the market, Remi and I went with John and his son Oisin to watch the rugby quarter final of the Heineken Cup in the local pub, Nolan's. It was a great game and I had three beers and by the time I got home I was embarrassingly intoxicated. I could not cook dinner but Remi was there to save the day. Both John and Sara stopped by to give us stuff and I was drunk talking to them. I think that they found it funny. That is me trying to make myself feel better about it. Though on Sunday it was not really that big of a deal so now I feel a little less like a total idiot. Sorry that the following picture do not follow the blog. I wanted to share them but there is too much to talk about. They are from a walk to the lighthouse I went on the previous weekend.

obviously the lighthouse

Remi and I after 20 min of trying to use the timer on my camera

Eating a burger and drinking a beer at Nolan's after the walk

The neighborhood

The neighbors (they are such chatty cathys)

Sunday I made hamburgers with the kids and then Remi and I joined Sara and her two daughters Meriel and Aisha for a walk on a beach. We skipped stones and tried to climb on rock formations on the beach. Then we sat around and made daisy chains in the grass and ate oranges. I laid down in the grass trying to get as much sun as possible since it is so short lived in this stormy Irish climate.

My happy french beans


Lulu

P.S. We get 300 new hens tomorrow. This should be fun.

Considering if my camera is edible

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Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Almost Enlightened...


They really do have some of the cutest cows in India
Lulu,


GO FOR A RUN!!!!! Who are you and where is my sister!?!?! Whatever Ireland is doing to you it is good. I don’t think I have ever heard those words come out of your mouth… or maybe it was the wine talking you wino! Ireland sounds amazing! I am jealous that you are learning so much about organic farming. We will have to exchange our new knowledge at home in June. I will teach you yoga and you can show me your organic ways.

India is still amazing and I can’t believe that I am starting the last week of my course. It feels like I got here yesterday but at the same time it feels like I have been here for a year… strange how that happens. We learned how to use the neti pot the other day! I couldn’t believe the amount of snot and crap that came out of my nose. It was hilarious watching everyone bent over with little blue pots pressed into their noses trying to flush out their nose and choking on water when they got it wrong. It must have been because our teachers spent most of the time trying to conceal their laughter. I must say though, that I have never felt so clear headed as after I finished the neti pot. I want to show you and mom and whoever else is interested how to do it.
One of the holy men who will tell you your weight for a small fee.  That's entrepreneurship there!

Apart from that everything else has been pretty much the same. Up at 5am and class till 9pm. I have managed to get away during our free time on the weekends. I don’t do much outside of the ashram other than look through countless books at our favorite little book shops and hang out at Little Buddha with a chai and friends. It’s great to do nothing after such a hard week though. I have a weak spot for Indian jewelry as you know, and I have given into temptation. I bought a few more things but oh well. You would laugh at me because I have bought so many books I literally could start a library at this point. You thought I had a lot last time we were together, but I think the count is almost up to twenty now! I don’t know what I was thinking. I am going to have to ship a bunch home. There are just so many great books here and they are so ridiculously cheap!

Oh I almost forgot. I finally got up the nerve to get my ears cleaned by one of those little men on the street. I know it was probably not very smart, but in my defense four of my friends had it done before me and they survived. So I decided I would give it a go. I couldn’t believe what was in my ears!!! I think he took out two pebble sized clumps of old nasty orange ear wax from each ear! I don’t know why I am sharing this but I get enjoyment out of grossing you out. Michelle, Heather, and Piya where in the background making gasping sounds and repeating how disgusting it was. Ha ha ha! It was all pretty funny. I won’t be laughing if I lose my hearing. So far so good though, I still have healthy ears and I can even hear a bit better now. I don’t even know how I was able to hear anything before he took all that junk out.
My totally safe and professional ear cleaning

Very official credentials

I stopped by to visit Puneet again. He says hi. I have gotten almost all of my yoga class to go see our astrologer, Prateek. For everyone who doesn’t know Puneet and Prateek are two brothers we met here. Prateek is an astrologer and his brother Puneet is a palmist and a gemologist. They are both amazing men and became fast friends. All of my friends have gone to have their astrology told or “prophecy” as Laura D calls it. They have all been equally as impressed and Prateek was pretty accurate for all of them. It is crazy! I didn’t think I would ever say it but… I am a believer.
Bangle salesman

