Tema, Sunday Day 7.
We have been on the road for a week now and everyone is still settling into this new family. Saturday night we had fresh fish and I filled up my belly on sashimi and fish tacos. Blitz sat in front of the sashimi station and cut and ate tuna for four hours straight and I would occasionally come over and grab a piece to dunk in the soy sauce and let the soft goodness slide down my throat. Afterwards Weldboy built a fire on the beach and Morgan, Amanda, Allison, Blitz, Katie, Ulises, Shelley, Sam and myself all accompanied him and had a late night jam, complete with fire spinning and Blitz beat boxing on the didgeridoo in between his Spanish raps. Finally I walked up the beachside cliff and went into the bus to crash out, blanketless as a few people were sleeping and I didn’t wish to disturb them throwing stuff around looking for sleeping utensils.
When I woke up I had a sleeping bag spread out over my body. Someone had taken care of me in the night and I was appreciative as it was quite cold in the middle of the night. Ryan came up to me and asked to create a schedule for the day so I went about my task and created a tentative schedule with a meeting after the first work shift before lunch. This was greeted with mixed emotions as we have had quite a few meetings already and not everyone was to excited to waste an hour of daylight to have another meeting. So I went back to the bus and scrawled down the new schedule on the white board, with permanent marker, oops!
Summer and Liz came close and informed me that they were headed to the beach to go for a morning swim. This sounded like and excellent idea to me so I agreed to meet them on the sand. As I was leaving for the trail breakfast was just about ready, so I knew that it would have to be a quick swim or we would risk losing out on a satisfying first meal. I picked my way down the trail and saw two people stretched out on the sand up the beach and I sprinted up the sand to them. The water was perfect, hovering at about 72 degrees with little waves rolling in from the strong wind howling down the Sea of Cortez. Summer had brought one of my boards out and I tried to give her a brief paddling lesson but she was already on top of it. After a half hour we rock hopped our way to the shore to see if we could still snag ourselves some grub. We couldn’t remember where we had set our stuff though, and I ran down the opposite direction a ways looking for my new Sanuk Sidewalk Surfers (the best shoes EVER!!!)
Walking into camp I passed Vinicio and Blitz cleaning dishes although it was my dish day. Everyone had already eaten so I grabbed a bowl and raced over to the front grill. No eggs were left so I filled a plate of rice, beans and oatmeal and gobbled it down. I ran back to the dishes but they had already been finished. Now it was time to get to work and get dirty. We were building a home out of dirt and it starts with mixing together 5 buckets of dirt to a half-bucket of cement and a half-bucket of water. Then the dirt is taken over to the work site and we fill up long bags and place them in a circle. Afterwards we take a giant mallet and tamp down the bags, flattening and hardening them. The process is incredibly simple and creates a house that is totally green and biodegradable, and its fun!!
We had been working for a couple of hours, getting filthy in the sun. Liz was messing with Shelley making everything the youngster did vaguely sexual. Sam was running things like he had been doing this for years. We make quick progress on the dome we were working on but then Jeff (our host) came over and realized that the we had just tamped down a 16-inch bag where there should have been an 18-inch bag. This was a big problem as the bag was 23 feet long and filled with tamped down super adobe, which is extremely heavy. Somebody had the bright idea to grab all available hands and physically move the bag the fifteen feet over to the other dome. So everyone circled around and started lifting. The bag was incredibly heavy definitely over a ton of weight distributed around as everyone struggled to keep their section in the air. I was one of the first one’s to lift so I was lifting from the get go. As we finally set the bag back down on the other dome my foot got stuck in underneath it and as everyone tried to help me get it free Katie’s knees got trapped under the next section of the bag. Luckily we were able to free her as well and no one was hurt in the process. People started circling up and giving each other lower back massages, as everyone was feeling a little sore.
Lunchtime! I ate the rice and fish stew quickly and relaxed in the sun on the bluff overlooking the sea. Blitz and I collected all the dirty dishes and gave them a scrub down and it was time for me to take a siesta. I was exhausted from moving the weighty bag and was relishing sleep. First Ulises, Summer and I had to create a show for tonight. We sat in the back of the bus and sketched out an outline for a show involving the ocean as a group of synchronized dancers, our band grooving and funking, an evil trash clan ruining the ocean with their carelessness, an angel and a devil following the main character around the entire time influencing his decisions, and fire spinning galore! Finally it was time for me to sleep and I passed out until it was time for our meeting.
Jeff had bought some Coronas for us and we sat around drinking them and listening to him explain the geometry of the domes for us. Then we discussed our plan for the next day and Ulises gave a brief breakdown of the show we would be improvising tonight. Finally it was dinnertime and we all grubbed down on a fine meal of fish, salsa, rice, beans and vegetables. Afterwards we all sang happy birthday to Evan, one of Jeff’s little nephews who has been running around the camp playing cowboys and Indians and the like.
We headed back to the bus and got into costumes for the show and then started walking down the road to the soccer field that would be our stage. As we had not made any announcements to the community we did not expect to have a large audience but when we got to the cement field there was a crew playing soccer and a local family selling tacos in a stand. We waited for the game to wrap up and invited them to stay and watch our show. The kids stayed and so did some of the other guys who were a little on the drunk side. We started out grooving and Ulises spun some poi to grab their attention. From there it had its ups and downs, but it was hard for me to tell as it was all in Spanish and so was the audience response, it seemed like the older drunk guys were heckling in Spanish but Ulises seemed to handle it pretty well. Finally we ended the show and the band jammed out for a bit while we danced and Blitz went over and sang a Mexican tune in his Japanese accent. Then Ryan and Summer came out and did some physical comedy for them that had us all rolling on the ground laughing. Ryan with his wig and false nasty teeth and summer in her big red dress and make-up owning the soccer field stage.
We all headed back to camp and I crawled into bed between Ryan and Shelley who where having an impromptu lullaby jam and as I drifted off to sleep I listened to the sweet sound of my friends’ voices and instruments, satisfied and happy.
Now I have to run. We have to leave to drive to La Paz and catch the ferry over to the mainland in a half hour and I got to try to go post some stuff for you all to catch up on what we’ve been doing. Hope everyone out there is having an epic day.
Tony Desmond Breen.
