Daily Doses of Pig Shit Water

March 7 - March 21

We arrived at Clement Doyers in the hot sun and were welcomed into the bright teal colored house for bananas and tea. At this farm is where we met some of the most amazing friends and beautiful souls during our travels. A written description wouldn't do them justice so I'll get on to the farming part. The numbers of us fluctuated from time to time but for the core time that Dylan and I were there, we worked together with five other people. our schedule went a little something like this...

6:45 wake up
7:00 start cutting vegetable
7:30 eat breakfast
8:00 leave the house to start work ( must have water bottle and bananas for snack). Morning work was one of the following: smash/ hack compost, bag compost, carry bags of compost, find hose for the pig shit water (literally pumped from a pond behind the pig stye where the pig shit was rinsed into everyday, excellent fertilizer, terribly awful smell), fix hose for the pig shit water, weed the rubber trees, bag straw, carry bags of straw.
10:00 morning break of pig shit jokes and bananas
10:15 back to work. everyone coming together to lay down the compost around each rubber tree, water it with PSW, and cover it with straw.
12:00 break for lunch cooked by Assimi, the sister in law of the farm owner. Assimi and her family were all members of the Lisu tribe.
After Lunch Siesta until 3
3:00 back to work to finish composting the rubber trees
5:00 done with work for the day, return to the house for long awaited cold showers
5:45 start cutting vegetable for dinner
7:00 dinner cooked by Assimi
rest of the night free time usually spent playing card games, watching movies, experimenting with recipes for banana beer, or baking hodge-podge cakes. One night was spent at a traditional Lisu birthday ceremony.

This was Mon - Sat. Sunday we had the day to ourselves and on Friday mornings the work day was cut short because Clement would pile us into the pick-up and take us to a Chinese market near the Burmese border to treat us to chinese noodles and give us time to snoop around the market. 


The routine became home and our working companions became our family.