Cock-a-doodle-doo!

The roosters. Holy crap. Of course if there are wild chickens it only stands to reason that there are also wild roosters. They began crowing around 4:30 this morning (before the sun was even up), and they didn't stop until well into the late afternoon. It sounded like a bunch of little kids playing kazoos were hiding in the trees all around us.

This place is a jungle. We may be staying on a farm, but it doesn't really resemble a traditional East Coast farm. Mango and papaya trees are towering over our screen house, which is also surrounded by coffee trees. All night long we heard chickens scratching through the leaves, fruit falling to the ground below, birds calling to each other, and defeaning crickets. I kept expecting to see a monkey. The only things that weren't making noise were the mosquitoes due to the rain that fell most of the night, a pleasant sound. I admit, I had to gather some courage to make it out to the bath house for a middle-of-the-night trip. So far, though, everything seems to be more sound than fury. The worst that's happened is that some little creature (possibly a gecko) left a little deposit on Peter's sheet last night.

There's one non-wild animal on the farm: the dog, Alani. Even the four cats that hang around are strays that our hosts graciously feed every day, much to my happiness. They're all very cute and like attention, but are startled away at the slightest sound.

Pete and I were awake at 5:30 this morning. We got up and ate a leisurely breakfast while watching the view from our table. It's amazing how entertaining it is to sit and survey the land with your eyes. No talking, no moving, just observing the world as it moves. We saw a lot of Kona cardinals, which is a (loud!) bird with a bright red head and a black-and-white body. There also seem to be a lot of doves--they resemble mourning doves, but are smaller and sound slightly different (loud!).

Our work schedule on the farm is going to be really light--Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8-12. Everything grows without much work. There are all kinds of wild vegetables and the maintenance on a lot of the fruit trees is minimal.

Today we spread 2,000 pounds of fertilizer (chicken shit) on the mangos, pineapples, ginger, tangelos, oranges, limes, and coffee trees. It went really quickly with all of us working and by the time we were finished we were all covered in it. The work was really great. Not too repetitive, some good heavy-lifting, and lots of walking. Walking on this farm is no simple task since the ground is covered in lava rocks, which takes a lot of concentration not to fall when you're carrying a twenty-five-pound bucket of fertilizer.

The best part of the day was just getting familiarized with the layout of the farm, and becoming acquainted with everything that's grown here. I ate a soursop for the first time, and it was so delicious. Fruit straight from the tree just tastes better and even feels better if you've picked it yourself. After work, Pete and I used the picker basket (a long bamboo pole with a little melon-sized basket on the end) to pick some fruit for ourselves. We got two mangos, one tangelo, one orange, three papyas, one avocado, and three limes. And yesterday Elizabeth brought us four hands of bananas (which grow really tiny here). Most of the fruit we picked wasn't ripe yet, but should be soon enough.

Later we had our first swim in the bay at Manini Beach. The beaches here are not sandy--they're made up of jagged volcanic rock and coral, a really beautiful combination of black and white, but also a very painful combination in terms of walking and swimming. It took us a while before we found a spot we dared to swim in, but even then we stubbed our toes and had to be careful to avoid places where rock was hiding just under the surface ready to scrape our knees. It was about as different from Waikiki as a beach could be--there were maybe six other people there.

We considered hitching a ride on the way back from the beach since it's about forty-minutes one way (and all uphill on the way back), but we braved the walk. It helped that we stopped at a Kona coffee retail shop and had our fill of free samples. We also filled up on water and chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. Our conclusion was that we need to get a moped, but apparently you need a special license for them, so we'll probably look for some cheap used bikes instead. Fran and Martin have been hitchhiking around the entire island and said that it's pretty easy, but I'm a little wary of it, as is Pete. Maybe once we settle in we'll change our minds.

Here's a picture of Pete that I took at the beach earlier today. The white is coral and the black is volcanic rock.