domingo

so last sunday, i went to granada to meet up with a friend of a friend. mi amiga hana has wwoofed and couch surfed in spain as well and has some contacts here to whom she connected me. one of them was jessica, a belgian woman who lives in a beautiful granada neighborhood with her german flatmate johanna. jessica's mother is american, so she speaks fluent english. i speak a little german, even less french, and i'm getting better at spanish. johanna speaks fluent german and spanish, and is pretty good at english, too. and jessica also speaks fluent spanish. so there we were sitting in their living room alternating between 4 different languages simultaneously. it was hilarious! 

after breakfast, jessica walked me around her neighborhood called El Albayzín, which houses the mirador de San Nicolas. this is a beautiful sight-seeing spot that overlooks much of granada city and the historical Alhambra. kettia and i plan to return to the city so that we can tour the Alhambra, among other things. i might go see a flamenco performance on my own, though, before she gets here (in may). 

so anyway, we also visited the city center and a tiny street with a buncha moroccan merchants. came back to the apartment and fixed a delicious lunch, then got some gelato (yes, i am allergic to dairy. yes, i paid for it the next day. yes, it was worth it.) as i walked to the bus to return to the farm. little did i know, things would be downhill from there, which i discuss in the next post. but first, enjoy these beautiful photographs: 

view of the Alhambra from the mirador de San Nicolas

years ago, granada was a much smaller city, and this used to be where the door to the city opened.

it says something about the fountain being glad that it's here because it can touch the lips of passers by. #romanticreepy

these houses are caves. if you look closely, you can see that there is a front part with a roof that fades back into the hill. the part under the hill is several feet of a cave house!

a little morocco in granada

the enormous cathedral de granada!

fast food nation take-over

back track

disclaimer: the following story includes my opinions based on the lens through which i experienced my time on the farm. i recognize that "fact" in the legal sense may not apply to this post, as there are many sides to every story. 

right, so much has happened in the last two weeks. i realized that my last post was less an update and more...well, logistics. so here's what happened 2 weeks ago:

lizzie taught a 2-day eco-building course on the farm, and other volunteers and i helped cook and prepare materials for it. we also participated in the course a bit, which was an added bonus.

here're a couple photos:

4 people attended the course, and i was happy to find that a woman (louise) had helped organize it. of course, it's rare to find women in construction, and here i am with 4 of them: lizzie, her wife charissa, volunteer kirsten, and louise. the other three participants were men, who i gathered are working with louise to build an eco-community in southern spain. louise, her mother, and son have been traveling and researching opportunities to do this for a few years. they've settled in spain, so this course was a perfect connection...for them at least...

the race nonsense
now, i'm living on this farm in spain with all these white people. in the back of my mind, i knew from the get that some offensive shit was gonna occur at some point. apparently, this course was the time for it:
i realized early on  that one of the participants, michael, was german. so i eagerly began a german conversation with him. after a couple of interactions, he began to make reference to my being black. the first one was when me and one of the other (white) guys on the course were standing next to each other listening to lizzie give instruction. after that, the group began to disperse, and here comes michael, talkin' 'bout "oh, i should take a picture of you two; it would be black and white". the other dude just walked away, and mike stood there looking at me with that what? did i say something wrong? expression. i did the awkward "oh. ha ha ha. i get it." and he eventually asked, "was that racist?" i appreciated the question, as i thought he genuinely wanted to know. i told him i wouldn't call it racist, outright. i would instead call it awkward and unnecessary, to which he responded, "oh ok. well i like to push the envelope." and right there, i thought oh shit, here we go.
fast forward to lunch (photographed above), and the first thing out of his mouth as we sit down: "so what about your brother, obama?" to which, watch your mouth, white man automatically popped into my head. it disoriented me a bit; i mean, obama and i share a racial background and accordingly i feel some solidarity with him, especially talking to this envelope-pushing white dude. then again, that man is not my brother and i disagree with much of his and his administration's politics. so, neutrally, i ask "what about him?", and michael says something along the lines of "great, he's in his second term, butchering the presidency" or something like this. so here, he has made an association between me and obama, then made a criticism. i was caught off guard, so i paused for a bit, and the interaction was interrupted by lizzie asking me if i'd left my jacket near the recycling. it took us a few seconds to figure that out, and i gladly avoided any continuation of that obama bullshit. subsequently, i also avoided any conversation with michael, auf deutsch oder nicht.
but unfortunately, a raisin in the sun cannot escape its rays. that evening, we all met up at a local pension. just minutes after i sat down at the opposite end of the table, michael starts the nonsense again: "so i lived in the united states for 10 months, on the bible belt. erin, do you know this, the bible belt? i was surrounded by black people." he looked at me, and everyone else avoided eye contact with anyone. "ok, i live here in spain and i'm surrounded by white people. what's your point?" "well it was fucking weird, is what it was", he blurted out. then he went on about how the (black) baptists on the bible belt are walking contradictions, how they're some of the most prude people he's ever met, but behind closed doors they do dirty things. and how americans are scandalized by "tits" on television, but exploit sex in every arena. he contrasted it with germany, asserting that everything is just as it seems there and people don't sugar coat, and there are "tits" on the tv. just ranting on his soap box, because he's developed this hatred for america, fueled by his inability to re-enter the country a few years ago because he had an unacceptable passport. i rebutted with something about how all belief systems are rancid with contradictions and this has nothing to do with america, germany, or black people. i reminded him that he chose to go there, so if he had a problem with it he should've left the area -- which with all that equipment in his convertible car (i will get to this later), he should have had no problem doing. at this point, louise took over and started criticizing him for being so judgemental and lizzie got up and left the pension.
the conversation evolved into something more palatable and again, i avoided his attention.

