20
Things I Have Learned So Far During My Regional Work…
1.
How
to light a gas stove. Yeah, simple, I get that now.
2.
How
to fry delicious fish!
3.
How
to pee standing up when there are 7 frogs in the toilet bowl but you really
have to go.
4.
How
to reverse a truck with a trailer attached (this is more difficult than it
sounds!)
5.
How
to sleep in 30+ degree heat. (A: naked, with two fans.)
6.
How
to keep myself busy in 30+ degree heat for 6 hours of a work shift without
actually doing enough to make me pass out from heat stroke.
7.
Having
said that… How to turn watering aloe plants into a wicked upperbody workout
(with a 10kg watering can). (Do aloe plants even need to be watered?)
8.
How
to have efficient, no equipment required, tent friendly workouts. I’ve got a
high intensity cardio & body weight circuit down pat for interval training,
trying to kick my butt back into the shape it was in when I first arrived to
this country! This + my yoga practice + my bush jogs + a pretty significantly
altered diet (no meat, no dairy, no junk!), we’ll see where I’m at in a few weeks time.
9.
How
to spend hours and hours every day totally and completely alone (and not go
crazy. Yet.).
10. How to give myself a homemade
coconut and honey hot oil hair treatment. For the hell of it.
11. How to finally use my Canon
properly! (Thanks Luca!)
12. How to cook the perfect coconut
rice (Thanks Ben!)
13. Where to drive slowly around the
resort early in the morning, as it is inevitable that wallabies will cross my
trail.
14. Ah! Driving on the left hand
side! (yay!)
15. I’ve learned that apparently it
is scorpion breeding season (don’t ask my how I know this. As if I weren’t
already scared enough to leave my tent after dark. By the way it is pitch black
out by 7pm, so…)
16. I’ve learned that I can still
have better, more insightful, more meaningful conversations with someone who
doesn’t speak English as their native language, than most guys who do.
17. I’ve learned the exact time of
day when it is absolutely perfect outside; when the sun is starting to lower
and the air has cooled (even just slightly, down to 29 or 28), and it is worth
the risk of getting eaten by mozzies just to sit out here on my back deck and
mellow in the motions around me. The way that all of these trees sway to their own
rhythm, though they still seem in sync somehow. The tempo that this evening
breeze brings to all the greenery surrounding my tent. The way the shadows of
the leaves shimmy slowly, dancing on the canvas walls. The way the subtle setting sun
softly filters through the shrubbery and warms my limbs in zigzag patterns.
That time is 5pm, and it is absolutely beautiful.
18. Homemade Sicilian Nutella,
strawberry jam & crushed corn flakes all wrapped into a tortilla tastes
exactly like some sort of chocolate bar. You learn to get creative with sweet
tooth cravings in a kitchen lacking anything that resembles candy (minus a
delicious muesli with raisins AND dried pineapple & coconut! Yum).
19. I am a way quicker reader than I ever thought possible (it’s amazing how
much the mind can process when there are no other distractions – I have
finished one full novel and I am 70 pages into my next, in only nearly 2
weeks!)
20. I have learned that those who
really do care, those who always have, genuinely, are the ones that will make
the efforts to keep in touch, no matter how difficult or frustrating that may
be when I am living such a remote little life over here. I am so grateful for
those individuals in my life, my truest friends, my greatest loves, and I am getting
used to not hearing from a few individuals that have really disappointed me in
that sense. All of it happens for a reason though, and those people who have
all but vanished from my life were not the ones who were meant to stick around
anyhow. Things in my life are moving swiftly forward in such an exciting
direction, and I am learning to remain grateful and detached and grounded
through it all, through every soul that comes and goes.
~~~
It has
almost been two full weeks since I began life here at EcoBeach. It’s not often
that the different lives I get to experience have expiry dates – that’s usually
by my choice; I am a one-way ticket, no plans further than next week, come what
may kind of traveller. In fact, I rarely ever even call myself that word. Traveller… seems to imply impermanence,
fleeting, constant motion, from one place to the next. While in many ways I can
certainly claim those qualities, I prefer the term mover. I move places. Traveling, vacationing, holidaying, it all
depresses me, because of that end-date. I prefer to move, fully, to situate
myself in some new surroundings until it feels familiar, comfortable. That is
when I feel most accomplished in my life. This regional work is meant for
travellers. While Australia requires you to serve 88 days of willing work, it
is so rare for one to spend all three months in the same area. EcoBeach sees
wwoofers come and go on 2-week basis. But I like that it works to suit me so I
can be here for the fully allotted time. I have moved, I am situating, I am
content.
