My First Tour

So today I was able to shadow during one of our programs called SEEDS. Its a one-day event with middle schools students that does a quick touch on everything here at the farm. It includes a meal in our Global Village, milking a goat, a talk about eggs, two more visits to sites in the Global village and a visit to the garden and kitchen areas. Its a great taster course at Heifer Project, but if I were a students I would be itching to find out more. Here are some pictures I took during my shadowing opportunity today. 

Emily starting the fire with our group

Cutting the veggies for our Appalachia meal

The kids cooking

Emily in the Poland site talking about Heifer's work in Easter Europe

Emily still in Poland, discussing eating bunnies. He he 

Talking about the benefit of eating local eggs vs store bought

Kids petting a kid

MOOOOOOOOOO

Emily helping harvest a parsnip 

We gathered 3 parsnips to bring to the kitchen

In the kitchen, talking about preservation

Some pics

Our Guinea hog, Black Jack

Our new Yaks! 

One of the trails that surround the Heifer Project

Train Tracks 

The reservoir 

Madeline and Lincoln

Welcome

Welcome to a new blog and a new adventure! This is where I will be writing of my adventures working at Heifer International. I have been here for a whopping 4 days but am really enjoying it! Its a new experience and I think I will be learning a lot of new and exciting things while I am here.

The last couple of days have been mostly orientation things. Learning what it means to be a "residential volunteer" and what I will be expected to do as an Education Volunteer. I will be hosting groups (high school, middle school, college, congregations, etc) through the Heifer Learning Center at Overlook Farm and talking about what Heifer does, what Overlook Farm does, and how they can be involved. This also includes taking them through the Global Village which has replicas of houses from various areas of the world that Heifer works in. Some of the ones here at the Overlook Farm are Kenya, Ghana, Peru, Poland, Appalachia, and Tibet.  Here I will get to talk about the various gardening techniques and foods grown in these areas.

I live in a communal house on the farm. I live in the basement with 3 other girls, including my roommate. Upstairs there are 7 more people. Total, there are 24 residential volunteers on the farm. Since being in the Peace Corps and living in my sorority house in college, I think I have the communal living thing down pat! I kinda like always having people around; it keeps things interesting. Communal living also means a lot of group outings, which is super fun. This morning we went out to breakfast, but I believe there are times when we go to a trivia night in a local bar, to Boston for some city excitement, or to the library to rent some entertainment.

Besides my job, I also have to do farm chores, which can include feeding our various animals on the farm (goats, cows, sheep, chickens, llamas, alpacas, yaks, Guinea pigs, and hogs). We do this as a volunteer team so I dont have to do it everyday. But its kinda fun getting into the pens with the various animals.

I will try to get some pictures up ASAP of some of the area around the farm and where I live. I am excited to start this blog and I hope it provides for some interesting insight to living on a farm, working with an NGO and into my life.