Chapter 3: Dirt roads and Peach cobbler

After me and Sakina had made our introductions, that is when the real adventure began.  I threw my suitcase into the trunk of her funny little Japanese truck and ran to sit next to her in the driver’s seat.  While we were on our way to her house, she told me how she had the whooping-cough.  Then she let out this horrible cough that sounded painful and gross.  I felt my face cringe at the sound.  She then proceeded to tell me how she had been extremely short-handed because of the no-show Wwoofers.  “I mean, I just don’t understand people anymore!  How can you say you are coming, and then not show up?” she said.  By the way she was driving, you could tell she was in a rush.  There was one point where I thought my heart was going to fly out of my chest when she rounded a curve on the dirt road and it looked like we were about to fly of a cliff.  I would find out later from her husband that Sakina had actually lost about half of her sight.  He would laugh at the idea of her driving down the road like a crazy lady.  Which she did.(No offense to her)

After we had been driving up the dirt road for about 15 minutes, she was still discussing the lack of Wwoofers.  She also would occasionally jerk the steering wheel and point at an eagles nest nestled in the top of a pine tree.  When we finally entered the little town Seldovia,  I instantly fell in love.  The mountains that rose in the background blew me away.  They were not like the North Carolina mountains I was used to.  These were huge and majestic.  And the town was so small, it wasn’t even a half a mile long.  For a city girl, this was like a different planet.  And from the looks of it, I wasn’t going to start complaining.  When we finally pulled up to her beautiful house, I knew I had entered into a fairytale.  This place didn’t even feel like real life, and it certainly wasn’t anything I’ve ever seen before.  Sakina immediately directed me to the room I would be staying, which was actually her office.  There was a twin bed next to the wall and piles of inventory that I could tell belonged to her gift shop that was next door.  Sakina told me, “Only an hour ago I just found out the Musicians that are playing tonight for the town concert are staying the night HERE.  I have so much to do, I haven’t even started planning dinner yet!  I don’t understand why this always happens to me!”  I was starting to feel exhausted for her.

She led me up the stairs and directed me into the kitchen. (Really, the whole house looked like it had just come out of a magazine.)  “I need you to help me make a peach cobbler,” she said, “You can start by washing the rhubarb.”  I was so exhausted from my flight, but I started to do as she said.  I’m a pretty submissive person.  I was scared to tell her that when it came to cooking, I knew absolutely nothing.  While I started to awkwardly chop the rhubarb into uneven pieces, she flew around me, in a way I had never seen before.  This woman was like a ninja in the kitchen!  I could tell she was getting impatient with me, and I started to feel embarrassed.  Why had my mom never taught me how to cook!?  After she had taken control of the knife and started chopping peaches with extreme skill, I did the only thing I knew I was fully capable of… I started to wash dishes.  And that was how me and Sakina started our wonderful teamwork in the kitchen.  She would  do the cooking, and I would wash the dishes.  We made the perfect team!  After she put the beautiful peach cobbler into the oven, we went and got ready for the concert.  All the while I thought to myself, “Oh the excitement of the adventures coming my way!”