Well the O'o farm's learning journey was certainly a great bonding experience for the class. As soon as I stepped foot on the ground I could smell the earthy aroma of the soil. The air was greatly thinner and made it harder to breathe. As soon as we got there, the class played tag and all the normal activities to do when you have a spacious place like the farm. Then we started making dinner, we made pizzas with dough and simple ingredients like meat, cheese, and tomato sauce. I then went to harvest vegetables for a salad with the rest of the girls in our class while the other half chopped wood for the fire. After eating and gathering around the campfire we retired to bed. Going to sleep was almost impossible! Since there were all ten of us in a single yurt, you can imagine the chattering in the room. The next day was when the real work began. We woke up around 6 am to see the magnificent sunrise. First we stared a fire, started to prepare for breakfast, and then I got to actually chop wood. (chopping wood is actually a lot harder than it looks. The ax was heavier than expected and needed to be precise in the way you chopped the wood.{You needed to be accurate}) As the day continued, we learned about the academic part of the farm (which I greatly enjoyed). Coffee trees were then exposed in the magic of how the beans are made into the most famous drink in the world. The process of planting, picking, pulping, and toasting was quite interesting in how much work it took to make these fruit into the rave everyone knew about since the 9th century. We got to the plant our own coffee row and by the time we are whisked away to college our tree will then be fully matured. I think it might be like the process of us. How we will continue to keep growing through high school and in the end we will almost be adults. It is quite funny to think of it though. We then ended the day by learning about the biology of the farm by the farm manager, Richard. He gave us each a species of insect to study as we explored the farm. The task was to count how many of the certain insect we found and draw a conclusion based off of the data collected. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey and I hope to make another one throughout the school year.
A great campfire in the peak of morning.