"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from human face"
Victor Hugo
Time flies, huh? It's been a month since I joined to the #weekend-engagement and I think it's become a habit to wait for Fridays to see what topics our good friend brings us.
So, this week, @galenkp was sharing how it wasn't exactly a great week for him. I'm hoping he's having a better time over the weekend though. So, I'm gonna try to lift his spirits a bit and bring some good vibes. That's why today, I'm gonna chat about...
The funniest thing you´ve personally done in real life?
It's hard to pick just one moment as the happiest when you're still young and got a bunch of years ahead of you. But, I still gave it some thought and I think it'd have to be this one. If you laugh, you lose ...
When I was about to finish high school, my school had to spend a couple of weeks in a rural school outside the city. It was two weeks during which we were supposed to learn about some agricultural work and animal husbandry. Imagine, city kids trying to be farmers.
In my case, I wasn't too thrilled about the idea because I'm a 100% city boy. I don't have any family in the countryside, and I've only been to the countryside a few times. I prefer spending my free time, in the city or at the beach. Don't get me wrong, I like nature and animals, but I wouldn't dedicate myself to livestock farming. So, I was hoping they would give me some kind of agricultural work or something like that.
So, we arrived at the camp on a Sunday afternoon. I remember it was the beginning of the year and, during this time, the temperature drops quite a bit in the countryside of my country. So, most of us thought we were "prepared", or at least we thought we were. The first sight wasn't the greatest, the camp looked like a haunted place, in bad shape, and with very poor conditions. But hey, a group of young folks with only two teachers, something good had to come out of that experience.
After we settled in and got to know the place a bit, we were already worried about everything we had seen. The camp boss recommended that we should take a shower early because the water would run out.
So, we hit the showers and as soon as we turned on the faucet, the water that came out was so cold that my buddies' screams sounded like women giving birth. And yeah, the water seemed like it came straight out of a freezer. That night, the hostel sounded like a full-on orchestra with all the sneezes caused by the low temperature and the cold water. The night wasn't too lit and it was only the first one.
I had to wear three coats because of the cold during dawn... that is not normal in a carribean country
But waking up the next day was even harder. A couple of frogs snuck in at night to, so we had to get rid of them. It was not an easy task when there was no light, and in the end, I didn't even know if we got them out or not. I didn't care, I was frozen and couldn't move.
We had a terrible night, the hostel had some holes that let the cold in, and the camp clock showed a temperature of around 13 degrees (maybe that's normal for you, but in a country where the sun burns 365 days a year, this wasn't normal)
Well, it was just me and my allergy pills against the world, I sneezed more than I talked.
It was tough, but there was no other option, we had to get to work.
That day, we were assigned our tasks, and I got stuck with herding cows. Just what I didn't want, but that's life...
The farmer (we call them "guajiros" in my country) told us that it was an easy task, just sit in one place and watch over them. But I think he left out some details, just keep reading to understand.
Cows are very smart animals, or maybe the ones I had to deal with were geniuses or something like that, that was not normal. Anyway, we sat down, to watch over the cows at 6 am, but due to the bad night, we fell asleep quickly. I remember we had to take care of 25 cows on a terrain of about 2 square kilometers, but from where we were, we could see all the livestock.
Well, around 10 am, our "well-deserved rest" was interrupted by none other than the Guajiro.
Right away, he asked us about the cows, and I, who was half asleep, remember telling him that they were doing just fine.
The farmer lifting me up and pointing at the horizon, asking me "Where?". And he was right, there wasn't a single cow on the terrain. I was left wondering how 25 cows could just disappear like that. What was going on? It was impossible.
The Guajiro just said that we had until 12 o´clock to find them, or we would be in serious trouble. And it was only the first day at work.
Our beloved friends on a peaceful day...
We immediately got to work and headed towards a path next to the terrain. In the distance, we saw a school, so we went that way. The farmer had gone in the other direction. As we got closer, we heard some shouting, and it caught our attention because the people were so loud. We entered the school to ask if they had seen our friends. To our luck, as soon as we entered, we ran into Muñeco (a pretty big bull), who recognized us and took off running like a little kid. We chased after him through a school we didn't know, full of students and teachers who couldn't stop yelling as they saw the animals approaching.
