living of earth, of love

the past few days on the farm have been some of my favorite thus far. the magic began when we had finished all we could do preparing the beds thus far (were still waiting on the precious caca de vaca). cris looked at us and said, well we can just gather fruit and make things! and such began our most beautiful day on the farm, gathering limes from the many trees on the property, hunting down the ripest papaya, picking aji (hot peppers) to make delicious hot sauce, etc. the feeling of walking outside to pick food that will soon be used to sustain our bodies is really an amazing feeling. i suppose thats the idea of it all; to live and closely with the earth, to put your sweat into the ground and let the ground sustain you, to see the cause and affect of the things we do to the earth. this might explain why i cant stop thinking about the chemicals from our shampoo, detergent, and soap that are all going directly into the ground--where we are sowing our food, the river that we bath in after our hard work, and la pachamama in all her diverse species of flora and fauna.

today as we were gathering the caca from our neighbors cows, i couldnt stop thinking about ways that i can personally live more closely and respectfully with the earth. over the past few years ive tried to consume less, be a little nicer, use less chemicals, things like that. but i still wasnt really ready to let go of my luscious lather of herbal essences shampoo. even after i visited the duwamish river and heard the protests of the people suffering from all the pollution, high rates of chemicals from ´fragrances´ in the items we use daily that are dumped into the river.
but living here with the dirt under my nails and in my hair daily, just thinking about where this is going physically pains me. in an ideal world we would all be aware of these things, but ´sometimes it takes a journey to come home.´ just so happens that this past weekend i went to visit a friend in a town outside of quito. we went to a sort of hippy event (i felt very at home, i am not ashamed to say)--hosted at a cafe with everything inside of it made out recycled material. there was a man there selling dish washing detergent made out of lime, vinegar, and salt...perfect! we have a ridiculous abundance of limes on the farm, not to mention we are currently using potent agent that hurts my hands and the land. so i got the recipe and bought detergent to give us a start! im looking into making natural shampoo, conditioner, and whatever else i can fix up around these parts--the idea being to use what we have on the farm to minimize plastic waste, chemical output, improve overall bodily health, and spend less money! should be an interesting challenge when im back in the states, but that is just more motivation to grow things and explore how to use plants from the pacific northwest.

as for my independent project, things are rolling along. this wednesday i am hosting a dialogue with women in the community about gender and identity. i am sooo excited. im still planning what i will facilitate, but i think we will be using different artistic expression to warm things up (dance, drawing) and then move into the whole talking part. the whole thing depends on who comes and what the want to share, and i cant wait to see where the night leads us.

i know you are all just dyyyying to see me! and if you didnt already know i will be returning a little earlier than expected, june 24th. how could i possibly miss a doble lado family reunion extravaganza!?!?

well i have a million things to do tonight so i will say my goodbyes.

en paz y amor,
laurita