A Cultural Experience

Since I returned from my awesome trip, I have been very bored. Every day I go to the gym and my friend from Norway and about 3 times a week I go running, but that's about all the excitement I've got. I wake up late, I eat, I exercise, and I watch TV and go to bed. There isn't a lot of practicing Spanish (at least with the natives) and the boredom hit me like a Randy Johnson fastball coming off a trip of a lifetime. 

About 4 days ago my mom asked me if I wanted to go the farm with my dad and brother to work a little bit. I obviously said yes because it was bound to be a cool cultural experience. She also invited Knut, the Norwegian, to come with us and so it would be a great cultural experience of the time two of us. They told us to wear old clothes because we were going to be marking the sheep and there would be a lot of crap (literally and blood that could get on our clothes). So when the day came I changed into clothes that were either broken or the color red (for the blood). Unfortunately Knut is from Europe and definitely had no idea what he was getting himself into and wore really nice and expensive clothes that were not really to get seriously dirty. I mean he wasn't dressed to go out to a club or a party, but his version of warm clothes and sweatpants to get dirty are nice Nike or Adidas sweats, and mine were crappy thrift shop sweats. 

Anyways, we drove about 40 minutes outside of Coyhaique and arrive at this cute little farm house. When we walked in we were greeted by a bunch of little chickens that ran out of the house. I was like this is a true farm. The man, Claudio, that was sitting in the kitchen didn't have all his teeth and the way he talked reminded me of a good old serious Tator Hill Vermonter or something. He was really redneck/hilbilly Chilean. It was awesome. 

We drank some coffee and maté and then we were ready to work. We headed down the pen and there were 100+ sheep and a giant cutting bored--yikes--waiting for us. I knew what we were doing beforehand however, I definitely wasn't prepared for it. Claudio went out there, lassoed in sheep like it was his job--cause it was--and then with his freshly sharpened knife sliced off the tips of the ears and the tail, without hesitation. I was tough to watch at first but after 66, yes 66, sheep I got very used to it although not used to it enough to venture into the task myself. It was really fun feeling like an actual rancher. Although if you watched Knut and I with the also you would have laughed you *** off because  we were just way out of place. I am going to add another part thats a little more gruesome in a different font, read at your own risk. If you don't to read it skip to the paragraph with the regular font…

All the sheep together. 

Farmer Weston

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Claudio also neutered the sheep. If you are unfamiliar with this process it goes like this… You catch the sheep and sling it onto the cutting board. Then after that you check to see if its a boy and you slice open the sack. Once the balls of exposed you go in head first and take the balls out with your mouth and spit them out in a bucket. It was raunchy. He was in pretty good spirits the whole time and in fact said how tasty the balls were when he was done--he was a strange man.

***

I am sorry if you read the previous paragraph and did not expect what I said. Anyways working on that farm was one of those moments where I really thought about where I was and what I was doing and was just really happy. I was having these cultural experiences with people from different countries and on the other side of the planet. It is just so profound for me. 

After working for 2 hours or so we headed inside to eat lunch and relax. We ate really good meat (like usual) and then we had about 3 hours where we just did what we want. Knut, my brother Jere, and I went down by the river (CHRIS FARLEY) and explored a little. There were a bunch of animals running around the farm, sheep, pigs, horses, chickens etc. It was very farmy. All of a sudden Knut had this desire to ride a horse even though he had never ridden a horse before and before you know we are up by the house and Knut is on the horse. The horse did not respond to him at all. My dad and Claudio did not seemed worried and just let him ride the horse without a helmet, on his own, and without supervision or instruction. After a minute, Knut was gone. We just thought he was trotting around and didn't think anything of it. Turns out he had lot control of his horse and also flew off it. It started cantering and he had no idea what he was doing. The story was quite entertaining. Because my mom is so interested in horses I decided I wanted to hop on, get a picture, and hop off. I thought I would be safe because it was tied to a tree but within 3 seconds of being on the horse it spooked and started to trot away from the tree but this didn't work because it was tied up. When the rope became taught and he head jerked back towards the tree, he stopped moving and I flew off the other side. Fortunately I wasn't hurt and I left laughing like crazy but unfortunately Knut was too busy laughing he didn't take a picture or a video. Let's just say it was funny. 

Knut before the horse took off. 

Other animals on the farm: pigs.

                                   

The next night we cooked the tails ups and ate them. Apparently there is a little bit of meat on those suckers and they are good. Living in Patagonia and with a farm family I get to have these cultural experiences that a lot people don't get to share with me. It makes me appreciate where I am so much and makes me really enjoy it. The time is flying by so fast and it just scares the crap out of me that I have already been here for almost 5 months. Someone slow the clock down. 

SIDENOTE:

Today I went to a Rotary lunch with a about 30-40 Rotarians and their families and got to meet a lot of people. Not only was it a great social event with unbelievable food, but it was also on another farm with a bunch of sheep. The own picked Max (the german), two Rotarians, and I to have a competition to see who could catch a sheep first with our bare hands. Well, I had some practice. I had one in my hands within two minutes. I carried it up to the house and everyone took pictures and said congrats to me. I am starting to become a bit of a farmer. Yeehaa.

P.S. If you want more photos that are more graphic shoot me an email at westonmuenchrotary@gmail.com  and I would be happy to show you some more details.