Greetings, everyone.  I filled in as Leader of the Day today in place of Kyle, who wasn't feeling particularly well.  We didn't have a Word of the Day today, though if we did it probably would have been “hospital”.  We attempted to get up at 5:30 to milk cows, but the number of sick people in the group forced us to change our plans.  We instead went back to sleep, and those of us who felt healthy enough when we got up again at 7:00 in the morning went to breakfast, which consisted of bread and fruit salad.

            We began our morning with a long talk with Diego and Barbara, two of the Spaniards who are volunteers here at Almeria Soledaria.  They talked about the purpose of the project here, which is to provide sustainable agriculture for the local community and kindergarten.  They talked about the small steps everyone can take to help the environment, from using organic waste for compost and not purchasing disposable products, instead using reusable versions in order to minimize waste.

            At around 10:00, we went out to work in the greenhouse.  Under the sweltering heat we harvested about 3000 square feet of lettuce, then tilled the soil to prepare for the tomatoes that will later be planted in the same area.  After less than two hours of work, we were all exhausted from toiling with pickaxes in 95 degree conditions.  We went in to have lunch, which was a hearty combination of soup, rice, chicken, and vegetables.

            After lunch, the entire group was “casi muerto”, meaning “almost dead”, either from illness or exhaustion, so we decided to cull our afternoon plans.  Instead we went into recovery mode, resting all afternoon with a few optional activities only for those who were interested.  Those activities included making cornbread, cake, and bracelets.  The bread was pretty much inedible because none of us had a clue what we were doing and the cake burned in the oven, but we had fun nonetheless.

            Once darkness fell and we'd all had our evening cups of tea or Milo, we had the second day of our World Citezen workshop, which began with an exercise where everyone held ice cubes in their hands which represented their basic needs.  The ice was incredibly painful to hold, but none of us were allowed to put our ice down or switch hands.  Carmen then gave out paper towels that represented resources and protection from the cold, but only to a few people.  Those that received the towels felt instant relief.  Carmen then gave more paper towels to the same people, representing the unequal distribution of resources that occurs in the world.  Those people could do whatever they wanted with their extra towels.  Thankfully, they all decided to share their towels with everyone else and everyone was able to protect their hands from the ice.

            The exercise was designed as an icebreaker (pun intended) for an hour long discussion about world poverty and what we can do to share our resources.  Everyone contributed great ideas, and at the end of the hour we all made promises about what we'd do once we return home to alieviate poverty.  We're all going to return home as activists-consider yourselves forewarned.  Some of you may learn ways to cut back on waste that you never even thought possible...

            We had dinner once again consisting of rice, vegetables, and meat.  Following dinner we crashed straight to bed, knowing we'd have a hard day of work ahead of us.  Well, most of us did, anyway.  Russel stayed up another hour and a half playing Ping-Pong.  Try as he might, he was unable to beat our guide, Sergio, in a single game.

            It was a tough day, to be sure.  We were dealing with a lot of sickness going around, so we repeatedly had to change our plans.  However, we somehow made it through, having passed what I consider to be our mid-trip humpday.  Most of us were recovered and ready to face the world.  ¡Pura vida!


Jandro