Today, I (Fer) woke up at around 5:40 AM to the beautiful harmony of the rooster, the gentle wind swaying the trees, and John Stephen snoring next to me in the tent. Having soaked up the sounds that the morning had to offer, I joined Celia in feeding the pigs, and looking for eggs in the chicken pen. While feeding the chickens, we walked for around two minutes with a bucket of water for them, which we completely dropped a few meters away from the chicken pen and had to go back. We took advantage of the early hours and Celia made some muffins while I prepared a Jamaica drink for the group. Everyone else later woke up, and we ate breakfast while sharing our thoughts on how we slept, and who was gonna be group leader and photographer for the day. Sydney was today’s group leader, and I joined her by taking group photos and writing up this briefing for our families to hopefully read. We talked about the plan for the day and got ready to leave for New Bedford.
Our first stop was a local homeless shelter, which RTB farm works with in a project called Manifest Love. Manifest Love started as a result of the pandemic, and is a project that built and maintained a vegetable garden for the homeless shelter. This garden does not only provide food, but it also allows for the displaced people to grow, take care, and benefit from their garden. Our stop there consisted of cultivating kale, watering the garden and getting to know the project. After some hard work in the garden, it was time to go eat and we enjoyed food and played hand games while we recharged for a fun afternoon.
Being full of energy and excitement we began our trip with the New Bedford Whaling Museum, a museum that showcases the whaling history of Dartmouth with art, giant whale skeletons, life-sized boats, and fishing artifacts. We spent a few hours there, walking down halls that had dramatic encounters with whales painted on them, exploring what it was like to be a sailor, and learning about the sea ecosystem.
After the museum we were free to roam in groups in the town of New Bedford. On our walk we passed by the Seamen’s Bethel, a chapel that served as inspiration and even appeared in “Moby Dick”, the novel by Herman Melville. We also explored art galleries, local stores, public libraries, and ended our walk by eating ice cream in the harbor.
After our visit to New Bedford ended, we returned to RTB Farm, making a quick stop in Davoll’s to load up on snacks, and had lasagna for dinner. We journaled about our day and enjoyed our free time: Sydney worked on her friendship necklaces that are made out of animal teeth she and I found on our bone hunting walks, JS played exciting basketball matches against any brave challenger, and we all talked and giggled about our day and any memories we had made. Memories that included Viviane getting accidentally kicked in the head in the middle of the night, a story that ended in everyone erupting into laughter.
As the sun went down, we gathered for a meeting around a campfire, and later finished with an intense game of hide and seek in the pitch-black farm. Good night from Round the Bend Farm, and remember not to get lost in the forest… without a fun companion!