Hello and welcome to my first blog post from Argentina!
First I have to start by saying that there is no way to capture exactly what I am experiencing here. It is such a special and magical place, and although I promise to try to do it justice in writing, I think that to truly understand you would have to visit it yourself.
I flew out on January 29th to New York, then overnight to Buenos Aires, arriving on the 30th. I met up with two of the other interns, Aubrey and Ariel, to explore the city a bit and figure out bus tickets. On the 31st we took an overnight bus and arrived in Obera, where we were met by two other interns, Ashley and Karolina, and picked up by Marcelo who, along with Kim, runs Mama Roja.
Our first week has been a mix of getting settled and acquainted with our home for the next few months, touring the farm and learning about the sustainability practices in place, doing some workshops, and beginning our earthen building project. Suffice to say that within a day of being at Mama Roja my mind was already blown by the amazing work that they’re doing, and on top of that how incredibly simple and relatively easy it is to choose significantly more sustainable practices in our own lives. I’m bursting with ideas to bring home to Mama and Papa Wever, and am looking forward to sharing details of everything that I’m learning by creating my own workshops when I get home.
Mama Roja is a beautiful 78 acre property in the sub-tropical jungle, in the Argentine province of Misiones, located in Argentina’s northeastern corner. It is basically 100% sustainable- the only electricity on the farm is supplied by solar panels and stored in a battery, and the vast majority of work is accomplished by hand, without gasoline or other sources of power. Food that isn’t grown on the farm is supplied through local, organic sources, and Kimberly and Marcelo make most of their own supplies- yogurt, kefir, bread, balms, tea, wine, medicines, etc. To try and describe the farm in full would just fall miserably short...but if you want to imagine what it’s like, it is a meeting of the best things of the things I’ve loved best in my life. It is the rugged ridiculousness and amazing people of tree planting meets the sustainability and gardening of my parents’ house meets the peace and spiritual growth of Acorus meets the community and growth experiences of Guelph, while traveling and living in another country. If I were to describe it further, I would ask you to imagine the Jungle Book, minus Mowgli and there's no tigers or giant snakes...or bears that sing...actually, it's nothing like the Jungle Book. You're just going to have to rely on the photos for now while I work on my literary imagery.
Perhaps for now I’ll leave this blog post shorter than normal, and try to give an introduction through photos to Mama Roja. I’ll try to be intentional in my photo-taking this week, to capture and share specific parts of the farm with all of you. To give a short list of some of the topics we’ve covered this week, I’ve learned all about: effective micro-organisms and kombucha (more info to come, but look them up for now- they’re amazing!), bread-making (nailed that one- thanks Mom!), the Humanure system- how to safely and effectively recycle human waste, homemade yogurt and kefir, and the beginning of earthen building. Every day we bathe in the river, which is a blissful escape from the heat of the afternoon (yesterday topped out at 41 degrees C!) and take a siesta to read, talk, explore the Mama Roja library, and relax in the hammocks. During the morning and afternoon work sessions we learn about different sustainability topics and work around the farm on various projects.
I’ll have more information to come soon, but please know that I am happy, excited, healthy (probably now more than ever!), surrounded by beautiful people, and learning new things every day!
Oh, and a quick explanation of the title: there are a billion spiders here, and we’ve been informed that March is actually the big spider month so there’s more to come. So there’s crazy spiders everywhere, including some poisonous ones...and at night, when I walk back to my tent to sleep, hundreds of their little eyes reflect back at me from the grasses, bushes and trees. It’s simultaneously beautiful and creepy. Welcome to life in the sub-tropics!
The Mama Roja Yoga Shala- perfect for morning yoga or afternoon naps
Our outdoor toilet, complete with composting toilets to be dumped into the Humanure system- more on this later!
The gate that welcomes visitors to the farm.
Cool bottles decorating an earthen wall and letting in light.
She's adorable, she's hilarious, and she loves to play stick- she's Lulu!
A wall of flowers welcomes you to the garden.
Twilight in the jungle, the mighty jungle
One of the bajillion spiders that share Mama Roja with us
When the temperatures get too high, sometimes you need to run to the river. Left to right is me, Ariel (from California), Karolina (from Poland), Ashley (from Massachusetts), and Aubrey (from Ohio).
Monkey (she's a kitten that resembles a gibbon) still likes to snuggle in the heat.
On our walk to the river we encountered the biggest bull I have ever seen.
The interns hard at work, mixin' the mud to start our earthen building. Rambo and Lulu look on.
Kimberly and Marcelo working on a window. The other girl in the photo is clearly a brick model.
A beautiful river makes the heat OK.
It looks like you're having a wonderful time, my dear Cassie. Your pictures are gorgeous and I'm so happy that you seem to be in a space that is so perfect for you. Your smile is warming my heart even though you're so far away. <3<3<3
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