Sadhana Forest, part 3
(Part 1; part 2.)
A passionflower growing outside the kitchen.April 9th.'Rode back to Sadhana Forest in a red truck on top of 350 coconuts, all the men in trucks and tractors staring down at my bare legs, and I just kept thinking 'I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts...'
Another view from my pillow, late afternoon.
Diva, Franzi, and Remy performing at open stage Wednesday night. (Diva is using her new aforementioned singing bowl.)
Jaspreet henna'ed Annika's hands. Gorgeous.
Chloe and Remy. Such an adorable couple, and so much fun to be around. April 28th.One of the dogs left a GIGANTIC rat right outside the kitchen last night. Steph told Sen (the appointed "rodent relocator" this week) to move it into the forest to let nature do its thing, and Sen reluctantly applied himself to the task with a rice sack.
Me (sympathetically): Thanks for doing that, Sen.
Sen: My pleasure!
Just the way he said it cracked me up.
Elisa, Christian, Annika, and Judith making dinner.Part of why I love Sadhana Forest is that you can feel like you're doing something useful every single day. I've tried volunteering plenty of times before, and each time I wound up frustrated, oftentimes because it seemed like resources (particularly of the human kind) were going to waste through inefficient (or downright ineffective) planning. For instance, I signed up for an afterschool mentoring program and got linked up with a sixth-grader just because my birthday is in November and his is in December. This was meant to be something we had in common, I kid you not. He gave me monosyllabic answers to open-ended questions and stopped coming after the third week. I've also tried volunteering for the elderly and housebound a couple different times, which is hard because when people are lonely they can expect a little too much of you; and in another instance I asked a volunteer coordinator repeatedly to hook me up with someone who wasn't already getting a few visitors a week, someone who might really need a visitor, and he never got back to me. It kinda feels like I'm saying 'I can't deal with people, I prefer seeds', but when it's just you and the earth and a packet of cosmic purple, or you and a vat of daal and a crew of hungry gardeners, swale waterers, and woodchoppers, there's none of the nonsense involved when somebody's dropping a ball or giving you a guilt trip because you've been visiting them for only two hours. Does that make sense?Anyway, suffice it to say I left Sadhana feeling changed in the best possible way, and I can definitely see myself going back there someday.Next post: a trek through the tea and spice plantations of Munnar!
Sadhana Forest, part 2
Tobias pulling a Rohit (i.e., making a jungle gym out of the rafters in the main hut!)There were certain things I wanted to take photos of--the handwashing and dishwashing stations, the herbal tooth powder (which doesn't taste as yucky as it looks), the bathroom stalls and so on, to give you a sense of how responsibly the community uses its resources. (I didn't take too many photos at Sadhana Forest because I was too busy doing; and by the time I was getting ready to leave, I was too busy packing and saying my goodbyes to remember to take those pics.)In 'showering' (i.e., filling a bucket at the pump and using a cup to dip in and pour over yourself in a shower stall) or washing your hands, you realize just how little water you actually need to get clean. I was able to wash my hair and shave my legs with less than half a bucket of water (just a couple gallons). A 'proper shower' is actually really wasteful, and I want to remember that whenever I shower at home.Also, there is zero shame attached to bodily functions at Sadhana Forest, which is really (for want of a better word) refreshing (I mean, c'mon, everybody does it, so what's the sense pretending you don't?) There's even a demonstration of how to use the toilets at the Sunday meeting. The thing that sometimes squicks out new volunteers is the lack of toilet paper. Yup. You use your fingers, and then you wash 'em two or three times. No problem. (If you're really curious about the toilets, check out Danielle's blog. She took photos.)
Baby cacti!Life at Sadhana Forest is always fun, even when you're out working in the heat. One of the many things I love about the community is how we're encouraged to share what we know; so one afternoon I did a knitting workshop. I don't often get to hang out with other knitters, let alone teach new ones, so this was a huge treat for me!
New knitters Beth, Sharri, Annika, and T.And a couple more fun moments:
Impromptu back and headrubs (with Capucine, Rohit, and Beth), every day of the week.
The Sunday evening meeting is always themed; this week it was 'famous couples,' so Sam and Charles came as 'Adam and Steve.' Brilliant and hilarious.Next post: an afternoon in Pondicherry.
Sadhana Forest
You'll never find a warmer welcome (and I'm not just talking about the signage).Why India? Why not? I learned and grew so much through my time in Vermont last summer that I wanted to volunteer farther afield. I was perusing the WWOOF* India boards, read glowing reports about a reforestation project-slash-eco-community in southern India called Sadhana Forest, filled out the volunteer form, got a wonderfully friendly reply from Sadhana founders Aviram and Yorit, and suddenly I was all set.(*WWOOF stands for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It's a program through which you trade your labor for room and board. I've heard some people have had less positive experiences, but my time at Harmony Homestead Farm was truly life-changing. Also, I should note that Sadhana Forest isn't actually affiliated with WWOOF--accommodation is always free, but since they have no income they aren't able to pay for volunteers' food, so you contribute about $4 a day for your upkeep.)
Baby forest.Short-term volunteers are coming and going on a daily basis, but Sadhana Forest is a happy and loving place at any given time, the kind of place that will change you if you want it to--and I did. Through several conversations with my new friend Jamey (who is also from Jersey--funny how you travel so far to meet people who only live an hour away) and reading The China Study, I decided to cut all animal products from my diet. Sadhana Forest is 100% vegan, so the transition couldn't have been easier (even when I left the Forest, I didn't have any trouble finding ghee-free meals. Yay for Hindu cooking!) So yeah, that's the biggest change, and I'm hoping to blog regularly about veganism from now on (yummy recipes, clearing up misconceptions, all that sor of thing). I've also given up my morning coffee--having to get up at 5:30 every weekday morning and be productive without any caffeine whatsoever, well, that'll do it!(As for the work schedule, they do two two-hour shifts in the morning, with breakfast in between, and then you typically pick up a couple more shifts during the afternoons and weekends. Somebody's got to work during down time--otherwise nobody eats! I arrived during the dry season, which means there was no tree-planting going on, but I did get to do plenty of watering.)
Tobias, my swale-watering and kitchen buddy, zonked after first work.
Jamey giving an introductory talk about the history and mission of Sadhana Forest to visitors before Eco Film Club and free vegan dinner for all.On our excursions through nearby villages I saw plenty of scenes of everyday life. It isn't really possible to snap photos when you're riding your bike down a concrete lane all a-buzz with children playing (and jubilantly shouting hello, and wanting to shake your hand), women pumping water or hanging up laundry, chickens and dogs and cattle and lambs wandering about, so I can't show you all that I would typically see on a bike ride. I can tell you, though, that much of what I saw you would have categorized as abject poverty--and yet everyone I passed seemed perfectly content. So strange, at first, to see women looking like queens in exquisite saris passing in and out of mud-floor huts. Goes to show you how little a person actually needs to be well and happy, right? Turns out all I needed was a good cup of tea and a new dear friend; some of my very favorite Sadhana memories are going with Diva to the nearest chai shop, where the hard-working owner bears an uncanny resemblance to Clark Gable (it's just the moustache, but it still makes me giggle). We sat on wooden boxes behind a blue tarp, with a view of the local temple if we pulled back the plastic, savoring our chai (mine sans milk) and talking about wanting to be better people and how we proposed to go about it.
We always leave our shoes at the door.
The view from my pillow.More photos and stories in my next post. (Please feel free to ask me questions too--sometimes I'm not sure which aspects of life at Sadhana Forest are most interesting to people who haven't been there yet.)