the other nonsense
so it also became clear to me that this michael guy liked me as well. for one, i caught him peeping into my caravan when he thought i wasn't around. wtf?!
for two, he was constantly striking up conversations with me about random shit, like asking me why my name is spelled the way it is, if it is common, it's origin, and "how do you pronounce it again?"...multiple times. he made a point to explain to me how convertible his car is and how many places he's driven it to.
i thought i was trippin', but kirsten mentioned that she'd noticed him singling me out as well.

by the last day of the course, i was waiting for him to say something out of the way. i had all possible sassy, consciousness-raising remarks queued up on the tip of my tongue. but after he asked me how to pronounce my name once again and i ignored him, he left me alone.
i thought about pulling him aside and explaining that his behavior was inappropriate and offensive. but i just didn't feel like being that black woman, explaining to the white man that he is offensive. it just shouldn't be my job. he can raise his own damn consciousness!

so anyway, the course ended and everyone left. michael stood there next to my caravan as i hugged the other participants goodbye. i ignored him once again and he walked off.
it was great to meet louise, though. she's sweet, funny, and knowledgeable. she lives about an hour away from lizzie, and i hope to visit her before i leave spain.

over lunch we discussed the shamanic practice of taking ayahuasca for spiritual clarity. from what i understand this is an ancient peruvian practice, and three people on the course had done it before. they said it was a great experience for them, because at the time they had made the diet restrictions suggested prior to its use and they were mostly at personal peace when they participated. however, for someone who has physical or emotional toxins in their body, it can be a nightmare. this substance is illegal in the states, but legal in peru. 
it's interesting how peru keeps coming up here, what with the llamas and now with this spiritual practice. 
now, don't worry, i've done some research on this substance, and i was intrigued at first, but the horror stories successfully scared me off. apparently some tourists went to peru to try this and got caught up with some fake shamans who overdosed them and raped one of them. so hell no! my spanish and familiarity with the culture is just not good enough for me to successfully navigate this. 

so that was most of 2 weeks ago. thanks for reading. another update from last week's escapades coming right up!

logística

ok, so i've been getting a lot of questions about what my days are like, where i am exactly, when i'm free, etc. so here are some deets about my life right now:

localización:
i am living on a farm called cortijo del zapatero, located in the province of granada. this is one of many provinces in the autonomous community of andalusia. granada is also the name of a spanish city, but i am about 2 hours away from there. to be honest, i don't think the farm itself is in a proper town. the mail does not come to the farm, directly, but instead to a box in the nearby town, torvizcon.
the farm is located between to small towns: torvizcon (a 10 minute drive and 30 minute walk away, smaller town) and orgiva (20 minute drive away, larger town).

la vida:
i am volunteering on the farm for 30 hours a week. currently, i either work 5 days a week, 6 hours a day or 6 days a week, 5 hours a day -- depending on what works best for me, lizzie, and the other volunteers. for my work, i am given 3 meals per day, a room and other necessary accommodation (internet, towels, a ride to the doctor, etc.).
each day, i work for 3 hours, have a tea break (ah the british and their tea), go back to work for 3 hours, eat lunch, and i'm done. dinner is around 8pm.
every day it's something different: new project, old project, our farm, someone else's place, lifting, weeding, sorting, building, cooking, anything! i've found that i'm great at cooking and can be very creative, so i get to do that twice per week. i'm learning a lot about seasonal planting and growing as well as eco-building. and i'm in the sol sol sol! i'm working spanish conversation into my routine at least 1 day per week. from other WWOOFers to friends of lizzie, i'm meeting new people and exchanging ideas and concepts with them regularly about anything from race and access to higher education to the benefits of llama shit. it's shocking, hilarious, and affirming.

