Advertisement
Published: March 30th 2012
Tea Plantations
the view along our drive to Adams PeakAnd just like that, I'm back....not to my birth place, but to the country I feel most comfortable in. I have been planning how and when to get back to India since my plane landed in Montreal last May! I took a minor detour to spend 3 months in Vancouver living with the Epstein's, and then came back, worked some more and by January was all set to embark on another 6 months in the one place on earth that really makes me feel alive. I've been trying to figure out what exactly it is that sets India apart for me....what it is that draws me back here for the third year in a row. Here's what I've got:
1-It brings out more emotions than I thought I had! Expressing little to no emotion in Canada from day to day, I just assumed I was not an emotional, reactive person. In India, everything comes out...nothing dramatic, I'm still more resrved than most, but for me, the feelings are rampant. Everyday situations arise that cause me to feel something and it just makes me feel alive, like the feelings had been lying dormant, waiting for India to bring them out. They're
More tea and waterfalls
the hike to the waterfall through the tea plantations not even always good ones....it's often frustration, anger, shock, sadness, that I'm feeling, but it's something! But more often than not, it's joy, amazement, inspiration and positivity. Who wouldn't want that?!!
2-The sun...I don't know if it's chemical or not, but just seeing that big golden nugget in the sky automatically brightens my mood.
3-The simple way of life that most Indians lead just causes me to slow down. My mind is more at ease and my body moves slower, takes its time to breath. How can I be stressed or in need of anything when people around me barely have the basic necessities of life and still enjoy their day because they've accepted this is all they will get in this lifetime?
4-I still can't explain this one but somehow I feel healthier here than anywhere else in the world. Everyone around me is constantly falling ill with food poisoning or just simple travelers diarrhea. I expect that my Crohn's will react eventually but after a total of 10 months in this sess pool of dirt and germs, I am still waiting.
5-There is always something to
the clean, refreshing waterfall
with Gary and one of the other people we hiked to the fall with learn here. I don't think I'll ever fully comprehend the extent of the culture here...the multiple languages, the different foods, even the differences in the ways locals dress from one province to the next. There is always something new to explore. That doesn't include all of the skills and knowledge this country has to impart. I have already been fortunate enough to take small courses in yoga, meditation, Reiki, Ayurvedic medicine, Buddhism, Hinduism and nutrition. That doesn't even scratch the surface of what is offered. I met a guy studying wood carving and a girl studying belly dancing! Who knows what this trip will teach me.
Everyday I come up with new reasons to love it here, but I think that's enough for now!
This trip started out slightly differently because a friend from Montreal, Cyndie, joined me. It was actually strange (in a good way) to have a companion on the flight and someone to spend the first days with before I could meet anyone. We flew straight to Varkala, my favourite beach town in the south of India to recover form our jet lag. I've stayed at the same Guest House on
A rickshaw in Sri Lanka
the bumper sticker says "my wife says no looking girls" each trip and the woman running the place made sure to tell all the guests that I loved it so much I returned every year! It got me a pretty good rate on my room! It's an awesome place, with hammocks to lounge in and a constant flow of backpackers who stay weeks longer than intended because no one can seem to build up the motivation to backpack after spending a relaxing few days on the beach! My plan was to meet Gary in Sri Lanka after only 4 days and then continue on with my travels in India. But I was so sad at having committed to the flight elsewhere that I ended up finding a way to come back and spend 3 more weeks there...I heard a girl say she was looking for a replacement for her babysitting job and I jumped at it! It turned out I had met the kids previous babysitter 2 years earlier at the same place. They returned every year for 3 months. So I arranged that after Sri Lanka I would come back and look after the kids a few hours a day. It paid enough to cover my food and accommodation
Train ride
a ridiculously packed train we stood on for 3 hours...being shorter than most people I ended up with my face in most people's armpits the whole time as they held on to the roof! everyday...3 free weeks in my favourite place in southern India...it doesn't get better than that!
So, off I went to Sri Lanka...happy with my new plans...to spend 2 weeks in a new country with an old flame! Gary and I met up at a hotel in Negombo that was quadruple the price of anything I've ver paid in India and infinitely more luxurious. It took a week to realize that this was the standard for SL so there was more to come. Food, accommodation, sights and activities were all significantly pricier than India. Only transport was comparable, which was suprising because the roads were much better. They were wider (as in wide enough for each direction to have its own lane) and well paved. I assumed prices for local transport would be increased because of this, instead we just got places quicker! Somehow I didnt end up spending too much more money than I do in 2 weeks in India, but that's probably because I didn't do much but eat! SL is massively lacking in sights and activities. The lanscapes are beautiful, full of lush, green tea plantations, mountains and waterfalls. Plenty to see, but not much
Exiting the train
why bother using the walkway when you can just walk across the tracks to get to the exit!! to do in the mountains aside from hike. We mostly moved around alot (on the cheap buses/trains) looking for ways to entertain ourselves. The one charming city we visited called Ella was surrounded by beautiful mountains (that we had a great view of from our high balcony room) but it rained the 2 days we stayed!
The enjoyable part of SL was the local people, who had permanent smiles on their faces. Men, women, schoolchildren...were all excited just to say hi. They didn't want to sell us anything, or even to ask us questions. All they wanted was to wave and smile at us. Boys and young men also tend to gravitate towards men, especially towards Gary with his tattoos. When I travel alone, all the attention focuses on me. Suddenly I was with someone and a man at that... I'm not sure if talking to a woman who's spoken for is disrespectful or if it just makes them shy but either way I never had to deal with being hassled because all the focus was on Gary!! So I could listen to the conversations and feel like I was part of the interaction without actually having to interact!
our friends of the day
they were on "holiday" which just means a Saturday, no school This might sound awful but it can get exhausting having the same conversation 8 times in a day that involves the same 5 questions: where are you from? How long have you been here? How long are you staying in India? how do you feel in India? Where are you going? Ignoring these questions or pretending not to speak English just seems rude and doesn't feel right but being polite can get a girl groped! So having someone else (especially a guy) to deal with some of it is a better solution.
