Italy and Early Thailand!

Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/27641699@N08/
Hello!

Sorry I havent had time to post in over a month. I am currently writing up a concise post that gets across some of the beautiful farm and seed filled adventures I have had since India. I will post more soon.
I did post my pictures from Italy so please check them out if you want and have time. http://www.flickr.com/photos/27641699@N08/
Sorry there are no words to accompany them. I can write soon. Below is a brief verbal vomit of some thoughts over the past month. In no way does it sum up even a fraction of what I have experienced.


Alls good here, once again I dont have much time to write, but hopefully write on the blog soon. Im currently adjusting to life on the farm here in Thailand. Italy was incredible!! The main reason I went was for this epic food conference called Terra Madre. It was like Ecological farming conference in California, but global. Many people also called it the olympics of sustainable food. The event is put on by slow food (please check out my photos form here). There were over 7,800 farmers and chefs from over 153 countries. Truly unbelievable and so inspiring to meet farmers and passionate urban gardeners, nutritionsists, chefs, seed savers, or food activists froim senegal, mali, china, nepal, canada, philadelphias, new jersey, california and so much more. The opening and closing ceremonies when we were all together brought me to tears numerous times to hear such poweerful speeches and be ina room with thousands of other people all passionate about good, clean, and fair food.

I was in Italy with my friend Tim!! We also had a lot of fun going to hot springs, volutneering on a farm, and going on an amazing tour of organic farms in central Italy. The tour led us to many great inspiring farms and we ate excessing amounts of food (tons of unbelievable pork products, pastas, wine, fresh olive oil, lamb, etc.)


I am currently sinking in to life on the farm here in Thailand. It was tough at first for a number of reasons. Nothing could really live up to Italy in some ways, plus I hurt my toe, and this farm is a bit dissapointing in terms of how much I can learn here about seed saving. The emphasis is much more on green building than farming. My first week I went through a real confusing phase as I debated what my research year was really about, why the fuck I am here, and things like this. Nonetheless, I am now enjoying learning about building and have found many joyous moments on the farm. I still havent conencted with many of the other foreigners, the one guy I did conenct with just left because he wasnt happy here. But, the farm is a beautiful valley and I get to do yoga and swim everyday.


I have taken responsibility for managing some of the gardens and cataloguing the seed bank. The thai man who runs the farm is very inspiring, but is hard to get time with as there are always so many visitors, authors, film makers here to interview him. The place emphasizes self reliance and simple rural living for thai people. It is amazing to see how simple we can live and still be happy. I live in a small mud hut, bath in the lake, eat very simple food (the opposite of some of our excessive eating in Italy). I find joy in the sunsets, sweet bananas, fresh compost, impromptu reggae dance parties, or a meanigful talk with someone. In some ways I dread spending two more months here, but also am trying to settle in for it.

All my best,
Adam