so i'm coming from a 40-hour week, 9ish-5ish office/desk job, in which there is minimal if any variety in tasks per day. in my most honest opinion, this lifestyle is some bullshit. i can't do this type of job and also feed my inner artist, yogi, and scholar. instead, i spend my most productive hours doing the same thing every day, in the same place, and all i want to do after is anything mindless: sleep, watch tv, watch facebook, or sleep. this reality has been clear to me for some time now, though i haven't quite discovered what might be an alternative. that is until about 6 days ago as i was helping lizzie separate kindling wood (twigs, small branches, leaves) from larger burning wood (logs, branches) that she had gathered tons of by pruning olive trees (popular around here) on a client's property. i realized that i need to move my body, instead of sit in a chair; i need to have something different to do every day; i need to learn new concepts and explore the creative ideas of my own and my colleagues; i also need tasks that involve skills in which i am apt and confident; i need warm colors, preferably sunlight; i need freedom to set my own pace and supervision which trusts in my commitment to complete a task after a necessary break; i need to feel valued through communication and compensation. and guess what! i have all of this at cortijo del zapatero.

hit me up:
so lately, i've been off every sunday and thursday.
spain is 5 hours ahead of eastern standard time in the us.

thursdays
i access the internet around 1 or 2pm spain time (11am est, 10am cst). i'm there until around 4 or 5pm spain time. hit me up on google hangouts or via text then, if you want.

sundays
i use internet in the afternoon until about 6 or 7pm, spain time. this is usually late morning to afternoon in the states, depending on what time zone you're in.
otherwise, after working monday - wednesday and friday - saturday, i just hang out in my room or with other volunteers. i can text during those times.
it might be choppy cuz i'm liable to be reading, writing, or socializing. but hit me up anyway.

semana pasada

ok so this week, lizzie and i began building a wall around the outdoor bath. she lent me a book called building with straw bales: a practical guide for the uk and ireland, with a book mark in the chapter about non-concrete foundations. apparently, based on what i've read so far, using natural materials like straw and lime-crete are better than concrete because they allow moisture in and out of the building. concrete does not, and moisture is inevitable from the ground or rain. if the moisture gets in through the roof, floor, window structures, etc. but cannot get out through the concrete, it will destroy the concrete or plaster, and thus the house. for more information from the actual experts, see the book. anyway, from there we began the foundation. here are some photos:

(photo by lizzie wynn: http://www.lizziewynn.co.uk/)

i also met lizzie's parents this week; we all shared lunch and tea. lizzie's father is hilarious and her mother loves telling stories about her life. it's interesting to be around them, as they seem very different. i found during one of our many conversations about the english language that some believe north american english is what the british spoke around the time when they colonized what is now the us. according to this theory, today's british english is what has evolved and been "destorted"; american english may be closer to the "pure" english so often associated with british english in the us. hm...
i've been trying to insert some ebonics history and what i gathered about creole from kettia in these conversations. but according to lizzie's canadian spouse, charissa, neither of these made it up to any black canadians she's encountered. i was shocked by this, since detroit is so close to canada and the french  colonized canada. then again, the french also colonized detroit, and i didn't hear a lick of creole growing up there. also, charissa grew up on a farm far away from the canadian border near detroit. so maybe there is some ebonics in canada that she just hasn't heard. maybe i'll research this in the coming weeks...

the other night, we also watched garbage warrior, which blew my mind. much of lizzie's building is inspired by this architect's eco-building method. and now, i wanna travel to new mexico and meet him. the documentary is about an off-the-grid subdivision that he built with a community of volunteer builders and architects. the community is completely self sufficient and eco-based, complete with independent heating, food/plant, and water systems. they eventually went across the world to address natural disasters by using their building methods. their buildings are called earth ships. in the film there is some controversy because, of course, the us government doesn't wanna allow anything explicitly associated with addressing climate change, especially during the bush administration, which denied the phenomenon altogether. anyway, check it out, if you haven't already.

here are more photos of torvizcon, where i visit often for yoga and to use the internet:

a little touristy info about the granada province:

me on the way to torvizcon

stay tuned for more updates. a lot happens, too much for me to make these posts more interesting to read. they'll get better, though. lol. 

ciao.