Going back to Varkala from SL was great. I hung out on the beach with Cyndie (she was still there), met some other cool people, ate a lot of Indian food and babysat 3-4 hours each day. After 3 weeks though, I felt lazy and unproductive so I decied my next move should be to Sadhana Forest, where I could spend a month volunteering in a community project that was started 8 years ago by an Israeli couple. They had a vision to reforest land that had at one time been sprawling with forest that only existed in this small area of India. After years
Roti
sadly, the only local food I really enjoyed of many trees being cut down for wood and monsoon rains destroying what soil was left, only 0.01% remained. It is now very slowly being regrown by Sadhana volunteers, some of whom stay the 1 month mimimum and others who stay for years at a time. It's not only a reforestation project though. Projects have also been started to help the local communities such as building a garden for a local school and a children's community center.
So, after 15 hours on the train, 20 minutes on a rickshaw, 4 hours on a bus and then 10 more minutes on another rickshaw, I arrived in Pondicherry, on the east coast of Southern India. I spent a day there eating at the delicious bakery leftover from the French before heading 6 km north to Sadhana Forest on the outskirts of Auroville.
A big part of living at Sadhana is the community atmosphere that forms when spending large amounts of time with the same people, living in close quarters, even though the community is very transient. There are nightly activities for everyone to participate in such as kirtan and the "un"talent show! And then we quickly bond over
the minimalist way of living, like the outdoor toilets with separate holes for #1 and #2. Peeing and then shuffling over to poo is challenging! Not quite as awkward though as using water and my left hand only to wipe....no toilet paper, it's just a waste! Indians eat only with their right hands because they wipe with their left...this took on a whole new meaning when I too started wiping my ass with my bare hand!
All aspects of living in Sadhana are minimalist. Everything is made from all natural products...huts assembled from wood and keet, held together by rope. The floors of the dorms are mud. This allows all sorts of animals to live with us as our neighbours. My first day I noticed 2 huge spiders living on my bed posts. Since then, I've had frogs, cockroaches, rats, geckos and tons of ants come and go. I've had to stop leaving crackers in my dorm area because the ants get to them before I have time to eat them all! Somehow sleeping in the security of my mosquito net feels surprisingly safe. Although I can't imagine it would be that hard for a rat to chew through
it! One day I got dressed without realizing ants had invaded my clothes and I spent the day walking around with ants in my pants. Electricity is stored by solar panels, so only a few hours a day are allocated to charging electronics, to keep the rest to light up the few common huts and kitchen. It's extremely sparce during the rainy, cloudy monsoon season. It makes nights rather dark, hard to find your way without a headlamp. But wonderful for seeing the stars. Nothing is wasted at Sadhana. Leftover food and human waste are composted and can be used after about a year as soil for the garden.
Wake up is at 5:45 and since alarms can't be expected to have battery, a wake-up call is done in the form of volunteers walking around to the various dorms and singing or playing instruments. To encourage life as a community, the day starts with a morning circle...which I stopped attending after my first morning because it involved singing (I dont speak in the morning) and hugging (I prefer not to touch people most times in the day but especially not in the mornings!!!) Work starts promptly at 6:30 until
Sadhana Forest
a typical scene of Sadhana...huts amidst the forest 8:30, then breakfast, then second work from 9:30 to 12:00, then lunch, then the day is free, with dinner at 6:00. It gets so hot by even 9am, that work really wouldn't get done at all if it didn't start with the sun rise. there are weekly and daily jobs. Weekly jobs consist of watering the grounds, emptying the toilet and food composts, filling the water buckets int he toilets and hand washing stations, wood cutting (to make fires in the kitchen stoves), running programs for the local children...etc. Daily jobs are working in the forest to either plant trees or dig dams for water conservation (in preparation for tree planting), cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner...etc.
The meals are pretty basic, mostly veggies, lentils and rice. It is a strictly vegan community, so I've made the effort to leave farely often to visit the local bakery, pizza shop and most importantly the chai shop down the road! I don't have a problem being a vegetarian, but cutting out cheese and milk in my chai just hasn't seemed to work or me! Having the aternoon off, a few of us felt it was quite necessary to spend a few of
The Main Hut
the largest hut that acted as the only communal area and the dining room, with only little round cushions and a hard floor those hours ordering chai afer chai.....when they cost 12 cents per glass, wouldn't you??!!! To make getting around even more convenient and accessible, another volunteer and I rented a little motorbike. Having more experience than her (6 whole days last year!!) I drove us around most of the time. It was actually a lot of fun to just hop on and off the bike whenever we wanted to eat out, spend time at the beach or just cool off in the breeze! It didn't even take too long to get used to driving on the left side of the road!
I've now been here just under a month, have loved walking around barefoot almost everywhere, getting to know this community and the work they do, and being settled in one place for so long. But if it gets any hotter I might just sweat away every last pound! It averages about 36 degrees with very little wind and it makes staying any longer just out of the question! So, tomorrow I head north, with a few of the other volunteers. Never thought I'd be looking forward to cooler weather!
Namaste
Advertisement
Tot: 0.17s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.1229s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
peggy
non-member comment
Trish-loved the update you sound sooo happy happy passover wherver you are keep smiling love,peggy