#he is a pig who raises chickens. his cousin (?) yogurt's grandma is a fish. his uncle tommy takes him to a gravesite for a cow he loved.

[doodlebloo]

I love seeing different interpretations of Michael_B don't get me wrong but also I truly cannot imagine a world in which that boy is not a vegetarian.

#he is a pig who raises chickens. his cousin (?) yogurt's grandma is a fish. his uncle tommy takes him to a gravesite for a cow he loved. #as soon as that child is old enough to understand where meat comes from i guarantee he swears off of it #(& cbeeduo would of course accomodate him as needed :] they learn vegetarian recipes together) #doodle.txt

[offtosavetheearth]

July 2nd, 2018

An early breakfast this morning at around 7:55am because Sylvia wanted to leave early to pick up our receipts from the doctor. I cough a lot every morning and it is pretty embarrassing to do in such close proximity to others. I had pineapple, eggs, coffee, hot chocolate, and three pieces of toast. I had to guard the toaster when making my food because there were these very pushy and loud French children running around swiping them. They would yell around the hotel at about 7am, waking everyone up. Just another reason I do not want to learn the French language.

We were on the bus at 9 for our trip from Quito to Vicundo, travelling east first to visit the Fausto Falconi’s organic farm. The husband was sick, so his wife gave us a tour. They started organic farming about 15 years ago, initially growing roses. However about 4 years ago they transitioned to organic vegetables. It was first a way to save money, but then they realized the public/personal health, and environmental benefits that come with this practice. Originally they had been exporting roses to 30 countries with 15 hectares of land. But the international exportation business was too much work while maintaining a healthy family to raise their kids into.

The three main factors or organic farming are sun, soil, and sombreros. In industrial farming they only focus on 6 or 7 nutrients in the soil that are artificially produced from chemicals. But in organic farming there are 100 of nutrients and minerals they attend to. This family brings organic soil from the national forest to help their microorganisms ferment, allowing there to be so many nutrients.  Microorganisms are just as important as the minerals in the soil themselves, because they work together to feed the plant. This organic matter is augmented with chicken manure, from organically-fed chickens, no antibiotics, hormones, or steroids. The term is Bocshi, and it is created after 15 days of fermenting with manure, rice flour, and molasses. This is done anaerobically, forcing microorganisms to produce more rapidly. Known as the “heart of the farm”, 70% of irrigation is reduced using this method, because the soil has a much higher ability to absorb and retain water.

“Sombrero” is important because it essentially means the plants need to cover the soil because the sun is too strong. Because of this, they welcome weeds and don’t consider them a nuisance because they are providing coverage. Planting on the contour to prevent erosion, they allow a few cows to graze, making the soil even richer with fertilization. These farmers try to use only organic seeds, but five of their crops cannot produce this way, so they must use commercialized and grow them organically.

Their chickens are fed rice husks with microorganisms, and their feed lots don’t stink because they have a rich broth of yet more microorganism, rapidly-decomposing feces. They have about 2000 chickens, and only use them for their eggs so none our slaughtered. The hardest crops to grow organically are tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers because of pests. Often times they have to apply pesticide 4 to 5 times a week, and they grow in green houses so they can control light, humidity, and temperature.

After our tour was done, we had fresh mora and tree tomato yogurt, and several organic vegetables with farm fresh dipping sauce. It was delicious.

Our next stop was the Vicundo indigenous community, where we were serenaded into their village. This was probably the most precious thing I have ever been a part of. We danced in circles around them well walking to the village for about 15-20 minutes, and Greg even joined in the middle, dancing with one of the older women. I shared a room with Sylvia, and the area was much more rustic than our previous homestay, but the family was just as accommodating, if not more so. We had a delicious lunch with basically an entire fish, potatoes, vegetables, and jugo. There were so many dogs and cats there, of all ages, breed and sizes. This is the life a dog should have, with the mountains as their open backyard. As Greg put it, if dogs run free why can’t we?

The indigenous community grows their own food on their land, with a goal in mind of knowing where their food comes from and staying healthy. With a few women from the community, we harvested white carrots and tomatoes for lunch. Our group didn’t appear to be too good at it, because we broke plants that they have been growing for an entire year with the hoe. After the gardening activity, we walked about 10 minutes to a nearby waterfall. Nearby was a large rock, imprinted with the legend of Chuzalongo. He was basically a sexual predator who lived on a rock, and one day he was chasing a woman and she ran so fast she turned into a hummingbird. This is why there are hummingbirds on the other side of the stream. Walking back we had about 30 minutes before dinner, and I returned to the cabin to charge my phone. To my surprise, this place was not as rustic as made out to be. My phone even got 3G data, and they had lights, plugs, and hot and cold running water. For dinner, we ate up in the hill of our community house, with Autumn, Ashley, Audrey, and Emily as our neighbors. They had a really nice fire going, way better than ours at Cajas, but the smoke was still getting to me.

While boiling beats on the fire-stove, I met some really nice individuals. My homestay mom’s daughters name was Katy, and she was in the 9th grade (the same age as my sister). She was so sweet, and very excited that we were here. She wants to study medicine when she goes to college, and is probably the most self-sufficient, grown-up 15 year old I have ever met. But also really funny, she tricked me into locking her grandma into my room which was HILARIOUS. I sat next to her the majority of the night, and she was really good company to have around. I felt like I had another younger sister. I also met a man who was travelling on foot throughout South America. He had started in Argentina, and either walked or took a bus, meeting people who opened up their homes to him, like the Vicundo. If someone did that in the United States, they would never survive. We are very segregated by class, and treat “homeless” or poor people like they are a disease. I am convinced that the Global south is the better America.

Dinner was soup, rice, and vegetables, and shortly after we went back to the community to learn about their astrology project. The goal is to make a new astrology map of the community that represents their histories, local animals, geography, archeology and myths. Their map has 25 local constellations based on altitude, and some representations were guinea pigs, volcanoes, pyramids, the Northern Cross, and werewolves. Jose, the man who started it in the community with his friend, is going to a national astrology meeting in Argentina soon, to teach other communities that want to do this. Oddly enough, the indigenous tribe we met on the Amazon River has been in contact with the Vicundo, because they want to do this with their community as well. In fact just last week they met up with his cousin to start the process.

Our last activity of the night was star-gazing. I had never seen anything like it in my life. This was my first time seeing any constellations or the Milky Way, and I felt so small. We identified the Northern Cross and the scorpion, and Jose used his powerful star-wars laser to point into the sky. Freaking wild.

I went to bed after about 30 minutes of star-gazing because I was feeling sick again. I wrapped myself up in about 5 blankets, with a double layer of clothes, and slept soundly till about 5am.