Small Updates

It has been difficult to write blogs with a computer that freezes at random times, even as I sit here typing it could freeze any moment. So, here is the latest on the Turner Front in the world of ARI/BVS at ARI.

Rice Planting

To the left is a lovely photo of me struggling to pull the rice seedling from its original soil foundation. The rice is almost always germinated and sprouted before being put into the rice patty.

All photos taken by ARI Photographers: Shige and Kazu

Most Japanese today plant their rice by machine and with chemical fertilizer, allowing for a community oriented farm task to become individualized and transplanted earlier in the year. And, rice patties are so common, I don't even have to leave the town in order to see one. It is important that rice planting remain a community farming practice because it keeps us rooted in understanding that we are creatures of this Earth, with a codependency, and cannot afford to tear it up with Roundup and economic greed. When rice farmers needed to flood their patties, they had to wait for everyone to do it together (everyone filling their own field). For ARI, transplanting rice by hand every year is deeply connected to the fact that farmers in Asia and Africa still do this by hand, and so it is important beyond measure that the Participants' training remain relevant to their reality at home.
ARI's sustainable methods of maintaining the rice patties is also important for these rural leaders to practice (and some already had before coming to ARI). From permiculture and using fish, to using ducks, and so on.

Anyway, thats enough about rice planting...

Living without money for the last 4 months
Back in March I discovered that my bank card had expired in February, and so I'm having to wait to get a new one sent. Talk about living frugally. The only necessary expense I've come across has been food, which makes sense. I've got boots that are falling apart, and the best thing I can do is tape it, but the tape wouldn't last two days.

Its Rain Season!!! So, now I get to more frequently run and frolic in the rain!

Camping
Much like the no-communication excursion I mentioned earlier, this camping trip was very... very similar. Except all 9 volunteers shared in this adventure. Hooray, we're going into Japan (ARI, as I stated before feels like a different world)! Nasu Mountain is a good choice to go camping. But, we didn't know what this place looked like, or who the owner was that was inviting us was. We didn't know he was going to hang out with us ALL night, and come back early in the morning. We didn't know walking through his house was going to be as interesting as it was. But, I delighted in the delicious ARI pork and rice we brought for supper, sleeping under the open sky in a hammock, waking up with the sun, and talking until midnight about life with others with a shared vision.

Living around rice paddies has been soooo nice. The only real time I get to be alone is during the walks at night by those very rice paddies. The sound of the frogs is so loud I can barely hear the Shinkansen, which is already pretty load. I feel at peace most nights. Despite being homesick, missing Jess, family, Manchester, and MCXC (Um, I mean MUXC). Walking down the roads at night is like taking a visit with the Gods and Godesses who shut out this crazy world I tend to get exhausted from.

Not many updates, but its time for supper now.

May you find the sustaining life that exists in food you consume.

Turner