The Average Day

Hey Everyone,

So I'm in town for our 2 days off after 7 days of hard work and thought I'd leave an update (there are only 5 computers at the library in town, which is more of a street than a town). Here is a sample of my day:

Wake up at 6am, get out of a frozen sleeping bag in the same clothes I've been wearing for the last week or so.
Put on wet, frozen boots from the day before (thats the worst part!), prepare rain gear, pack lunch and whatnot and venture out into close to zero degree weather to run to the port-o-potties! Grab some oatmeal and kidney beans and canned fruit for breakfast (eat it while shivering under 7 layers) and onto the school bus at 7!

From there its about a one hour ride (bumpiest ride of your life, everyday, sucks if you have to go to the bathroom) to the block (the land we plant on) which is never barren; there is always the leftover from when they cut down the trees, lots of swamp which you fall in, lots of brush, some animals and a treeline at the back which you're planting towards.

When we arrive, its still freezing, and hard to put on wet gloves and prepare to stick numb fingers into the frozen ground. I swear on many times I've thought I had frostbite. Some days its cold all day, and some it warms up to 25 and people are in t-shirts by the end!

We load up trees from a cache at the side of the road and go out and plant for 10 hours! Coming back every now and again to reload trees (its at least 40 pounds in that bag - 3 bags which rest on your hips and have shoulder straps). Lunch breaks are always good when reloading trees.

After the long work day, its another bumpy bus ride back to camp, everyone all dirtied and battered, and straight to dinner! Which, by the way is ALWAYS amazing...they make such good vegan food for us (there's another vegan and a vegetarian here) We barely have time to eat, refill our water, make our lunches (PB and J, everyday...whoooooo!) and get to sleep by 10 (in order to have an 8 hour sleep) but I always try and get some reading and writing in before I sleep.

So there's your average day. I have made a journal over the last two weeks and I'll input some entries and photos here when I have more time. The hardest thing is mentally to push yourself to keep going for that 10 hours, cause it can feel like forever or it can just fly by. Anyways, I'm off to a soccer baseball tournament with our crews and some townsfolk! Haha, catch ya later!