So it has been a few days and I am so happy I chose to come to Lucciole farm for my first week. It has made the transition so easy, between the time difference, food and culture especially for my 1st time traveling solo. I have no doubt I would have been miserable and terrified if I decided to stay anywhere else for the first week.
Now on to the fun stuff!! I thought working on the farm would be dirty and difficult but it’s been the opposite! We spent an hour planting in the garden a couple days ago, went to make lechon yesterday and today we moved compost and shaved coconuts to make virgin coconut oil. We spend our mornings on the deck for breakfast and tea, work for an hour or two at most, then lunch, take a siesta break and we’ve been going out to dinner or enjoying homemade food. There also hasnt been much work to do since the volcano ash has ruined almost all the fruit and vegetables we could harvest. The farm owners Henry and Mercedes are incredible!! Henry is a business consultant and him and his wife have lived all over the world. They know everybody and are helping me plan my last 2 weeks here since they know the best places! They have bee hives in the farm as well! The bees here are tiny and black, they also don’t sting! We opened a couple hives to get honey and it was actually a sour honey.
The food has been incredible! We went to a couple restaurants and they are all open air restaurants since the weather is always nice, a little chilly and windy at night but overall great! I stood in the sun for 10 minutes and already burned, which honestly I would take over the snow storm at home! Yesterday our work was to help prepare a pig to roast. We stuffed it with lemon grass, garlic, ginger and chilis all from the farm and put it in a brick oven for 3hrs, then finished it over hot coals. It was the best pork I will ever have in my life. The skin was so crispy and flavorful! On the way home there was a small hiccup with the tricycle (motorbike with a side car) we took home.. he crashed into a wall. The brakes went out so we didnt really have a choice, nothing serious, just bumped around. Hell of a first experience, but a great story.
There has been some culture differences, but again, being on the farm has been so easy because they are used to having foreigners and answering all the questions as well as explaining why things are the way they are here. The hardest part is the way they treat dogs, because im such a dog lover. They aren’t considered pets here, there all farm dogs or strays. People keep them tied on short ropes as guard dogs, or treat them as pests. We have a guard dog at the farm as well as 2 small puppies that are absolutely adorable!! Everyone speaks some degree of english so there hasnt been much miss comunication. The only other thing is most people are fascinated by white foreigners, especially with blonde hair, blue eyes and as tall as me.. so everyone stares.. all the time. Multiple people ask for pictures and start touching my hair, so that is.. interesting and I definitely learned how to say no thank in local language. Everything is always busy, crowded and dusty but the people are always friendly and it grows on you quickly.
Thats all for now! Ill update again soon!!
Usual lunch 
Irene and carol, the other 2 women staying at the farm. 
The lechon! 
Shaving the coconut 
Marifeen our housekeeper 
One of our farm puppies 
Baaa our resident sheep 
Our neighbor is an american artist and we went ovee for tea and he showed us some new work.
Kristine's Travels 