However,
having said all of that, this trip does have an expiry date. Not that I am
required to leave at the end of my 3-month stay, but I already feel that I
will. And I often get those sure feelings early on in my arrival somewhere (as
I could have told you 8 months ago that I would be off doing my regional work
to extend my Australian options, because I already knew back then that I wanted
to always keep my Aussie doors open).
I do
love it here at the resort, in a lot of
ways. For example I am sitting on the patio of the resort restaurant,
overlooking the infinity pool, the rest of my staff splashing around after a
busy long-weekend of guests. The sky is peach and light violet, swirling
overhead, changing deeper shades of sorbet every time I glance up. The BBQ is
roaring behind me, thick steaks and fresh fish, grilled corn and potatoes, Greek
salad. It’s beautiful here, and I feel so lucky to get to experience it all.
But when
mid-April comes, I know I will be off. Knowing there is a specific end-date is
an interesting experience for me! I have started to subconsciously section off
my days here, thinking in all different equations of time frames and mini check
points (for example, I’ve gotten rather used to the idea that as soon as
February comes, it will really only feel like 2 months before I’ll be ‘wrapping
up’ my time here. It’s funny the difference that 4 days can make to your
perspective of things, how much closer the end feels if only February would
arrive!). I really am trying to make the conscious effort each day to try not
to wish these next 2.5 (+4 days) months away as quickly as possible, I am
certain there are still handfuls of incredible things to experience during my
time here, but as I’ve begun to sort out just exactly what I want to do in
April, I am getting antsier.
This is
truly unlike me. I’m rather proud of my recently (for the past year now)
developed power of presence; that power of now that I truly appreciate being
able to cultivate. Wherever I am, I have been learning and teaching myself to
be all there. Completely present and
conscious and gracious and grateful for this particular day. But managing that
power takes practice and patience in itself. This period of my life will be
that test for me: my biggest challenge of patience (it helps that I am reading
Eckhart Tolle’s guide to spiritual enlightenment through The Power of Now,
alongside rereading Thubten Chodron’s Buddhism for Beginners!). I am quite
happy to have the challenge ahead of me, and I am definitely working to avoid
crossing days off my calendar to mid-April. Bear with me! {Also, stay tuned for
details of those exciting April plans when I’m ready to post about it in the
next couple of weeks J}
I have
had a great first almost two weeks here! A few of my so-far highlights:
-
Treasure
hunting the low tide ocean floor. Luca and I went out for a swim a few
afternoons ago, only to discover the ocean was not where we last left it! It
looked miles away and it left us to discover some pretty incredible things that
are typically hidden beneath the surface. As naïve as it sounds, it’s crazy how a completely different world
exists aquatically! We came across some truly remarkable little species as the
sun was beginning to set: star fish (I’d never seen one living! We saw 4!),
sand dollars of all different gorgeous designs, dozens of different crabs
(hermit shell ones, as well as the classic beach crabs that scurry sideways
with their pinchers snapping!), living flowing moving plant life, tiny fish
living in and jumping between the small pools of ocean water left behind in the
divots of the sand, one bright, clear blue jelly fish, and even a small manta
ray shimmied up from the surface of a nearly exposed sand dune! With Luca’s
help I am finally learning how to use my Canon properly, which in itself is
such a treat.
-
My
solo bush walk excursion through the Broome outback. After the initial stresses
of the birds surrounding my tent, and being continuously warned about scorpions
and snakes, I decided relatively quickly that I did not want to spend the next
3 months here in fear. In fact, I didn’t want to spend even one more day
wondering and worrying. Last Tuesday was my first day off and I decided to face
all those wilderness fears of the unknown by tackling them head-on and throwing
myself right into the wild. It was definitely an interesting experience! Mostly
enjoyable, completely sweaty and heart racing, and yes slightly stressful as I
got myself turned around a couple of times losing the marked trail. But I knew
I would be proud of myself for completing the 1.5 hour hike, and I even shaved
my time by 30 whole minutes turning it into more of a jog (confession: certain
rustles of the bush and squawkings of the sky sent me into that jog, but never
the less! It was a fantastic workout!).
-
The
“thankless jobs” I am completing during my shifts everyday, and how I am
finding solace and satisfaction in them anyway. The whole resort is like that
dirty, forgotten (or perpetually avoided) corner of the garage that seems too
daunting to approach. The unknown. After so many years, you have no idea what
might have accumulated in the dust and the clutter. Don’t get me wrong! The resort is rather stunning, the villas
for rent are immaculate, even my own tent residence is easy enough to keep
quite nice! But the rest of the grounds; staff corridors, the workshop ("church"), the
garbage pit (of course), etc – so basically every area of EcoBeach I come in
contact with on a daily basis – is really quite startling! That corner of your
garage: the one place you wouldn’t dare stick your hand unknowingly or blindly,
for fear what might startle and jump out to bite you, or just creepy-crawl all over
you, leaving you shuddering at the thought for a week. That’s how I feel here
day in and day out: inevitably sweaty and more than often dirty. I sit in
‘gardens’ and weed for hours, clearing whole sections into much more
aesthetically pleasing landscapes, not that anyone will really even notice! I
trim trees and bushes so that the board walks look cleaner, more proper. Again,
nothing obvious enough make a massive difference, but I know that it does. My boss calls these ‘thankless jobs,’ and I
understand why now. The odd part is I don’t really mind it! I wouldn’t prefer it (the recognition part doesn’t
bother me, but the dirty sweaty part could be avoided if I had the option), but you have to be quick to accept it
and anticipate it and that is the only way to endure it.
