Son Rullan

Son Rullan. The l´s come together to form a y sound, in case you were curious. This has been our home for the past...1,2, 10 days already. Angie has already described the scenes so I´ll cover the rest.

My watch crapped out a few weeks back so the sun has become our wakeup call. When our room reaches a dull glow, we know its close to 8am or time to get up. Breakfast is served downstairs at 830am and usually includes coffee and fresh bread and pastries from the local bakery. Besides us 5 there are 4 other volunteers (who have been here over a month) and 2 full time people, our bosses. Angie already mentioned them but they deserve more air time. (This may bore you since I´m describing strangers to you but for us, they have become beautiful friends, ones we wish to remember)

Jorge is a 60 year old Argentinian who lives in a tool shed down the way. For the past 2 years he has leant his time and expertise to Son Rullan as well as doing small outside jobs to stay afloat. Jorge is a skilled builder but his real talent is cooking. We beg for him to cook every night and every few days he rolls his eyes, throws his hands in the air and says one of 7 english words he knows -okay. Typically his creations involve lots of meat cooked slowly over the fire and when I say meat, I mean MEAT. It isn´t until after the hand licking that he informs us what part of the animal our supper came from. Who knew glands could taste so good? Before we arrived another Canadian had been here for 2 weeks and in that time they had struck up a romance. She left the day we arrived but she and Jorge still stay in touch and he is actually flying to London next month to see her again. All of us know in our hearts that things between them will never last, (she is beautiful, eager to travel and 45) but we smile knowing that all we have is today so you go get here Jorge.

Ariel is also Argentinian (no relation to Jorge) and is 23. My first impression of him was a hippie for sure, jerk most likely. As time has passed I was wrong on both accounts. He only knows as much english as Jorge but his eyes light up whenever the group is gathered together eating and he´ll say - familia - gesturing in a circular motion to our kids. He plays his music loud and often, only Bob Marley or monkish spiritual. The first day I was ready to accidently break his Monk and Marley collection but it has grown on me and I now appreciate it and feel its power. One of my big regrets is I cannot communicate with him. I finally broke the ice the other night when we were sitting around the table. He was enaged in a conversation and I was sucking back on my wine (it flows like water in these parts, and is just as cheap) all of a sudden I just lifted my glass and yelled - Canada! It was dumb and random but he loved it, laughing hard then he lifted his own cup and yelled - Argentine! Since then its been good.

Maria is a 30 year old with a quiet soul. She was a Pharmacist in Barcelona for 7 years before realizing she hated her job (and life). Despite investing 12 years in Pharmacy (5 in school) she left it all and came to Son Rullan to rebuild her life. She has a rich soul and talking with her is a pleasure. Teasing her, even more pleasure. She has already picked up on the fact that I like to talk and entertain and one night she finally looked at me as we sat around the fire and said teasingly - you don´t like quiet, do you? haha. oops. Despite her love of quiet we´ve had many conversations about life, careers, spirituality. She´s a good egg.

And then there´s, Tom, a 45 year old German. Angie called him my philosphy buddy and I guess he is. The first day I arrived we were put together for work and have been together ever since. Tom has made my time at Son Rullan incredibly rich. Although our jobs each day are physically draining we spend most of the time discussing spirituality (while we work) so it goes by fast. His spirituality is anything but conventional, but I have still learned a ton from him. The truth is, I have needed a Tom in my life for years, someone I can just spew my spirituality onto and not be judged or misunderstood. Our talks have been epic and usually carry on long after the day´s work is done. Speaking of work, he has quietly taught me to pace myself, SLOWLY, he says. I tell him that in North America, slow is a 4 letter word, (which it is actually.) He nods knowingly and says its the same in Germany, but then he points to the beauty around us and says, enjoy. He is leaving today and I am surprised at how sad I am. We just exchanged emails though so I´m confident our conversations have just begun.

Last but not least are our bosses for the week, Henar and Everest. To say Henar rules the roost is an understatement. She is a 34 year old Spanish woman who exercises more assertiveness then 3 type A men. She zips around the house accomplishing this and that while still finding time to make her workers (that´s us) feel taken care of. She loves Son Rullan and puts all she has into it and because of that can at times seem over the top but its just passion, believe me, I know this passion. Everest is also 34 and is in charge of the work outside. He was born in Nigeria, moved to Spain, married in Soller (10 min away) and has worked at Son Rullan for 10 years. He functions opposite from Henar, very laid back, soft spoken unless politics come up then he turns into a mega church pentecostal pastor proclaiming his political rhetoric to all who will listen. One day he looked at Angie and said - excuse me, are you from Alaska? Angie looked confused until he said - hello Ms. Sarah Palin. hahaha. Not only does he thinks Angie looks like the almost vice president but sounds like her too. Since that day he hasn´t let up calling her Sarah constantly or asking her what things are like or how this and that compares to life in Alaska. Its great seeing your wife bugged by someone else, frees up more time for me to do other things. Today he let us off early at 1230pm. We usally work until 130 or 200pm. He said - just don´t tell the boss. haha, he´s great. And strong, man is he strong. I´ll be jackhammering and pickaxing trying to loosen rock (we´ve been building a chicken house into mountain rock) and he´ll watch me then finally saunter over and well, no more loose rock.

So there it is, Son Rullan. There is much more I could write about including the incredible meals, fires, trails, scenery, sheep, turkeys, even the unique jobs we do each day (Angie and the kids had to clean out the turkey coop the other day. For 3 hours she shoveled and raked through years of poop, mud, grime and poop. When she was done she wasn´t as thrilled as you might think.) Speaking of the kids though, I know its a faux pas to brag on your kids but I have to tell you, for 10 days, 8 of them working days, they have woken up early, then worked for 4-5 hours with very little complaining. When we first arrived, I think the jury was still out on the kids, whether they could hack it our not. After seeing how well and hard they´ve worked everybody sings their praises, gives them first servings at meal times and today Everest said - ok, kids, today you will do nothing. They looked at him blankly not registering until it finally clicked and they celebrated (a little to loudly) - yay, we don´t have to work today. Everyone laughed knowing they deserved a day off. Great kids I have. So easy to forget though.

We fly back to Canada in 6 days finishing our 2.5 month journey across Europe with another exhausting travel day. Bus to Palma, plane to London, bus to different London Airport, plane home. We are scheduled to arrive in Calgary at 9pm next Wednesday night. From there we will be staying with our good friends Hope and Darcy Pawlak until we will most likely head to Vancouver Island the following week. I say most likely because, believe it or not, our future (namely career) is still up in the air. Its a little unerving when we think about it. Seriously though, we should know the first week in December which job works out and which province we´ll be living in. Our preference would be the Island but as Tom says -the universe may have different plans. As long as the Universe communicates, we´ll be good.

If you have followed us this far, wow. Your presence with us via the blog has enriched our experience and we thank you for reminding us of home. If you have become addicted to our life, similar to characters in a TV show, you need help, seriously. Still, we will be continuing this blog as we begin our new adventure entitled - So I need a job, a house because I´m done travelling.

John