A Day in the Life of the Tribe

The day opens at 6 a.m. to the sound of singing (in Spanish of course) outside the room I share with three other single ladies in the community -- plus Katie. After a brief song, accompanied by instruments, a woman says ¨Buenos dias mis hermanas,¨and to confirm that we are awake each of us slumbering beauties must reply ¨Buenos dias.¨ The early hour finds me resistant to the day´s work ahead, and I find the joyful singing a bit irritating. We have an hour to prepare ourselves before the minha, where the community members sing, dance and share what God is teaching them, then it´s breakfast, a plate of rice, hardboiled eggs and coleslaw, then it´s off to work.

Katie and work in the gardens with a few men digging roots from a field that was recently deforested. With a few English words and mime-like gestures the men inquire about the first 13 colonies in America, and the similarities between our motherland´s foundation and Argentina´s. I don´t think I could answer that question in English let alone in Broken Spanglish, but somehow I muster out an answer that either surfices -- or at least it exhausts my entire Spanish vocabulary and the men´t patience.

We break for lunch from 12:45 to 2:30, salad, rice and beans, then back to the roots for more digging. We break for a snack, yogurt and granola, and finish the days work at 5:45, just in time for another round of preparation and minha. We eat a healthy organic dinner of salad, soup and bread, then I collapse in bed by 9 p.m.

The day´s schedule leaves little room for free time.