Day 33

Today we had Mama Roja love day, and while others painted varnish onto wood or chainsawed and dragged new firewood from the stream, or scrubbed the labels off of wine bottles for our long-drop toilet’s walls, Jo and I cleaned the kitchen.

After scrubbing all horizontal surfaces well with vinegar solution, we moved out everything that could be moved out, scrubbed the floors with soapy water and then rinsed them and squeegeed them off to dry. We had time to re-wax the diningroom floor too, hips bopping to music as we went. Jo is from England, and she has the best accent (and she doesn’t care if we imitate it, which makes me happy!) Before she arrived Kim warned me that I was going to have to stop with my British accent because I might offend her (she was joking… I think). So there we are, problem solved.
The lunch line...
Kimberly brought home the most beautiful produce from the farmers' market today! These mandarinas are my favorite fruit here so far. Though they are green they are perfectly ripe and delicious inside!
Such bounty!

This afternoon we started building a retaining wall for the long-drop toilet steps. Working with earth bags hasn’t been Marcelo’s favorite, so he wants to finish the steps using other methods. We will build a wall on the side of the steps, using brick and our mud mortar, and add bricks along the front of the step and then fill in the rest of the space with subsoil and pack it (just like what is in the earth bags, but without the polypropylene).

This is what happened when Clay (as in Clayton) mixed his first batch of mortar:
(No pun intended...)
Jess, our androgenous térere queen (she's also an amazing yoga teacher; it's a win-win!)
Coop's feet, after stomping mortar.

I’m excited to see how it all comes together. With many of us it feels like there isn’t much to do at the moment, but I know there will be soon. There are so many projects to do here, there’s certainly no shortage!

The kitchen in the afternoon light:
This is one of my favorite beetles I have found so far! His rhino horn makes a pinching motion with the spikes on his back when he moves his head, but I am sure I scared him more than he scared me!

Looking up at the stars at night, Orion is just over our path now, his head upside-down as if he is doing a cartwheel. It has gotten chilly here. I’m not sure if it’s because we went away to Iguazu, where it was hot, and got used to the heat before returning, but it feels like we have just shifted into fall over the weekend while we were away. I love the cool nights, but hanging in my banana pod in the air, it’s easy to get cold because the air circulates on all sides. Sleeping on my thermarest definitely helped me keep warm last night.