I have a "Disease" from...Butterfly Powder

The first few days at HHH were pretty challenging to say the least. I struggled with the communication approach which was mainly through observation, or at least encouraged. That was probably the main difficulty I had and with cultural differences added to that, the comments / way they were said / criticism all came across as quite harsh at times. I honestly questioned whether I would last two weeks on several occasions as I just wasn't adapting well.

In saying that the tasks at hand were great and rather diverse to say the last. We were given ample discretion as to what we wanted to do outside the main chores and our day ran something like this:

• 06h30 - meet in communal area, have a quick coffee, feed pigs, cut grass for buffalo (with a huge basket on your back using a macheti) and feed her, water garden (which went on for miles using a watering can), start project you working on, clean kitchen and make sure everything is ready for breakfast preparation
• 7h30 - 09h30 - prepare breakfast for the pinans, clean kitchen and have quick coffee
• 09h30 - 11h30 - continue to work on your project including construction of new structures around communal area, gardening, preparing coffee beans / roasting / grinding, chopping wood, crushing sugar cubes, peeling garlic for next meal because that's just how much we used, make walls using clay / earth, preparing seeds to dry and so on...
• 11h30 - 13h30 - prepare lunch the pinans, clean kitchen and have tea
• 13h30 - 16h00 - break
• 16h00 - 17h30 - more or less same as morning routine before breakfast
• 17h30 - 20h00 - prepare dinner for the pinans, clean kitchen and have tea and relax together. 

It was just all out of my comfort zone which is exactly what I wanted...I knew I just had to get on with it and stay in the present moment, work on my being and inner happiness, be in more control of my thoughts because I literally had myself to talk to all day and make the most of the experience. However to add to my already frustrated state of mind I experienced a horrific reaction to butterfly powder and my entire body was so itchy it felt on fire and it looked like I had chicken pox or some disease. I was a miserable sour lemon deprived of sleep because my body was so itchy, I literally scratched my skin until it bled...yes I know not very smart but trust me you have no idea how itchy I was...

Pinan Jim gave me some herbal concoction to spread over my body the next morning after a shower. Within minutes of spreading this onto my body my "diseased skin" felt incredible relief. I also changed huts as I was convinced they were bed bug bites! Pinan Tea, his wife was kind enough to give me a total clean set of bedding and Tiger Balm...the best ointment invented that you place on anything and everything and is available with either a hot after effect or cooling after effect. 

I continued with the daily run and started with cutting buffalo grass with the massive basket on my back, gloves on both hands and macheti. I just laughed at the thought of my friends and family seeing me doing this. Like I have said before  I am more of a city girl and the farm definately had one up but I was ready to fight back ... 

After breakfast I learnt how to crush coffee beans with the mortar, gently but firm and then softly blow the shells away. Once the beans were ready I roasted them over the fire in a wok, continually stirring and every few minutes removing it and blowing the oily layer away. The aroma surrounding the beans was amazing and once they were a dark chocolate colour I took them off the fire to cool down. I then continued to grind the coffee beans in an interesting device that looked nothing like my brother-in-law (coffee fanatic) grinder back home. It was such an interesting process to learn and I really enjoyed it. It also gave me a new appreciation for coffee because it literally was an entire day process... of which the coffee process would have had to be repeated within a couple of days for our large pinan group of- coffee fans.

After my semi productive day and feeling in better spirits I learnt how to make sticky rice from a fellow volunteer which was quite a procedure. It involved rinsing the rice several times after it had been soaked for hours, pouring it into the steamer without any pressure placed on it, waiting for the steam to get through the rice and then adding the lid. Once the rice was cooked I wet a special pointy wooden spoon and a bamboo surfaced placement and broke the rice up gently, rolled it around a bit and felt the energy of the rice. Once enough steam had been lost the rice stuck together even more and then I pushed it all together to make a block, rolled it around to ensure it was compact and dropped it into the rice bucket which kept it warm.

The day had turned around completely and I was feeling so much sweeter by dinner time. To top it off we had a group meditation session after 30 minutes which I was super keen on ad meditation is something I have been practicing and reading up on for some time, although not nearly a pro at it. And who to learn about meditation from than a monk.

Brilliant finish to the first day of having my disease and I was excited beyond words to rest my head in my new clean hut!