It begins!

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Alright...



Dear family, friends, and others who may be reading this...



I'm still alive! Hooray!



Not that it's really a surprise, but I hope you'll all be pleased to know this. Anyway, let me start with a quick overview of what's going on here:

Basically, in search of a form of 'right livelihood', I started studying Regional Development & Innovation (RDI) back in 2012. There I heard about and got interested in permaculture, which lead to my doing a 10-week internship at Quail Springs in California in 2013, as part of my RDI studies. At Quail Springs I met Malvikaa Solanti and Levi Mataga, who have been working on a permaculture project called SwaYYam in South India. After almost a year and a half of 'regular' studying in Wageningen, I contacted Malvikaa to ask if I could do my 20-week internship at Swayyam. As you probably guessed, she said yes, since I'm typing this in the house she's renting near her land in India...

So far I've been here about 4 days. When I say here, I mean India. I stayed at Malvikaa's daughter's place for 2 days and then we drove south through Mysore and Gundlupet to the Bandipur National Forest & Wildlife Reserve, which also includes several small villages. The closest to where I'm at is called Yelachatti, for those of you who wish to google earth it 😉 It's seriously tiny and reminds me of the villages in Hungary my class went to in 2013, with about 20-30 houses per village.

Here's where I wanted to post some impressions of Bangalore, but unfortunately that's not possible right now due to an unstable internet connection, so this thing is going to be picture-less for the time being. Oh well... time to use your imagination (or google images)!

We only really walked around once to buy some things we needed, so there's an immense part of the city completely unknown to me. Basically it's a concrete jungle, complete with palm trees and other exotic foliage! Although the airport was super-neat, the streets are quite littered with trash and during the day there are people everywhere. Also quite a few stray dogs. The traffic is pretty crazy, but I found it easy to get used to. Just be aware of your surroundings (which y'all should be wherever you are anyway). It surprised me more that they drove on the left, although knowing India's history of British occupation, it shouldn't have surprised me at all I guess.

People everywhere are quite friendly, as long as you smile and are friendly to them. I've gotten some stares, though mostly due to my lip piercing. Malvikaa explained that it's common for men to get earrings (somehow it's good for their health) and for women it's mandatory. Women also get their noses pierced and this usually symbolizes that they're engaged or married. So piercings aren't strange, just the placement, which I guess is the same in most places.

Anyway, I get along great with Malvikaa. And then there's the tiny girl Gheeta who compensates her lack in stature by having the largest smile I've ever seen! Supersweet girl and she's very lucky to get a lot of appropriate support from Malvikaa. Both are also incredible cooks! I have been eating really well (and vegetarian) here and I plan to come back with some great recipes and the knowledge of what to do with them!

So, yesterday morning we left the house at about 5.50 AM and drove and drove to Bandipur. After we arrived we had lunch and then went to the land. There I met 6 people from Auroville (all but one are Europeans) who have been working for a week on building a wooden house on granite beams that have been dug into the ground. It's quite amazing and will look beautiful I'm sure. Today I got to know them a bit better but also 'met' some Indian guys and helped them in the process of getting a 5000 liter water tank up on a stone construction. I took pictures of all of it.

What else can I write... hmm, I feel very comfortable here and have been considering the reasons. Of course the weather is one (although I'm already sunburnt) though I think it might also feel a bit like 'home', since so many things remind me of life in Gabon. The friendliness of the people is also very welcoming. Seriously... Europeans have a lot to learn when it comes to just being nice.

Okay, that's it for now... oh, fyi, I have no idea how to write a blog, so please gimme tips if you want to hear more about this or that.

Kthxbai!

Kris

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