Obera

So. We're here, we're working hard, and we're...a lot of things. Here's a list:
1. bug-bitten
2. entirely sick of Dulce de Leche
3. never clean
4. sleeping in tents
5. using dry compost toilets
6. phoneless (possibly for good)
7. covered in fine, red clay (Think Virginia)
8. enjoying ourselves
9. cooking beautiful, healthy vegetarian meals 3 times a day
10. learning a lot about farming and sustainability
11. getting used to the heat
12. learning to love small, skin-burrowing insects
13. realizing there are SO many types of butterflies
14. building stone foundations, chicken houses, yoga shalas, and readying garden beds
15. content, but still excited about Buenos Aires

So things are going well. It's swelteringly hot most of the time, there are few truly comfortable places to sit, and of course no air conditioning (or electricity beyond charging ipods and running a single light). But we are getting used to it and we are enjoying ourselves because this is the way life probably should be, and we know it.

We miss home pretty intensely, I yearn particularly for working in the garden with Mom, blazing trails in the backyard with Dad, building forts with Will and then excluding him because he's my younger brother (just kidding, but that did happen a lot, didn't it? sorry!), and generally using my two hands on a piece of land for the sake of improving it and myself. I also find myself simultaneously missing the easy access to friends I had at school and at home via phone and car. This is possibly the hardest adjustment to make while traveling: you simply have to make do with what you have. Thank goodness I'm traveling with someone I love, because I can see the long road getting very lonely without a companion to share it all with.

Which brings us to a question I never really EVER want to address: what to do when we STOP traveling? I still have no clue. The days stretch on and turn into weeks and it seems like I should be hopping on a plane home any moment, but we've actually only been gone for 8 weeks, with about 12 more to go. So why should I be thinking about what to do after I get home? Maybe its a form of self-torture, because I have just so few ideas. I think maybe traveling forever is the only option...then I may never have to answer it at all!

I can feel msyelf start to ramble, so I think I'll sign off. We come into town on Saturdays, so that will be the next time I'll have to use the internet... Until then,

Love you all,
Sam