Life at the Chacra

I´ve slowly started to get into the routine of daily life on an Argentine permaculture farm. It´s a pretty tranquil, relax pace by Argentine standards, which is almost in reverse compared to our rat-race. That said, it takes some getting used to all the same. I guess I expected that my days at the farm would be really long and pretty hard, but neither has really been the case. The daily routine around here goes something like this:

• Around 8ish, we wake to the sound of drums, or Argentine accordion (can´t remember the correct name) or sax, or some cheery combo of these.



• Wander into the main building for some delicious breakfast usually consisting of homemade cereal (warm granola-y, cornflake and honey goodness), fresh local fruit, homemade bread and jams, mentha tea or of course, mate (pronounced mat-eh).

• Wander out to sit in the sun in front of the main building with a belly full of breakfast and a mate in hand.


• Sometime later in the morning (say, 1oish?), head up to the natural building site to work on the materials in prep for an upcoming natural construction workshop. Clay is mixed in pools, then added to straw and sand in a mixer. What comes out is a clay plaster used either to make the bricks (drier mix) or the binding plaster (wetter mix). There are also huge logs to de-bark with machettes (yup, the huge jungle knifes) and feedbags of rocks to fill to form part of the foundation for the clay bricks and plaster.


• Around 11 in the morning is the first mate break of the day. I love it- we barely get working and the food bell rings. We feast on any variety of popcorn dulce (sweet) or sale (salty), fresh bread and jams, fruit, flavoured peanuts, banana cake balls rolled in coconut, and of course a compliment of mate, menthe tea and glacier water :)


• Slowly start working again until the "a comer (come eat!)" bell rings sometime around 1:30. We feast again and then it´s siesta time until about 5pm. Naps, journal writing or project-making are popular.


• In the rough neighbourhood of 5pm, we get back to work for a few hours. The mate break bell rings around 7pm, more snacking takes place, then we work for about another hour and spend the remaining hour cleaning up (tools and ourselves) before cena (supper). I would attempt to describe the incredible meals we are presented with at supper, but I can´t do it justice. And I would have taken some photos, but I was too busy gorging on all the superb food. If anyone ever tells you vegeterian eating can´t taste good, send them to CIDEP so Erika, Daniel and the groupe cucina (cooking team) can prove them wrong!


• By 10:30pm, supper is finished and the partying starts well into the early morning. Long days, but definitely fun!

Needless to say, it´s a pretty awesome lifestyle. That´s not to say that work isn´t hard (slugging rocks in the high-day sun) and back-breaking (hand mixing a knee-deep pool of clay and water for hours upon hours, day after day), but it´s all done at a reasonable, sustainable pace and lots of progress is the result. Sustainability is the name of the game here at the farm. Using sustainable materials from the Earth, cultured and collected in sustainable ways, used to build ecologically responsible buildings that will one day come back to the Earth. And setting a pace for work and living that is sustainable, emotionally and physically, is all part. It makes the work really enjoyable (even when it gets repetitive and tiring), gives all the workers time to chat, laugh and reflect about the incredible things that we´re creating.

For me, being at the farm does present some challenges. The language barriers is really intense for me here and almost brings me to tears at times. I want so much to be able to talk to everyone about what their learning, ask questions about what I see going on and just to be able to take part in the conversation (you all know how much I like to talk). I feel like I´m missing out on a lot of information I could be learning (although I hear a lot of these techniques have been translated from American texts) and that´s frustrating. The upside is that I´ve had to learn to listen. Just watch and listen. And, as you know, this is hard for the get-right-in-there Tera. I´ve never listened so much in my life. It´s really, really hard, but I know that I´m learning a lot. And, I´ve also picked up a lot of new words and phrases, just from hearing them all day.


I´m sure most people here probably think that I´m pretty quiet, but how much further from the truth can you get?! Don´t get me wrong, everyone is really patient with me and tries to make sense of what I say, but it´s exhausting for both sides. With so much going on in the workshops, there´s only so much time for workshop questions, let alone language interpretation. So, we make do. I listen, I fumble a bit, but I´m learning. And there are a few people who speak English, although I try my best to still speak Spanish (castellera) until my brain hurts too much. Mixed in there is also a few people who speak French, so some days I´m speaking three languages. By the end of some days, my brain can´t make heads or tails of any language! But, at the end of the day, I´m still really thankful to be here with these people to take it all in. Even when it´s a lot!