Day 5 and 6 Gaya Farm 农场

Please see the posts from Naomi and Neil

This is the blog for July 14th, Friday
At the nine am departure time, we boarded the bus and we're on our way, for the first time, to the Gaya Farm. It is there where we would venture and fulfill our environmental service learning.On our way to the farm, we were informed that in order to really get intact with nature; We were to formulate a nature-inspired name (I stragetically choose "Leaf").

After a 5 minute hike on a trail leading to the camp, We became acquainted with the farm by completing an orientation / team building activity. The activity was structured as a mini scavenger hunt.
Next, at noon, we prepared to eat our lunch. The lunch was noodles with the locally grown squash with a side of cucumbers.

The meal was followed by us gathering around and completing an activity. The activity not only betterred our knowledge on the intricacy of nature, but on how much humans affect it.

Next, prepared our dinner by first cutting down the vast amounts of the farm grown vegatable. Then, heating the fire place and preparing our dumplings.

After a laborious hour, we were able to Chow down. Rather than just ending our day with full stomach, we ended it with a simple, but valuable lesson: before taking caring of others, take care of yourself.
 

We began our second day on the Gaya farm with another delicious breakfast at the hotel. After meeting in the lobby at 8:30, we departed for the farm where we began our first official day of labor. Our first task for the day was cleaning out a plot that originally grew amryss and pulling weeds to create a fresh plot to plant corn. After that, we ate curry for lunch and enjoyed a nice meal together after our hard work. We washed our dishes and helped clean up before taking a nice, well-deserved two hour rest. After our rest, Mosquito split us up into three teams and divided the farm into three sections. Our task was to hunt for the signs in each region of the farm that illustrated certain sections (i.e. the kitchen, chicken house, compost, etc). Once we located all the signs, we took notes about their current state and possible revisions we could make to improve the signs and make their meanings clearer. We sketched drafts and came up with possible designs for new signs, and then presented them to the other groups. To end our second day at Gaya farm, we ate a delicious dinner made by Oryx that consisted of stir fried rice and peaches. We have two more days on the farm, but first a rest day tomorrow, during which we get to sleep in and go to a mall!