This was my first week working as a work trader at the Kanekiki Farm. So far, as an intern, I had been working 10 hours a week on the farm, plus another 10 hours a week on my internship project, which in my case was this fruitarian blog and my fruitarian books. Now that I am a work trader, I work 20 hours a week at the Kanekiki Farm while continuing to work on my fruitarian blog and books.
Working extra hours on the farm isn’t bad at all. I will admit that I do get a little more tired during my work day, especially if I am doing heavy work like cutting cane grass with a machete or weed whacking for many hours. However, once I am done working I take a rest and don’t feel run down at all.
Intra-Personal Conflicts Inside the Raw Vegan Community
The thing that got me the most tired this week was stress and lack of fruit at the Kanekiki Farm. The stress has been coming from several directions, mainly relationships with other people in the community.
To be honest, there are a few people that irritate me. There is no nice way of saying this, they are loud and/or obnoxious and/or irresponsible and don’t follow the rules of the community like keeping things clean and organized. I also don’t think they work as hard or as mindfully as some other members of the community do. The worst part is that when I kindly ask them to make an adjustment, they get mad and defensive.
On the other hand there is a few people who seem to be very upset with me but they are not letting me know. I can tell by the way they relate to me, or avoid relating to me, that there are problems between us. I tried approaching some of this people so they can tell me what is wrong, but they have refused to speak to me about this issue.
Luckily I don’t have problems with everyone within our raw vegan community. At the moment there is almost 30 people living here, 50% more than when I arrived. I would assume it is common that I wouldn’t get along with every single person here. I also believe that I could mend all these relationships if these people were open to talk things out.
I guess one of the things that I am disappointed about living at the Kanekiki Farm is that I thought intra-personal communication would be simpler, but not everyone here practices nonviolent communication and that ends up being an issue for us all. When one link of the community is broken, the whole community is broken. I can feel it with myself and others as well.
Vegan Conflicts with Animals at the Kanekiki Farm
I have also had a particularly annoying conflict with a homeless cat that has been roaming around our hut since I moved there. At first I thought she wouldn’t be an issue, but then she started meowing day and night. I talked to Vicky and Barb about taking her away, but they said that if they took her to the humane society they would probably put her to sleep.
This created an ethical conflict for me. Do I chose to put the cat to sleep? Or do I let the cat take away my sleep by waking me up countless of times on the evenings and mornings, day after day?
I tried many different approaches. First I tried dealing with the sounds by covering my ears, that didn’t work. Then I tried taking her away from the hut when it was time to sleep, that didn’t work either. Eventually I said “fuck it” and I let her inside the hut. That worked for one night. The following night she was back to making noises, even being inside the hut. To make matters worse, she started bringing dead rats inside the hut.
I decided to talk to Barb and Vicky again, they will probably take her away. I know this is a vegan community and I am very much for honoring the life of animals, but this particular cat is not honoring my life nor the life of other animals such as the dead rat she placed on our hut. If being a loud murdering cat is her nature, getting rid of her and taking care of my need to sleep is my nature. (Update: I already solved this issue on a peaceful an ethical way, you can read about it on my blog about Why Veganism is Ridiculous and Why It Isn’t).
I would say that I have the same issue with mosquitoes. They are loud when they fly by my ear, and they are annoying when they bite me and make me itch. Surely enough, that is their nature, but killing them and taking care of my needs is mine. Other people may have a more “evolved” or ethical perspective or approach but rather feel comfortable with mine.
Food Conflicts our the Raw Vegan Community
On top of all that, this week was particularly challenging for me because I ran out of food half way through the week. I have been purchasing mostly papayas and I didn’t get enough on our last order. On top of that, the people who are in charge of picking up our food orders went traveling for the weekend without letting us know, which means I went three extra days without food.
This wouldn’t be an issue if there was plenty of food at the Kanekiki Farm, but unfortunately there isn’t. The citrus season is coming to an end and the papaya harvest isn’t going so well. There are still plenty of lilicois and avocados, but they don’t have enough glucose or water to keep me going all day. This is a temporary problem because lately we haven’t gotten enough sun or rain, I am sure our harvest will improve soon.
In the meantime, over the past few days, I had to resolve to eating more vegetables and avocados which I didn’t enjoy much at all. The lettuce I bought costed $7 and so did a stalk of celery which was far from great. I spent more on a couple of meals than I spend on half a week of papayas. It was ridiculous, plus, I didn’t feel nearly as well. To make the whole situation worse, I was supposed to get 100 papayas this week, but the lady we order from said she ran out of papayas. I have to go to the market today to see what I can find.
Am I Staying at the Kanekiki Farm?
A few weeks ago I talked to Vicky and Barb about my stay at the Kanekiki Farm. I told them it was my intention to stay here as long as possible. They also said they wanted me to stay, and that they were concerned about my thoughts about leaving.
However, a couple of weeks later, when my internship was over, Barb told me she only had room for me to work trade for a month, and that after that we would touch base. I was confused about this because I thought work traders got a 3 to 6 months extension. I talked to Vicky and Barb about this and got slightly different answers from them.
This has gotten me a little bit worried, so I will start looking for other places to live, not because I want to move out of the Kanekiki Farm, but because I want to stay in Hawaii and I want to make sure I don’t find myself stranded with no place to go. There are plenty of farms in this area of Hawaii and there are also very cheap places where I can camp. Again, I am not trying to move anywhere, I am just playing it safe.
Updates on My Fruitarian Diet and Bodybuilding Project
In terms of fruitarian bodybuilding, this week was a complete fail. It is no surprise thought, considering all the interventions I was involved in and the lack of food available to fuel my workouts. It was quite a disappointment to break my fully fruitarian diet month, I did great for a couple of weeks, eating nothing but fruit, but I had to stop because I literary ran out of fruit.
I am not super angry about this because I now know I can get by on fruit without problem. Even better, I know I can do great eating only one type of fruit for days, such as oranges, papayas or grapes. This to me counts as success and a huge leap forward.
I don’t care if I couldn’t workout much this week. I learned and I did some experiments that support my theories very well. Now it is just a matter of solving some conflicts, getting enough food and getting back with my fruitarian bodybuilding project.
Hoping for Resolutions in the Community
I hope all the conflicts I am having with people, animals and food get resolved. I trust this is just a stage in the process and that soon things will smooth out. I noticed that I am not the only one who has been stressed out lately. Almost everyone I spoked to have some issues going on, some people got sick, other people are feeling sad, others are anxious and others are mad. I think there was only a few people who seemed like they were doing well.
Anyhow, I just wanted to give you a quick update on my experience at the Kanekiki Farm and let you know how things are going with the raw vegan community. I will post again next week, if not sooner.
Blessings,
