BAM!
I forgot how tall these beds were, and how the ladders didn't go all the way to the ground. I glanced down and my toe was bleeding and bent. I haven't even been here twelve hours, I can't possibly have injured myself already?
So i hobbled down to the showers, moaning and groaning, and decided I'd suck it up and keep it quiet. I mean, I came here to help not to be needy.
Each day you're assigned with different team members to watch the beaches. In the Faroes they have multiple islands and there's multiple teams watching them. My team handled two different islands Vagar and Streymoy.
Today I would be partnered with Sarah and Lia. We arrived at the first beach of the day and found a large group of Faroese people in the parking area.
I didn't know what to expect. I just got here and we're already running into large groups of people, are they nice? are they mean? are they going to attack us? So I stepped back and let Lia and Sarah lead, best to watch first to learn the ropes.
At first they're just talking about how lovely the day is (lovely its freezing) and how they are part of a local hiking group and they meet every weekend to go hiking on the mountains. But as more and more of them arrive and see us in our gear, the conversation quickly changes towards why we're there.
"These are our traditions, years ago we hunted whales because it was necessary we had no way to get food, this is how things have been done for years"
"The whale is delicious, have you tried it have you tried the whale"
On and on it continues...
The group becomes larger and larger, one woman gets close in my face telling me she doesn't want us to think they are bad people, but we are bad people for coming here an telling them to change their ways. Who are we to just tell people to change.
We explain how the whales are vital to the ocean, and how we feel about the slaughter. We also explain that we don't eat meat and are vegetarians.
Then they bring out the whale meat. Containers filled with it. The smell was so rancid I was going to puke, they began eating it and putting it in our face trying to get us to try it. I walked away from the group trying to hold it together. Now wasn't the time. But the smell, the smell will haunt me til the day I die.
Sarah got some great shots, I'm glad she was there and knew how to react. Being around that situation taught me that they aren't bad people, just people with different views then us.
After we went hiking, which felt great on my broken toe. But the few was amazing. If this was how I was going to be keeping watch for the next few weeks, I figured the cold weather could be bearable.
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