yesterday i spent most of the morning shovelling cow manure by myself in the pasture. surprisingly, it was one of the most enjoyable times i've had since i got here. it was nice to be by myself. i had to get the manure for a composting presentation i was going to give later that day. i shovelled 4 wheelbarrowfulls of manure, and then our gardener didn't show up, so we didn't make the compost pile exactly as planned and therefore didn't end up using any of the manure. oh well.
crystal has taken up horseback riding lessons with "kapitash," the rancher (that's his title, not his name, apparently). i thought about it, but since i have old jesse james himself as my father, i decided to put off riding lessons until i get home.
(taken from upstairs at bina hill)
while i was shovelling manure yesterday, a savannah fire was approaching from the east. it kept getting closer and closer, but we've had some come really close before, and no one ever does anything, so i didn't panic. but then, just as i was finishing shovelling, everyone ran out of the bina hill building to come put out the fire. the wind had pushed it so that it was right by kapitash's house, and was approaching bina hill and our garden. all the boys grabbed buckets and drew water from the well, or broke green branches from the trees and beat the fire. i "helped" a bit too, but the help was reminiscent of how i used to "help" my mom do dishes when i was 5 years old. not too helpful. anyways, the point of this all is that it was really, really exciting, and i realized that i love fires. they draw people together in a neat way, in a way that nothing else can. i mean, i wouldn't like to watch someone's house burn down, but i liked the panic that occured when we thought we might lose our garden. when i was in sucker creek, some of the kids burned down the old band office, and the whole community showed up. some "helped," but most just stood around and watched. when i was in university, and those two fires happened on whyte ave (one at stolli's/the pet store, and one at hub cigar), kids drove from king's in the middle of the night to watch the fires. neat. we are awestruck, fearful, mesmerized by them. at training for this job (at ghost river's camp in the rockies), we were taught that fire is a sacred, male energy that is to be respected. i liked that. it made me more conscious of what i put in the fire as garbage, and how it is a good and powerful energy but that, like i said, it has to be respected. we were worried it might reach the school next door, because the wind was pushing it in that direction, but the rain came just then and put it out. neat-o.
this morning ray had to drive some of the kids to the river so they could take the boat home. crystal and i went for the ride, and it was super neat! i think the river was the rupununi river, and it was about 15 minutes away from here. it was beautiful! there were a few motorboats, and about a dozen hollowed-out wooden canoes lying around. ray told me to get into a small wooden canoe, and he paddled us across a little stretch of water using only his hands so that i could take a picture from the other side. it was so great! i will put pictures up on my flickr site soon. ray said he will take me and crystal up the river sometime, maybe next sunday. starting next friday, we are taking a week off (as if we actually did work otherwise), so we are going to drive around with ray and visit all the villages. free tourism! anyways... i collected a few dried fish scales, because when i worked at the museum this summer, we made fish scale art with whitefish scales. the scales i found here were 4-5 times bigger than those ones. then debbie (one of my YLP youth) found me an arapaima fish scale. it was huge! the arapaima is the largest freshwater fish in the world. the scale was about the size of my palm! sick!
i think later today crystal and i are going to go with ray to surama and fairview, two villages up north a little, near the essiquibo river, i think. he has to drop off some more kids. should be neat. i will take pictures, and hopefully pick up some oranges.
crystal has taken up horseback riding lessons with "kapitash," the rancher (that's his title, not his name, apparently). i thought about it, but since i have old jesse james himself as my father, i decided to put off riding lessons until i get home.
(taken from upstairs at bina hill)while i was shovelling manure yesterday, a savannah fire was approaching from the east. it kept getting closer and closer, but we've had some come really close before, and no one ever does anything, so i didn't panic. but then, just as i was finishing shovelling, everyone ran out of the bina hill building to come put out the fire. the wind had pushed it so that it was right by kapitash's house, and was approaching bina hill and our garden. all the boys grabbed buckets and drew water from the well, or broke green branches from the trees and beat the fire. i "helped" a bit too, but the help was reminiscent of how i used to "help" my mom do dishes when i was 5 years old. not too helpful. anyways, the point of this all is that it was really, really exciting, and i realized that i love fires. they draw people together in a neat way, in a way that nothing else can. i mean, i wouldn't like to watch someone's house burn down, but i liked the panic that occured when we thought we might lose our garden. when i was in sucker creek, some of the kids burned down the old band office, and the whole community showed up. some "helped," but most just stood around and watched. when i was in university, and those two fires happened on whyte ave (one at stolli's/the pet store, and one at hub cigar), kids drove from king's in the middle of the night to watch the fires. neat. we are awestruck, fearful, mesmerized by them. at training for this job (at ghost river's camp in the rockies), we were taught that fire is a sacred, male energy that is to be respected. i liked that. it made me more conscious of what i put in the fire as garbage, and how it is a good and powerful energy but that, like i said, it has to be respected. we were worried it might reach the school next door, because the wind was pushing it in that direction, but the rain came just then and put it out. neat-o.
this morning ray had to drive some of the kids to the river so they could take the boat home. crystal and i went for the ride, and it was super neat! i think the river was the rupununi river, and it was about 15 minutes away from here. it was beautiful! there were a few motorboats, and about a dozen hollowed-out wooden canoes lying around. ray told me to get into a small wooden canoe, and he paddled us across a little stretch of water using only his hands so that i could take a picture from the other side. it was so great! i will put pictures up on my flickr site soon. ray said he will take me and crystal up the river sometime, maybe next sunday. starting next friday, we are taking a week off (as if we actually did work otherwise), so we are going to drive around with ray and visit all the villages. free tourism! anyways... i collected a few dried fish scales, because when i worked at the museum this summer, we made fish scale art with whitefish scales. the scales i found here were 4-5 times bigger than those ones. then debbie (one of my YLP youth) found me an arapaima fish scale. it was huge! the arapaima is the largest freshwater fish in the world. the scale was about the size of my palm! sick!
i think later today crystal and i are going to go with ray to surama and fairview, two villages up north a little, near the essiquibo river, i think. he has to drop off some more kids. should be neat. i will take pictures, and hopefully pick up some oranges.
3 comments:
are the oranges as good there as they are here? Mmmm so good!
ha. they're pretty delish, but i think orange season is ending soon. i've started liking bananas, too, but only if they are slightly underripe. our cook makes lime juice from the limes that grow on our compound, and it is so good! it's especially good because she makes it for lunch, which is the only meal we have ice for.
Caylie,
SO, I'm secretly in love your with your blog. I love the way you write. I like hearing about your adventures.
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