Day 4- it was a doozy

7-19-10

Day Four

 On day four, we woke up to enjoy a cheesy omelet and a sausage patty right from the ranch! Next we split up into our classes. Anna and Megan took the CSA garden class where they picked tomatoes, planted pumpkins, sorted tomatoes, water all sorts of plants, and learned all about it! A TV crew from channel TPT was there filming us for a documentary. Megan was interviewed, and is now a famous TPT star! Erin, Mike, and Bennett took the People Livestock and Agriculture class and they toured around the ranch learning about all the different parts of it. Kristian and Jordan took Animal husbandry as described in a previous blog. Lastly, Alex and Gabe took the Honey Bee Hive class and got to dress up in fun bee-man costumes (of which they did not have enough so Gabe went pant less). After lunch, we began thinking about our upcoming challenge, the ‘Global village’. We packed our things and headed down a long trail to a barn where we were split up into groups, or ‘countries’ and took a tour of the village we would be living in for the next 24 hours. There were many ‘houses’ such as, the Tibetan yurt, the Appalachian cottage, the urban slums, the Zambian hut, the Guatemalan house, the refugee shack, and two Thailand houses. They all had different wealth levels. Our JW group was split into two ‘families’. Alex, Kristian, Gabe, and Erin were in the Guatemalan house with actual beds and doors and a stove. Bennett, Megan, Jordan, and Mike were in the Zambian house right next to the goats and chickens with a stone floor to sleep on. One person in each ‘family’ was randomly selected to be pregnant, and had to carry a water balloon strapped to their chest until dinner, when they could then give birth. Bennett and Gabe took on those roles, Bennett’s baby is still intact, and Gabe’s only has a couple punctures…Also, the leaders had the choice of either being an elder or a 2 year old. Mike of course chose being a 2 year old for the challenge and never gave up his role. The Zambian house chased him around the village and entertained him by feeding the goats. He was a mess and dropped everything we gave to him. Erin was an elder. Each house was given a few resources, besides the refugees who were mute and resource-less. The Zambian house was given pots, matches, potatoes, and carrots. The Guatemalan house was given flour, eggs, powdered milk, and control over ALL the drinking water for the village. Other families had rice, onions, salt, pepper, onion, control over the wood, etc. We spent the night bartering for food, trying endlessly to start a fire, and chasing our two year old adults everywhere. It was outrageously hot and sticky and our clothes can NEVER be worn again. After bartering (and Anna being attacked on the trail by the little Thailand house group for the carrot in her pocket), we cooked ourselves, and the pitiful refugee group, a potato, carrot, and rice stew with some salt on top, which was actually not bad! We went to bed with the bugs biting, and our bodies getting stickier. In the Guatemalan house, they enjoyed monopolizing the water to trade for anything and everything they needed. Lots of drama occurred when ‘fake’ refugees stole as much water as they could. Trying to start a fire in their upper-class oven, they complained that the fire took so long to start and smoke invaded their comfy home... Alex regrettably had lent kristian a bandana which in the end could be wrung out with the amount of sweat that saturated it. Lets just say Alex didn’t want it back...In the morning, we were still covered in sweat but continued to do the chores around our village like taking care of the animals, as the urban slums cooked the village breakfast (delicious…. Untasteful…oatmeal…) After the chores were done, we finally got to retreat to the airconiditioning with our belongings and learned a bit about the consumptions of the world. After what felt like 2 months, we finally got to take some showers and now we wait to enjoy our hopefully tasty lunch!