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The First Week: Workaway Diaries

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It’s officially been one week since Tim and I began our workaway on a small organic vineyard in Central Chile. Here’s the overview so far:

Hard work is hard, but rewarding

I think it’s a fantasy ideal: toiling all day in the heat in some romantic setting. There’s a sense of purity to pushing your body, living simply, spending your days in the fresh air and beneath open skies. And, it does feel pure. But, it’s also tough.

Every day means dirt beneath fingernails, skin covered with sun cream and sweat and tiny bugs. Aching backs and tired bodies. The days don’t fly, but drift by lazily as the sun grows in intensity.

Maybe that sounds all bad, but it isn’t quite so. By the time the mid-afternoon hits, I feel good about my productivity during the day. Physical labour is tough, but the results are very visible. It feels good to look back and really see what you’ve accomplished. Plus, I feel like I really worked my body—I don’t need to feel guilty about hunching over my laptop for the whole day. Also, I think anyone can appreciate how good it feels to cook yourself some good food and relax with an iced coffee after a day like that.

A routine can kill or complement creativity

It takes time to get used to having real responsibilities again. Travelling can really make you feel like every moment can be used for something new. Then, you realize that real life has dogs that need to be fed at certain hours, dishes that need to be washed after every meal, and duties that restrict you from taking advantage of the hours when you feel most creative and productive (which, happens to be around the hours of 8-11 in the morning for me—inconvenient).

It’s easy to schedule your day around the routine that seems to easily fall into place, but (for me, at least) this can really kill your motivation to work on new projects, to explore new ideas beyond the initial thought, and to work extra hard for something that just doesn’t have the tangible realness of those routine things.

Luckily, acknowledging this difficulty can be a huge step forward. Acknowledging the routine itself can be a huge step forward. That gives you the chance to make small changes, to fit things into the in-between moments (like writing this), and to avoid falling victim to afterwork indulgence (like Netflix, cocktails, or other completely fantastic things that just aren’t conducive to productivity).

Embracing your setting is a beautiful thing

Here I sit, in a rural part of a popular wine region in Chile. I have a front porch with a chair, five dogs to keep me company. I’m one hour from the beach and a couple of hours from the mountains. Every evening I see a late setting sun cast its glow over green, green vineyards, with birds constantly swooping and chirping. There are fluffy ducklings across the yard, and a kitten who just wants to play. There’s a rose garden that begins two feet beyond where I sit. This could be paradise for a huge portion of the human population. It’s just good to take it all in from that perspective.

Getting Into A Routine: Workaway Diaries Day 4

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Even though it’s only my third day of working, fourth day here overall, I feel like a routine is already beginning to form. It goes like this:

Wake up, work, lunch, work, edit and write, supper, clean, TV, write, sleep.

Being in a routine has always driven me crazy. I get caught up in always wanting to progress, to move forward, so having to stick to a routine makes me feel stagnant. The daily tasks seem to drain my day and get in the way. However, I’ve been trying to change my perspective and see the value and growth in small actions. Also, there are things we all have to do daily just to keep up. Not washing the dishes is not the answer, no matter how much it seems like an endless task.

In other news, I’ve been watching a fair amount of BBC World News lately. I must add that this is partially because there are very few English channels or shows I can really follow in Spanish to be found.

Anyway, the point is that today I saw a segment on a 17-year-old kid from Pakistan who used his Make-A-Wish to meet the 18-year-old girl that the Taliban tried to have killed for going to school. Because she was his idol. It’s both beautiful and sad—beautiful that there are teenagers out there with real perspective and the ability to have truly inspirational role models who live outside the world of obsessive celebrity culture, and sad to consider the circumstances and situations around which it happens. I believe there are young people everywhere who have valid opinions and ideals, but it seems so easy to fall into the superficiality and simple-mindedness that popular culture presents. It can be blinding.

Yep, lots of time for introversion these days.

Workaway dogs

Side note: Though I’ve been posting every day this week, I don’t think I’ll keep it up for the entire month. I’ll probably switch to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule from here out. Partly because I want to free up more time in the days for just getting to know the region, and partly because my workdays have been pretty much the same so far. So, expect future posts to contain two-three days worth of diaries.

Feeling Stress-Free in Chile: Workaway Diaries Day 3

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I dreamt last night of going back to my high school and being unable to recall my locker combination. These dreams are always frustrating because they bring back the days of trying to remember my combination after a long break from school. Honestly, combination locks still give me that sense of anxious frustration today.

Not that this dream had anything at all to do with my second day of work here in rural Chile. The opposite actually—this is probably the most stress-free position I’ve ever held. Not that it’s a traditional job in the sense of getting paid. The work is hard, but it’s straightforward and consistent. I don’t feel like I’m being judged for performance along the way.