Only a week left and I am on my way to Malaysia to see Sofi! I am so excited and can’t wait for some down time on the beach. Maybe I can finally get through some of the countless books I have bought. I can’t wait to come home and see you and Jeannette and the baby and mom and dad. I didn’t think I would have the chance to come home again for some time. I get more excited about it every day. I have so many amazing things to look forward to. I am so unbelievably lucky! I hope all is well and that your little sprouts keep getting bigger. Learn all you can because I expect you to be my teacher!

Love,

Kiki

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Organic farming is so much fun/hellish labor

On a hill walk 

Kiki

I have been working a little over a week now on the Devoy Farm. I wake up every morning and think about doing yoga and then change my mind because it is freezing. I did do yoga this morning and am thinking of going for a run tomorrow,  but you know how much I love running so lets see if that happens. I then eat my heathy breakfast of museli and milk and a cup of tea (the museli has raisins and I EAT THEM). Sorry, for everyone else. I hate raisins and never eat them... until now. Maybe this all natural organic lifestyle has changed my views on dried grapes....not.

Me drunk and typing this letter

I live with a frenchman, Remi, who is in no way effected by the organic healthyness of the place. He eats white bread with nutella and a cup of hot cocoa for breakfast. He loves meat and talks about eating it and how much he misses it all the time.  He is a so funny and just great. I am so glad that he is my roommte because there is really not much to do during the week. At night we make dinner and talk to each other. At the moment he is washing the dishes and laughing at me drinking wine and typing frantickly on the computer which by the way is his. So far we have only gone off the farm for walks. We live out in the country and the nearest town is a thirty minute walk. We went this past Friday to the local burger joint to eat meat for the first time in a week which for me is not a big deal but for Remi it was like torture. We also did a nice walk around the area to see the local beaches. It was all very beautiful and much how I thought Ireland would look. Also this weekend there were two markets. Our farm parcipitates in local markets one in Skibbereen and one in Clonakilty. Not that you know where they are, but they are the closest big towns to where I live in Rosscarberry. I really enjoyed the market in Skiberreen. It was really refreshing to see people coming out to buy local organic goods and wanting to pay a little extra to support local people. It is so different to what I have seen in the States. It also made my day to have rhubarb and custard pie. I think I am in love with rhubarb. Too bad ours won't be ready until after I leave.

Remi and I on the beach in Ireland


As for what I do every day that is hard to say. Everyday has some routine, but also some surprises are always waiting. For the most part in goes like this: collect the eggs from the hen house, grade and clean the eggs, pick and/or package kale/purple sprouting brocolli/salad/spinach/potatoes, load the van with needed veggies for the grocery store, plant cucumber/tomatoes/spring onions/lettuce/snap peas/endive/etc, eat a veg lunch, then more of the planting or weeding; One day we had to clean one of the polytunnels (a giant plastic tunnel used to keep plants warm in the cold Irish climate) and it was the worst job ever. Just annoyingly hard labor that I never want to do again. I really have fallen in tune with this life and althougth it is back-breaking I love it. Today some rocket (salad green) that I seeded started to sprout and I was so excited. I think I was working for two hours hunched over trays meticuliously putting one seed just under the surface of the soil. Then John, the boss man, told me I used the wrong compost and nothing was going to sprout. I did a dance when I saw the first sprouts come up. I feel like I am learning so much and I know I will be sad to leave in two weeks. It is too early for me to think like that.


My Rocket before it sprouted

You say that you are in great shape, well I am also getting into shape. I can feel my body coming to life after so many months of sitting around. I love the feeling of my body waking up. It has been too long since I did this kind of work. Now I need to do more exercise so that I get the best out of the work I am doing. I hope that in the morning it is not raining, so I can run. Although with the wine I am drinking I do not think that I will be able to go for a run. Remi is making fun of me again saying that he thinks another word for crazy is Laura. I love my roommate because he knows I am crazy and just laughs.

Lulu
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