Watch what you ask for

Last year I did a competent crew course, in the hope of sailing to South America. The only sailing I ended up doing, was from Knysna to Gordon’s Bay. Not that simple. It turned out to be a gruelling 3-day survival trip in a galing south-easter, with the other crew member below deck with sea-sickness, and only me and the very competent skipper to brave the seas. The point of this side-track is that one should be careful what one asks for. The universe has a way of delivering…  In this case I had ásked for wild weather, for wind and water spraying in my face. But nót three days of it with sleep deprivation and hallucinations. At one stage during the second night, as Aurum was being tossed about in gigantic waves with me holding the tiller, I was on the verge of calling André, the skipper, to come and look at what I could only assume was an UFO. Fortunately I timely realised that I was looking at the little light at the top of the mast, which had grown in proportion and changed colour in my exhausted and depleted mind.

Back to Argentina: be careful what you ask for… I had this romantic notion that I would spend time working with the locals, learning the Spanish and becoming acquainted with their culture. It is early days yet, I only arrived in Sauce Viejos yesterday, but I feel completely at a loss, cold and alienated. Communication is difficult, although the landlord and his helper are both extremely friendly and trying their best to explain things, using their broken English, my broken Spanish and Google translate, which I had downloaded in Buenos Aires.  I don’t really understand what is expected of me, but I did understand that the house must be kept clean and the leaves raked every 3rd day or so. It’s a rustic environment, extremely so, and things seem to move at a slow pace. The helper, Ale, keeps on reminding me: ‘Take it easy’ (in English!).The house is on the banks of the Rio Coronda, which runs into the Rio Paraná, which is the longest river in Argentina, and second longest in South America.  The Paraná forms a delta which enters the ocean just north of Buenos Aires. This is the view from the house:So this morning I raked the leaves on this huge lawn – notice the pile in the braai area…And cleaned the kitchen and swept the lounge and dining areaThat little stove (right bottom) is a life saver, warms up the room beautifully. And the sleeping quarters:Hats off to Alejandros, who came to this place in February last year and decided to create a hostel and start with permaculture. He has a small vegetable garden, and this morning a woman took away two crates of plants, free of charge, as it is food, and gladly given away.  He even has a scarecrow watching over the garden.They had just become operational in February this year, when a twister came through and wrecked havoc, breaking branches and tearing corrugated iron sheets off the roof of their workshop. Fortunately the house was not hit, but the paradise garden was in a mess and had to be cleaned up.  Huge torn off limbs of the ombú tree (which is not really a tree but a huge cluster of pampass-like grass) are still lying around. The rarity of finding óne 200yr old ombú here next to the river is made rarer still by the fact that there are twó standing close together (see lawn picture).  According to Ale there are forests if Ombú trees in Uruguay.In spite of my fragile emotional state, these past two days have been filled with new experiences and people coming and going. There were two guests staying the first night, a young couple whom I gathered were here to advise Alejandro on the business. The latter cooked us a typical Colombian meal of legumes and rìce, rather bland but tasty. And dinner is served late, at about 21h00. Ale bakes bread as needed, and at about 19h00 I was presented with bread, chocolat con leche (a caramel chocolate spread) and mate. My first experience of mate had been yesterday. It is a traditional herb tea shared by everyone present (from the same cup, drinking from the same bombilla, pronounced bombisha). Making and drinking it is more of a ritual than a process. It is an honour to be offered to partake.There is no WiFi at the house but Ale was kind enough to give me the password of the WiFi at the ice cream shop. The shops in Sauce Vieje are open from 9 – 11am, and again from 3 – 6pm, so I just stood on the pavement in front of the closed shop and read and sent WApps. Only later I discovered a cafe that also had WiFi, so this is where I will go to everyday after work. I took a cup of tea down to the river after work and while watching the water flow, I realized that my eyes were drawn downstream.  I looked upstream and realized it felt different, quieter and less energy.  I looked in front of me, and again my eyes were naturally drawn downstream, seeing the noticeable flow of water. I thought about Siddhartha and how he had spent time learning from the river. What I learnt today is that upstream is the past, it is over, it holds no energy. The water is the same, yet the present (in front of me) and future (downstream), is what matters. That is where my focus will be.