Trabajo

8 marzo, 2014

a’ight folks, this is the last of my daily posts for a while. from now on it’ll be a week or so between updates. i’m still available via text if you’re having withdrawals. =)

so today was my first day of work, and there was no spanish and no gardening. and no bee keeping. the latter i’m not too worried about; it wasn’t an essential. but you know i’m disappointed about the spanish! of course, it’s one of my primary reasons for being here. because the people living on the actual farm speak fluent english, and 1 of the only 2 who speak fluent spanish (lizzie’s son) does not want to speak it at home, it’s not happening the way i’d planned. and -- although it was hard to reach any farms as far in advance as i needed to (6 months) in order to arrange this trip, and lizzie was the most responsive person i’d contacted -- i probably could have planned a bit better. i could have given lizzie a maybe until i reached a more spanish-speaking farm. and if i’m being completely honest with myself, i must admit i was anxious about going to a farm where no one spoke english. but now that i’ve spent a day and a half in madrid and granada (before i got to the farm) where i ran into only one english speaker, i’m realizing that it would not have been that bad.

but, i have asked lizzie to begin communicating with me in spanish only in the coming weeks. meanwhile, we are looking into other immersion opportunities in the nearby villages (orgiva and torvizcon). i will probably link up with a spanish partner who wants to learn english too. and lizzie and her partner have hella spanish language learning materials. we’ll see...
…otherwise, my intonation is already somewhat british. funny.

as for the gardening, well, i’m less concerned about that. the activities will vary so i'm sure some gardening will happen soon. and today, i learned some valuable stuff about eco-building:

yes, it is entirely possible to build almost an entire house out of reused materials. lizzie is about finished doing so. and today i helped. she needed a large tube through which to run some electric cables across the ceiling of a hallway and a bedroom. she found that this kind of tube would cost over forty euros at the store. deciding that she could make her own damn tube, she repurposed about fifteen plastic flower pots that were sitting around for months in her homemade shed. i sawed the bottom off of each pot and duct-taped the openings together to create the long plastic tube. and that was it.

we installed the tube in the ceiling and lizzie used pillows and lawn chair cushions she found in a nearby dump to insulate the ceiling. now, some space is cleared in the shed, there’s a tube for electric wiring, i know how to use a saw, and my biceps and triceps are that much stronger for it. done!

(photos by lizzie wynn: http://www.lizziewynn.co.uk/)

now back to that nearby dump: lizzie and family find much of their materials in dumps and other areas around the nearby towns. they have a trailer, which they attach to their car and drive around gathering useful materials with which to build and add to the house. today, i also cleaned out the trailer and organized some of these items: pillows, large plastic tarps, tiles, bricks, crates, metal mesh, large slabs of wood, cans, wheels, bottles. usually they sit out in the sun for a few days so it can kill off any organisms left over. the sun shines bright here and the air is very dry, so it works out. just counting today, the pillows and crates have already been handy. but as you may have seen on the farm blog i emailed, lizzie uses bottles for decorative windows in the house where light needs to get in for heat or energy, but not to see anything that’s going on in the house. this is much like the arrangements of stained glass you'd find at church. creative.

anyway, all that took about 4 or 5 hours, and then we were done for the day (lizzie spent much of the day hand mixing plaster and using it to close the walls in the house).

that was a lot i know, but here’s the end.

ciao.

Aquí

7 Marzo, 2014

today, i made it to the farm. it’s in the mountains and it’s beautiful. as with most landscape, the wonder is difficult to capture with a camera phone, but find some attempts below.

the owner lizzie and her son are british, but her partner is canadian. the other volunteers are a family of four: husband, wife, daughter, son. also british. lizzie and her son speak fluent spanish, and no one i’ve come across so far in the nearby towns speaks english. lizzie has a spanish language program online i’m going to do on days when i don’t have energy to go and speak to natives. she also teaches yoga down the street, so you know i’m all over that.

the pictures you see on the blog that lizzie has are of the hostel she and her partner own in the nearby city: torvizcon.

they have built a similar house and another wooden house on the farm where i’m staying, but lizzie and family live in the former and the other volunteers (also a family) live in the latter. right now, i’m living in a caravan next door to the other volunteers. i will move into the volunteer house once the family is gone in april.

the weather is mild. around 75 during the day; around 50 at night.

and omg, the stars are so clear at night i feel like i could reach out and touch them.

the volunteer couple is nice: kirsten and jason. kirsten is chatty and motherly, very good in the garden; jason is chill and handy, likes to build things. both are silly and make up alternative lyrics to songs with their children, who are home schooled. the children are also silly and chatty and cute. kirsten is a professor on a one-year sabbatical and i don’t know what jason does.