-
The
first hectic tropical storm: I am up at 3 am planning my emergency packing
list. The resort has one villa set up for us workers if things get too rough in our
tents, we are to (somehow… in such a hectic storm…) relocate to Villa 14 and
wait it out. It has only really rained
here twice since my arrival, and both easily woke me up despite my heaviest
duty ear plugs. The difference between a loud shower and half an hour of
impressive lighting and thunder cracks, and a storm that has me up planning my
emergency packing list and actually putting on clothes in case my neighbors are
en route to collect me to relocate, is the wind. Thunder is just noise.
Lightening is just a flash. Rain is just wet! (Look how insightful I am
becoming!) Lol, but wind changes things for me. Even with our sturdy steel
foundations and thick canvas siding, it is something else to feel your whole
king-size bed rocking by the fore of the wind outside. Strong winds can
actually do the damage that noise and light and wet cannot (aside from our
roads flooding of course, which doesn’t concern me personally too much). But a
few hours later the wind calmed to just a heavy breeze, and I got myself back
to sleep after making a careful inventory of all things valuable to me on site (photos, journals, a certain necklace, etc.).
I am more prepared for the next cyclonic storm!
-
Morning
sites to see: every morning I am treated by the surrounding presence of some
pretty incredible Australian wildlife. For example, the herd of massive Indian cows that live close
enough to the resort to trespass (mysteriously, we have fences everywhere!).
The first time I came into contact with them, I stopped dead in my tracks
completely astonished by their presence. When I say massive, I mean gigantic,
the biggest animal I have ever seen that close in person (much bigger than
horses!). Indian cows are a distinct breed, and this heard in particular are
rather daunting given both their size and seemingly malnutrition. They are nearly
completely hollowed out, protruding rib cages, sharp skeleton-like faces, deep
eyes staring at you from behind the garbage bins down at the dump. The next
time I saw these magnificent creatures (this second encounter is when I could
deem them magnificent, for the first sighting just left me half horrified!)
they were just behind my tent, coming down to the lake in my backyard in small
groups of 4 and 5, gently wading into the water, drinking for just a few
minutes, making sure the baby calves got their share, and then peacefully
retreating to wherever they came from. My favourite creature to see everyday
though is the wallaby, and after a storm especially, it is common to see up to
a dozen a day. Not in the far-off distance either! They are quite close to me,
crossing my driven paths, hopping dreamily by in groups of 3 or 4, even sometimes simply standing still right beside the bins while I'm emptying my trash cans. Oh wait I lied!
My favourite sight to see is
Frederick. He is the dinosaur that lives on the resort, and I got acquainted
with up close and personal yesterday as I heard him
rustling around my tent before I even saw him (that's how big and heavy he is). He has to be at least 4 feet in
length, tail included, and looks like he weighs over 20 lbs! Frederick is the
friendly neighborhood goanna that I am trying to train to eat the birds out
side of my tent. I now understand why when I have to share the buggy with the
house keeping boys, Ben takes us on a fully-commentated Jurassic Park safari. Those
occurrences, those interactions with the land and this raw, unpredictable
nature are what make every single day here worthwhile; they make this
experience real, and impressionable.
They are the moments I will remember about my time here in the wild WA outback.
-
Finally,
it has been a highlight getting to know the rest of the members of staff here.
We have had a handful of staff BBQs, pool parties, darts & pool tournaments
and outdoor dune buggy tailgating. As always, it is my most favourite
observation to be sitting in a room full of different nationalities, to feel how rare and wonderful it actually
is to have this many different
international puzzle pieces together in one setting. Such diversity, SUCH
different world views and life styles and upbringings and mind frames, all
sitting around one semi-circle, communicating, cheers-ing, smiling, learning
and teaching – interacting like real international neighbors ought to (we currently
have folks here from New Zealand, China, Italy, England, Ireland, Canada and Australia).
It has
been an interesting experience so far, to say the least, and I am looking
forward to all that is still to come. 10ish weeks remaining! Haha, the
countdowns will be inevitable, I apologize! But I promise, I am doing my best
& making the most J xo
