More Visitors! And they're teenagers!

                               Ky and Cooper after their first sample of pure sugar cane juice





We are blogging a bit irregularly now and if you want to receive an email notice when there is a new posting let us know and we will start sending an email out.
We haven't blogged in a while and this blog is an attempt at re-igniting the habit.  We have three guests here at the moment.  Lara, who got a grant from her college to do an internship here, Cooper who was invited here by us to do a volunteer stay over the summer and Ky who was invited by Cooper as a fellow volunteer and companion.

Lara has been here a month now (Wow ,time is flying) Cooper and Ky are in the second half of their month long stay.

Jim and I are preparing to take a vacation and leave the farm and all it's operations to our volunteers.

Actually, that is not true.  Cooper and Ky who are 16 years old now along with Jim have been doing a sort of sarcastic/joking thing - they say things that sound serious but don't mean it. I am learning how that works and it is starting to seep out through my lips, too - like just now.  Living with two teeanage boys has been an outrageous, challenging, and rewarding experience for us.  They have been busy every day with projects ranging from digging drainage ditches, to cutting sugar cane and making sugar, to walking an hour to the nearby village to do some work on another farm in trade for a rafting trip. Ky is working on a video of his stay and the farm, Cooper and Lara have been journaling and we have been taking pictures so there is a good record of what is happening.  But the personal development, with all its internal negotiating and re-adjusting, is the really juicy part.

Lara has given us a gift of taking over the garden operation and we are eating well from her greens.  She has a fabulous report she made for her college which maybe we can post to share the multitude of things she is experiencing here.

It is now 7:30 AM. Ky is having breakfast and writing something and Cooper is outside sharpening his new machette.  They are now making all their own decisions about what to do, and when to wake up and get moving. They've organized a trade with Willy and will leave soon to work on his farm for the day.

                                      Ky learning the proper technique for holding a pickaxe