At one point, Muñeco seemed to be attracted to one of the classrooms and decided to walk in as if he were going to teach the class. However, he was scared off by the screams of the actual students and ran out through a hallway that was being cleaned. The janitor kept shouting obscenities at us, as if we were the ones responsible for the situation.
One of my friends, who thought he was a cowboy at that moment, tried to lasso Muñeco with the rope given to us by the farmer, but what could a city boy do against such a beast? Nothing. Muñeco dragged him across the wet floor for several meters, and it looked like a scene from a comedy movie. The rest of us couldn't stop laughing and begged him to let go of the rope, which he had to do because Muñeco had no intention of stopping.
After a while and several meters of dragging my friend, Muñeco seemed to get tired. He looked at us and decided to head back to the campsite by himself, very calmly. He took the path and left us behind. So, we decided to find the others and bring them back. Luckily, it was easier than dealing with Muñeco. On our way back, and already exhausted, two dogs appeared, and the livestock scattered again. It couldn't be true. We had half an hour left until noon, and we had to run once more. Finally, we reached a banana plantation, and the animals seemed disoriented and decided to leave, but not before wiping out half of the plantation. Luckily, no one saw us (or so we thought).
Around 12:30, we were heading back to the campsite, and the farmer greeted us with a smile, saying, "Well done! That's what I like to see. You passed the test."
What test? What are you talking about?
The farmer had opened the gate for the livestock to run away. He said that was our initiation, but couldn't we have been initiated in a less intense way?
The one marked in the picture is Muñeco...
At that moment, I didn't want to say anything to the farmer, so I went straight to take a shower. But then I remembered the cold water, so I decided to grab something to eat and go back to work.
I walked peacefully until suddenly I heard a lot of noise behind me. I turned around, and there was Muñeco again, running at full speed (I don't think there's another cow in the world that can run that fast). This time, I was the one being chased, and I ran for several meters as if I were in the Olympics. Finally, I saw a wall and climbed up it. Luckily, Muñeco continued on his way, and I was safe.
I stayed on top of that wall for hours, resting. I really needed it because I was so exhausted, I couldn't even walk. When I finally gathered enough energy to climb down, the farmer appeared, telling me it was time to gather the livestock. I couldn't believe it. Not again. I really didn't want to do this. Luckily, this time Muñeco was well-behaved, and everything went smoothly. I wish the first time had been like that. If he had made me run again, he would have been sleeping outside that night.
As we finished up, a rather imposing gentleman approached us and said that we needed to talk. We thought he was another camp leader, but to our surprise, he was the owner of the banana plantation, who had seen us in our little adventure.
Damn, now on top of taking care of the livestock, we had to work for the plantation owner because of our beloved friends. What a wonderful first day, and to make matters worse, there was no water in the campsite because some of our cows had broken a pipeline. So, we had to make it with the little water we had to wash from the wild day we had. At that moment, all I only could think about: the farmer, the cows, and why I was even there and we still had 14 more days to go, awful.
Someday, we'll continue these stories.
To avoid falling asleep, we came up with a rudimentary fencing tournament...
At the end of the day, with no water, no electricity (this time not because of my cows), and freezing cold, we sat around a bonfire that took us two hours to light (it was our first time in the countryside, so we didn't know much). We all remembered what had happened with the surreal cows running around the school, and us chasing them all over the place.
Now tell me, what would you have done in such a situation? Would you have run like us, or would you have given up on them?
I hope I've accomplished my goal and you've had a good laugh.
See you on the next adventure...👋
Of course, I don´t have any photo of that particular moment, but this are from others moments , all are from my personal archive and the cover was made on Canvas.
@galenkp was sharing how it wasn't exactly a great week for him. I'm hoping he's having a better time over the weekend though. So, I'm gonna try to lift his spirits a bit and bring some good vibes. That's why today, I'm gonna chat about... 