never thought i'd be a farmer

posted by sharla, who may or may not be a farmer

i spent the first nine years of my life in berne, a small farming town in indiana. yes, it's like bern, switzerland with an extra e. all the buildings downtown were swiss chalets, even the mcdonalds. well, there wasn't a mcdonalds when i lived there, but i've been back and i've seen it with my own eyes. but that's not the point of this story. there were a lot of farms, but i was never interested in farming. or growing anything. my mom used to make me ride my bike 10 miles uphill to help her pull weeds in a garden at a friend's farm. this was torture. and then she would make me snap the ends off of beans from said garden. the summer is made for swimming and running around the park (but NOT for spending your allowance on candy or ice cream, mind you), but certainly not for farming when you're but a wee child.

then i grew up and moved to the dominican republic where the word "farm" took on a whole new meaning. farms meant mangos, bananas, avocados, coffee, and sugar cane. and tropical produce aside, perhaps i learned to appreciate the value of tilling the soil. not that i've done much tilling...but i appreciate it.

last weekend, we had a makarios board meeting. one of the things we discussed was the purchase of land for a farm. you can see a picture in a previous post. the board voted unanimously to purchase a plot of 6 acres outside of santiago to use as a training facility. Lord willing, we will start with two families, one haitian and one dominican. they will live in the house that is one the land - a cute pink house - and they will learn to farm. Ruben will be the teacher, and he lives right down the street, so that works out perfectly. we are so excited to have a farm, to teach vocational skills, and provide produce to those with extreme needs! we are very grateful for the funds and the opportunity to do this.

oh and i just said the 10 mile thing to get my parents to post a comment. my mom isn't too blog savy, but i'm sure we'll hear from the rabbi (he will say it built character). it was probably about 2 miles.