“Thank you for flying with us today, we are now beginning our descent to Guayaquil,” stated the flight attendant over the telecom. I whipped my head around to my mom, and we looked at each other with panicked expressions and racing heartbeats. “Oh, shoot,” my mom muttered. “We actually got on the wrong plane to Guayaquil instead of San Cristóbal.” I sat up rigidly in my previously comfortable airplane seat, rolling my lips together nervously, the information slowly sinking in.
Suddenly, the flight attendant’s calm voice interrupted our frenzied thoughts. “If your final destination is San Cristóbal, please remain seated as we will allow additional passengers from Guayaquil onto the plane,” the flight attendant said. My entire body relaxed into the cushion and all the panic drained from my face. “Oh thank God,” I breathed. The momentary turbulence in my head dissipated.
Throughout my environmental sustainability quest in the San Cristóbal Island of the Galápagos Islands, I experienced moments like these-of uncertainty and frustration. However, these incidents led to my eventual appreciation for travel’s uncertainties, and my acceptance of the unpredictable nature of life.
We arrived at the Hacienda Tranquila on a Sunday afternoon. It was drizzling, and tranquil, just like the farm’s namesake. As I exited Giovanni’s (the farm manager) truck (the car of choice in the Galápagos), I gazed beyond the dilapidated gate to the Hacienda in front of me. Multiple frayed and faded hammocks hung suspended along the sides of the long tin roof. Bulging bundles of bananas patterned in a green to yellow gradient hung down from the roof, practically asking to be plucked. Plain, sky blue cabins bordered the tin roof. Here I stood surveying my home for the next two weeks, on a farm in the middle of an island, 3,000 miles from my actual home. My prospects were laughable: a Chinese American teenager on a farm in the middle of the Galápagos? For a moment, I wondered why of all places, I was here. But, as I would throughout the next two weeks, I swallowed the large pill of my fate.
My eyes peeled open to the sound of my beeping phone alarm, but I hadn’t actually been sleeping the entire time. Around 5am, the birds outside my window had made it a point to let everyone know that they had woken up, and the wind and rain pounded against the thin tin roof above my room endlessly.
After getting ready for the day and eating a light breakfast (with bananas that I plucked from the bundle), all of the farm’s volunteers gathered around the wooden table under the roof to hear Giovanni’s briefing on the day’s tasks. Our group included college students from France, America, and the UK, a woman from Germany, and a woman from Australia. As the youngest volunteer, and one out of two non-Caucasians in the group (my mom being the other), I felt out of place instantly. However, in the next two weeks, I would learn and be inspired by those around me.
The morning task was to hike up to a neighboring farm and plant grass for the cows. The instructions sounded reasonable, but the rain and sticky humidity made our work much more difficult. My job was to plant tufts of grass in the holes that other volunteers dug. Now, dropping grass into holes sounds easy. However, the work was backbreaking, and each time I rose from planting the grass, my eyesight would go dark and spotted, giving me a mini headache. The planting also proved extremely monotonous. I sweated in the humidity, repeating the same motions over and over again. Warm sweat beaded down my forehead, only to be greeted by cold rain that washed off of my skin. Exhaustion and soreness ran through my body.
After two hours of planting, I rose from a hole, frustrated by my constant headaches and tired by the work. “Why am I doing this? What purpose does this serve?” I wondered. I once again questioned why I had chosen to spend two weeks out of my short summer break volunteering on a farm far from home. “You expected this, right Serena?” my mom asked. But, in truth, I hadn’t formed any expectations before embarking on this trip, because I had no idea what to expect. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I had wanted to put myself through the pain and boredom of farming. Yes, I certainly wanted to serve the community and explore the fascinating place that was the Galápagos Islands. But I was searching for something else; I didn’t know what…
Written by Serena Chen, United Planet Volunteer in Ecuador & NSHSS Merit Scholarship Winner
Join us to volunteer abroad with United Planet in more than 25 countries!
ABOUT UNITED PLANET
United Planet is a non-profit organization with a mission to create a global community, one relationship at a time. Established in 2001, United Planet offers volunteer abroad, virtual internships, internships abroad, gap year volunteering, and global virtual exchange in more than 40 countries.
