Oh god, I almost stepped on a chicken!, and various other once in a lifetime sentences.
Oh god, I almost stepped on the chicken, and various other once in a lifetime sentences
Have you ever been in a situation and thought to yourself, this would never happen anywhere else? Well, that’s pretty much every day at Sacha Yacu. Setting aside the incredible every day occurrences like living in the rainforest, or getting to play with all the animals, every day brings something new and unexpected.
Take for instance, this week. We’ve often been spending our afternoons trekking far into the jungle to use our machetes to cut down Palm leaves so we can bundle them, tie them with rope we made from plants, and carry them down a steep muddy path where we all constantly fall and sink knee deep in mud. That in itself isn’t the really interesting part. That comes when your boot gets stuck and has to be fished out for you. Or when the bundle you’re carrying weighs about as much as you do. But the most one of a kind moment happens when the rain starts to pour, and you all grab hold of a leaf to use as an umbrella.
Or perhaps the one of a kind moment happens when you are on your way to feed the coaties as is the routine, and someone yells out that they need help with one of the horses. So you head on over to the voice, only to see one of the horses has fallen into a hole. And not just a little hole, a sinkhole the size of the horse. And without hesitation, you grab a shovel and start widening the hole so the horse can turn around to the slightly drier side. Then you all start encouraging the horse and pulling the rope as he works to launch himself out of the hole. The satisfaction of a job well done is resounding when he tentatively steps around the hole and starts eating grass again.
Maybe those aren’t unique enough experiences for you. Perhaps you want something like the Ecuadorian police showing up for a surprise inspection while you weave palm leaves together to make a roof, and then sitting to have lunch with you.
Or perchance it’s having four dogs (one of whom is very pregnant), two chicks, one chicken and a cat roaming around the house. Yes, the cat does like to chase the chicken, which is highly entertaining to watch because she’s too afraid to actually catch it. And then another chicken appeared that no one can explain. And the wild monkeys that hang out. The best part being (please refer back to the title of the blog) is that one of the chickens has decided that the best place for her to sleep will be right outside the door to our room. I feel this may lead to a few scrambled eggs.
Door meet chicken, Chicken meet door
Still not satisfied? Maybe your one of a kind moment comes in the form of Jeremy, the three year old son of one of the family who runs Sacha Yacu. I have heard of hands off parenting, but this kid takes the cake. He does all your run of the mill kid things like playing with cardboard boxes, aggravating the cat, playing with machetes, saws and axes, or peeing off the balcony. What, are some of those things slightly dangerous? Welcome to Ecuador, where unsupervised children outnumber stray dogs (and there are a lot of those).
If none of these things do it for you, maybe your moment comes simply in the form of a walk through the jungle, or laying in a hammock looking out at the rainforest, and realizing you live there. And when you’re living in a jungle, can anything really become mundane?
