And now we head an hour or so south to Coruche, a big farm with 3 stallions, 3 colts, 1 gelding and 6 mares (mostly Lusitanos). There was also 2 dogs kept on chains, a large quantity of pure bred cats (whom I rarely saw as they were largely kept inside the house), the owner and her quiet brother (neither of whom are in the photos), 1 other volunteer (who’s pictured) and I.

This was the most challenging work exchange experience I had. It was also a beautiful testament to the human spirit. The woman who runs this farm does it singlehandedly. Pause for a moment and take that in. It’s hard to imagine the amount of work that is for any single person to do. She does everything singlehandedly… not only all of the work with her 13 horses (breeding, feeding, cleaning, keeping the stallions separate from each other and the mares, etc., etc., etc.), also all of the other work in the house and on the farm including maintaining and repairing all of her vehicles (9 vans in various states of repair), her generator, the electricity and plumbing, and on and on.
It was incredible to witness.
Truly.

One big challenge to this amazing self-sustainability was that she had gotten arthritis and now everything hurt… and there’s just so much that one person can do in a day. So the inevitable problems cropped up… and built up… and piled up… one on top of the other… and spilled over into an incredible swamp of a mess.

And still she was doing it all by herself. By the time I got there, she was living in a fairly decrepit state, and it had been like that for so long she was just used to it.

So on one hand there was this amazingly competent person, capable of doing a larger variety of tasks in a single day than most people learn to do in their entire lives, and on the other, living in absolutely deplorable conditions. And she was bitter about it all, though not so conscious of that, nor of course that she was taking it out on the people around her.

It took me approximately 6 hours to decide not to stay. I had learned my lesson after the first farm was so challenging… I knew if it was this bad, leaving immediately was the best option. I decided to sleep on it in any case. In the morning, reflecting that she really needed the help, I told her that I would stay a week (vs a possible 6 but not even the entire trial period of 3 that I usually offer).

True to form, she didn’t understand why I wanted to leave. She was completely surprised, astonished even, and proceeded to try to talk me out of it. Why would I want to leave? She had so many horses and she could teach me so much…

I didn’t point out that her house stank of mold from roof that had been leaking for several years. (That was the first time I’d ever seen an occupied house with a water line inside… She’d had as much as 10cm of standing water in her living room earlier that winter.) I didn’t point out again what I’d said yesterday, ten minutes after walking into her house, that I couldn’t cook or eat in there because the litter box and cat spray smells made my eyes water (literally). Nor did I mention that the lack of running water in the kitchen (due to a pipe that had been broken for more than a year) and thus the scads of dirty dishes seemed terribly unsanitary. Nor that the lack of hot water for showers was challenging for me in the winter.

Instead, what I said was, I felt she was uncomfortable with me being there, pointing out that she kept complaining about my food choices and Benoit’s impending arrival – things that I’d made sure we’d agreed to before I arrived. Clearly, for me, this situation was not going to work.

Once the host and I got that sorted out, Aoying and I had a wonderful time together that week. The host left us largely alone and we got on with it, laughing and playing together while we worked. 

And then the generator broke down. A part needed to be ordered and we had to hand carry water for 9 horses for several days (the other 4 horses had water luckily). Can I just say that horses drink a lot? Especially when you have to carry every mouth full to them by hand. Benoit arrived the next day, and having one more set of hands to carry water was great. We agreed to stay a few extra days until the generator was fixed and to help her get the next load of sawdust for the stalls.

I took Aoying to Nazare on the weekend. It was nice to share the beauty of the ocean. She’s a serious dancer, so we had an ocean view dance party.

Suffice to say, this was not the easiest week.
Eye-opening,
inspiring,
enlightening,
and impressive to be sure.
Clean, comfortable and easy, no.

And the contrast from the farm before, with luxuries of every sort, to all types of privation, could not have been more extreme. I loved being outside constantly. I enjoyed the horses and the time with Ayoing and Benoit. I found the contrast rich and invigorating. And boy am I glad I had 3 weeks of luxury and only 1 of privation.
The first thing we did when we left was take really long hot showers and eat a good meal at a nice restaurant. As I’ve often said, I’m very grateful to be alive during a time when we have hot showers. Such a pleasure.