Learn a lesson! Don´t upset the natives!

Except in this case, it is don´t upset your volunteers, and I am the one who is upset.

Stacie and I were dropped off at the beginning of a dirt road, our bags on our backs and a vague idea that if we start walking in this direction, eventually we will come across the farm that we were supposed to be working on for the next two weeks. We had already had quite the time getting to this point- our limited directions told us to go to a town where there was no street by the name that we needed and, needless to say, our "trucha" driver wanted to charge us double and then some to take us to the correct spot. I was adamant in not paying more for a ride where he said he knew where we needed to go, and I could sense that he just wanted to extort us for more money. So my Spanish of 4 months has payed off and I was able to argue him down from 25 pesos to 10 for the both of us. I felt pretty good about that.

As he drove off (i´m sure mumbling in discontent about his situation) we started walking. and walking. and walking. 3 plus kilometers in the hot mid day sun with our 25 kilo bags on our backs. Eventually we see a corroded old gate with "monistario, privado" scrawled upon it in big letters and assume this must be the farm that we have come so far to be a part of. We walk through the gates and see

nothing

a grand space that looks eerily similar to the area on the outside: overgrown pear trees, weeds up to my shoulders, flies and bugs of all sorts lazily droning by and a small path that can hardly be called a road. Foot path would be more adequate. Taking our chances, we walk on in. We site a building in the distance and make for that, hoping that there will be someone to help guide us to this monastery and all the monks and nuns that we are supposed to be helping. Instead we encounter 5 gringos and a lady with a shaved head who turns out to be the only nun on the place.

We were duped! There is no farm, there is no buddist monastery, there is no yoga classes, there is no mediation house. Instead, there is a dream of the sole buddist nun in Argentina who would like to see it happen. As in, it does not exist in the present. As in, she wants to use our labor to make her dream a reality. At first we just shrugged our shoulders and said, okay, we can give you a hand. No problem. But things have escalate and we no longer think we can stay there. She has sent 2 boys packing because they didn´t agree with her and the other 2 volunteers are on the verge of leaving as well. It is a sad situation, and I really do feel bad for her, but she did not really tell us what we were getting ourselves into and to be honest, appears like she is on a power trip of sorts. I don't really respect her.

I guess it is all a part of the continuous lesson that we are learning here: be flexible, don´t expect too much but always be prepared for the best things to happen. It is all part of our adventure and, frankly, after those mosquitoes last night attacked me, I´m ready for the next adventure!

I don´t really know where we will be going from here. I think we are going to go up to the mountains for a few days (we are in el crus de los andes right now) and will definitely be drinking some more amazing mendoza wine! After that, we will head over to Chile and do some work for people that I know I trust!