lizzie is funny and talkative too. she’s built so much of this land, it blows my mind. three houses, almost completely solar powered. she has a permaculture system with water, composted food, animal waste, and other materials that is completely self reliant. she even uses old bottles, cans, and plastic to build and insulate the houses.

on the farm, there are chickens, llamas (hence my background photo. llamas are native to peru, but they are also on this farm. so i'll be pretty familiar with them by the time i return to the states), dogs, cats, almonds, grapes (yes, they make wine, but wine season has passed), asparagus, cabbage, artichokes, lima beans, mint, and the list goes on and on. of course she’s had volunteers along the way (like me) to help build it all, but she started the project, participated in it, and has kept it going. i’m impressed, overwhelmed, excited to learn.

today, i tried not to nap, but couldn't help it. i slept for 2 hours between 1 and 3pm. but that’s not bad, right? i think i’ll be able to get to sleep tonight.

wish me luck.

my room/caravan

kitchen area

bathroom area

compost toilet

garden area

pool

outdoor bath, water heated by lighting a fire below

storage room, steps made of tires

pollos! i fed them yesterday...

llamas!

lizzie's house, she started building from scratch 7 years ago.

entrance to the farm

surrounding mountains

city of torvizcon, where i walked for 30 minutes to use the internet and make these posts...

OMW

"why then the world's mine oyster,
which I with sword will open."
-william shakespeare


6 Marzo, 2014

wow. i’m here. i can’t believe i finally made it out of the us. i’ve been trying to get out of there ever since i got back from vienna. and now the time has come.

i’m feeling sick. i have a head cold, which has so far required halls and whatever that lady at the pharmacy gave me for two tablets every 8 hours. oh and lot’s of tissue. i’ve got the nose dripping thing, which is really convenient for travel.

otherwise, this journey has been pretty swell so far. besides the irregular sleep and regular nose blowing, of course. ended up in 1st class for 2 of my 3 flights (thanks treece!).

flew out from detroit around 6:30am, got to miami around noon (it usually doesn't take that long, but i had some unexpected itinerary changes).

when i got to miami, i had a few hours layover, so i took the bus to what was about to be the beach. but my conscience was like “erin! get your ass over to cvs and get some sunscreen and snacks. i know you wanna be able to say you went to miami beach, but you got like 1.5hrs to eat, run errands, and get back on that bus to the aeropuerte”. so that’s what i did. i got to the miami beach hood, but the actual beach will have to wait ‘til the return trip. smashed some savory fried plantains, though from a little bakery and convenience store. mmm.

fast forward a couple hours, and i’m sitting on the plane in an recliner discussing the horrors of tenured academia and the benefits of bilingualism with the director of a business college in one of florida’s universities (i think he would appreciate me keeping his identity and the school confidential). all this over baked fish, greek salad, and red wine. (actually he had all the wine; i was on that get-well-soon water diet. and when i say all the wine, i’m only slightly exaggerating; my dude was lubricated and venting.) but it was fruitful indeed, especially since i’m still considering a career in academia. was glad to meet ‘im.

after that, i watched baggage claim on my complimentary tablet and then passed the eff out with my complimentary extra large, extra soft pillow and blanket, socks, and ear plugs. damn. spoiled!

arriving in madrid was funny. i didn’t remember what my bag looked like cuz aunt gg had just bought it and i didn't think to study its aesthetics. so i watched what i thought was not my bag go ‘round and ‘round until the whole machine stopped. i even checked with an aa agent to make sure there was no more luggage. #sleepdeprived

finally, with the assistance of a kind, mathematics student on the train, i made it to the madrid bus station where no one spoke english. boy did all those conversations last twice as long as they should’ve. i clung to that phrase that my spanish teacher would repeat while staring at me in contempt every time i forgot, which was often: voy a! i remembered it this time though: voy a granada. it worked out eventually.

after i got that ticket, i had another 4 hours to kill, so i went to a local restaurant and spent 15 minutes trying to order some tapas. after eating, i spent another 15 explaining to the pharmacist that i need cold medicine and the nearest atm pronto.

took a nap at a little park near the city train, then i was on my way to granada.

now, i’m here, but i missed the last bus to the farm for the day. so i’m staying in this cold ass motel for the night. the shower was nice, though. i think i stood in there a good 30 minutes.

off to sleep, though my body’s clock reads 5:45pm. #jetlag

buenas noches.

a park in madrid

just before a nap at the park, waiting for my bus to granada

tapas

more tapas

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