Today, we weeded all day, again, though in a different setting. This time, we were freeing hawthorne saplings from dense and tangled masses that had taken over their fence-adjacent territory. I swear I’ll get over my issue with spiders here (yes, I’m afraid of everything). I’m already getting used to the sensation of constantly having a layer of bugs crawling on my legs.

I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond during the days. It’s a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while, so it works out that I have plenty of time to listen while I work. It’s also quite topical, given that huge sections of the book concern why agriculture arose in particular geographical regions, along with a big focus on why Europeans were able to conquer the New World. Of course, this delves deeply into the topic of the Spanish conquest of the Incan Empire, which has been a constantly present subject throughout my travels in South America. Throughout my studies, I always had such an interest in human evolution and the progression of societies and civilization, so it’s very cool to read about (well, hear about) why certain things happened the way they did, rather than just what happened.

On another note, we got some groceries today! Our host picked us up plenty of vegetables, a ton of oatmeal, and a few more bags of pasta (we already have a ton, but I suppose you can never have too much?). So, we were able to cook up some roast potatoes, carrots, green beans, and onions for supper. It’s nice to eat something other than noodles.

So ends day two of work. I’ve got dirt under my nails that won’t come loose, even though I was wearing gloves all day. I feel sore like I’ve been doing squats all day. But, I’m feeling more positive about things than I have in weeks. Hopefully, that’s a good sign.

Getting Down And Dirty In Chile: Workaway Diaries Day 2

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Last night, our host invited us by the main house to get to know one another and enjoy a few glasses of some local red. For a couple of hours, we swapped stories on our histories, travels, and experiences with the local culture, along with draining a couple bottles of good wine.

Drinking wine the night before starting work is not always the brightest idea, though it’s rude to turn down an invite from your host, right? Admittedly, the wine-induced sleep was not so restful, but we rose anyway and got ourselves fed and ready to go by 8 am.

No one said the work would be glamourous, so I was unsurprised to spend the entire workday plucking weeds. In a way, it can be quite meditative, though leaning down and pulling up the grassy invaders can become less-than-comfortable over time. However, it is pretty satisfying to turn back and see an area transformed, knowing that it was all you.

Also, I should probably mention that there are 5 dogs here, one of which is only 3 months old, and 3 cats. So, the day did get broken up semi-frequently with some friendly visits. And, when I say friendly, I mean two dogs deciding to play fight on top of you, or put your your whole arm in their mouth while you’re trying to pick things up.

The food situation here isn’t quite up to par at the moment. A lack of a grocery run has meant we’ve had to get creative with what’s been left in the cupboards. There’s no such thing as a tienda within easy reach. Oatmeal, pan-fried bread (I can get creative with a little flour and some spices) with homemade salsa, and a stir-fried pasta with onion, carrot, and cabbage were on the menu for today. Tomorrow, we should get to the market and get some more ingredients to mix it up with.

So, for now, I’m dealing with my first day of physical work in quite some time, on a wine-influenced sleep, and a lack of food to a degree. Luckily, that combination might just be the perfect thing to help me sleep through the songs of the crickets tonight.

On A Vineyard In Central Chile: Workaway Diaries Day 1

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After three months of non-stop travel through Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, I finally find myself unpacking my bags and settling in somewhere for more than 3 or 4 days. It’s a strange feeling, but something I’ve been (admittedly) longing for.

For the next four weeks, I’ll be spending my days as a Workawayer in Chile. Similar to WOOFing, Workaway connects hosts with individuals or couples looking to exchange around 5 hours of work per day, usually 5 days a week, for food and accommodations. The work varies—from teaching English and childcare to hostel reception and physical labour.

For Tim and I, this means a month on an organic vineyard, in a very rural part of Chile’s Central Valley.

Now, I know I’ve been neglecting this space. The truth is that it’s been hard for me to find a writing routine while on the road. Every day has been packed with activities, sightseeing, planning, bus travel, and squeezing in some freelance editing along the way.

Aside from that, I’ve also grown a lot in the past few months, and found myself questioning why I write what I do, why I spend time on certain topics, and what issues are really important to me. These are things I haven’t quite figured out, but I’ve been too scattered and confused to really put them into words.

Why does all of this matter? I suppose it doesn’t really, but it’s all a precursor to this, my plan for the next month.

Instead of sorting through the confusion head on, I’ll dial it back and spend some time just enjoying the process of recording memories again. And, if you took the time to read the title of this post, you already know what this means: open and casual diary-style entries that simply tell the story of my time here.

Perhaps it’s not exciting, perhaps it’s not interesting to anyone aside from future me who might look back on this in a couple of years. But, doesn’t that make it worth it anyway?

Let’s just get on with it.

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