The highlight of my day yesterday was finding the persimmon tree that we somehow managed to walk past for the last two weeks without ever noticing.

The non-highlight of my day yesterday was finding a dead mouse in the trap in the camper van that seemed like it had been there for days.

We had started to smell death in the morning and because we kept the window open, we weren’t exactly sure where the smell was coming from. So in the evening when we got back to the humble abode, I did a quick look to see if I could figure out where or what it was. It was not until the window was closed for some time and we were stuck inside with the smell that we finally were driven mad enough to get up and really search. Actually, we were in the middle of watching Mulan with Mette when she said “oh my gosh I can’t stand it anymore we need to find this”. We got up then and started looking and not too long after did we discover the mousetrap that had been set inside the wardrobe without us knowing. Jo said based on the decomposition that it was pretty clear the mouse had been caught in there for at least a few days, even though we didn’t notice the smell until yesterday.

Still, we were happy to finally locate it and get rid of it. The smell went away quickly once we put the disinfectant on the floor. Then we got back to our movie. I fell asleep shortly thereafter and eventually they decided to pause it and finish the rest tomorrow because everyone started to get sleepy.

This morning we woke up excited for our last day here. But it wasn’t long before I saw a small rodent scurry from the corner of my eye as I was going through camera photos on my computer. It ran from under my suitcase straight underneath our bed.

Great, I thought. The producers couldn’t let us leave without one final test of our patience and will to commit.

We’ve been having a running joke that the whole stay on the land was actually just an undercover TV show based on the way things would go from day to day and the disappearing act of Sergio’s wife. Also because of how it seemed that each time we started to get comfortable and even happy about our situation, something new would be thrown at us. We also were given food in rations and a little more each time. Just before the water tank we used to wash the dishes dried up, it would rain. And when we were coming to the end of patience, something small would come to turn things around.

We used our producer joke to keep morale high on days when we couldn’t do much else but laugh about a circumstance or how something unfolded. But overall, things weren’t really that bad.

Just primitive. And people like to complain.

I’m grateful for the experience. We won’t finish our construction before leaving, but I’m satisfied that we’ve left a solid foundation and structure. Maybe one day we can come back and see our structure up and running as we’ve imagined it. Until then, our time here is up.

And I’m very much looking forward to a warm shower and a clean bed.