Worldtripper: February 2014

Our hut

Well what a month! We were not particularly looking for what we found, but were very happy that we did. On arriving at Sadhana Forest we were surprised to see so many people, this was a big community, over 150 volunteers on the day we arrived, we had arrived just before lunch so sat down to relax after a 14 hour train ride and a morning in Pondicherry buying mosquito nets and negotiating with rickshaw drivers it was a most welcome time to relax in the main hut and just take it all in.

The hut started to fill up with people coming back from doing the various tasks that they had been doing for the past couple of hours and getting ready for lunch time. The was the sound of a gong being stroke so to signal to everyone it was time to eat and please come to the main hut. People cam round and gave you a plate of freshly made vegan food, you were asked not to eat your food until you were given an instruction, everyone starts eating together. Once everyone had been served food there were a few community announcements and then new volunteers were asked to announce their names to the room, after each name was said the entire room would repeat back your name followed by welcome, "Russell welcome!!!" Its a nice way to be introduced and quite powerful to have 150 strangers meet you all at once.

Lunch time

It was my first experience of vegan food, but tasted great and we were offered more in a particular way, once everyone had been served once, the left over food was taken around the room so that everyone could accept a second serving, then if more food was left, you could go up to a person responsible for serving and accept more food, as many times as there was food!! Breakfast normally consisted of fruit and porridge, rice was a staple of the other meals, with a mixture of vegetables. Sometimes we went into town to get a few extra things like milky tea and oil cooked foods, stuff that we missed basically, however in camp you were asked to respect the vegan way and refrain from bringing non vegan foodstuffs back onto camp and also processed foods. You were also not permitted to smoke, drink or take drugs for the entire period of your stay in the forest which meant both in the forest and any time that you were outside as well, we all signed an agreement to follow these rules. So a proper detox! Not that hard really, and many people found it quite easy to quit smoking and hopefully will continue not to smoke if they chose to do so.

Having fun in main hut

After lunch we were given a camp tour by Julian, he showed us how things worked like the toilets; lets take a moment to put Sadhana Forest into perspective. Its primary role is to reforest an area of Tamil Nadu that was heavily deforested when they arrived. Rather than just plant trees which would have quickly died due to the arid conditions they instead focused on water conservation, building earth works to retain as much rainfall as possible so that it would both replenish the aquifer and promote the growth of trees. So water conservation is at the very heart of Sadhana and so is sustainable living. Ok so back to those toilets! Two holes, one for pee and one for poo, the poo goes into a hole with saw dust and creates a dry compost which can then be used to fertilise the land and the pee goes into a grey water recycling system where water comes out and can be used for watering the plants. If you need to pee while you poo, you needed to catch the pee in a pee can and then add it to the pee hole afterwards!! Everything is done with water that is in containers refilled everyday you take one scoop of water in a litre can and use as much as you need to wash yourself and leave the toilet clean for the next user, all the water goes in the pee hole. Outside the toilet are wash stations were there is biodegradable soap and water, you use the soap the poor some water into a one litre can with a hole in the bottom which facilitates a dribble of water to fall that allows you to wash your hands from dirt and soap, it works, and uses very little water.

Sandrine uses hand wash

The showers and laundry employ similar principles, for both you take a metal bucket to the water pump in the kitchen, hand pump water into the bucket and then carry the bucket back to the shower room or laundry area, full buckets are quite heavy, so the less water you put in the easier your journey will be, most people fill the bucket quite full the first time for the shower and as they gain more experience as to how much water they actually need to be able to clean themselves they progressively take less water each time. The system increases water use awareness.

Cooking for over 100 people is no mean feet and the kitchen teams were an integral part in the running of the community, everyone had their turn in the kitchen, usually it meant chopping vegetables but also things like grating coconuts, and of course cleaning. One rule that helped the community, was everyone washes their own plate, which meant going to the wash station scraping any left overs into the compost bins and then using ash and a coconut scrub to clean your plate and leave it to soak in an iodine solution, sterilised for the next user!

The Kitchen and hand pump

Serving time

Community life as a volunteer meant working 25 hours a week plus community shifts, maybe 30 in total. Everyone got up at 5.45 am with a morning call, we then assembled in the morning circle at 6.15 to do some stretches, sing a song, do some fun stuff followed by a hug from as many people as you could grab... now you were awake full of love and ready to give your body and soul to the Sadhana project for the next few hours!

Recycling hut

Tool shed meeting

View from morning circle to main dorm

Banana break

Morning Seva (Seva means to give one selflessly, its a Hindu word) meant either going to Kitchen to prepare breakfast or go to the forest to do stuff for the trees. I preferred to go the forest, there we chopped down Acacia trees which were now treated as invaders, and then dug holes to retain water and planted a tree in the soil that we had just dug up, then we placed leaves from the acacia trees (Mulch) on the mounds to protect the new tree from Sunlight, finally a drip water irrigation bottle was inserted into the mound. This process was repeated. Another team would be watering plants and re mulching trees from previous years. The plan was to replant species of tree that had been deforested and thus return the area to an indigenous forest, we had to remove the Acacia tree that had been used as pioneer species to regenerate the soil and add biomass to the area, which they had done successfully, but they are not a native species and out compete all the indigenous species, so have to be removed.

Water conservation with Avaram the founder

Coming back from forest seva

Newly planted trees with their own ditch and water bottle!

Life in Sadhana is truly a unique experience, not just so that you can learn water irrigation techniques but also how to cook for 150 people, how to live sustainable, how to reforest an area, how to live in a community, how to recycle waste and use less, how to make new friends, how to get up early and feel good about going to work, how to have a lot of fun plus many other things.

If Sadhana forest is judged by anything or anyone it has to be a success, both for growing people and for the success of a living ecosystem which is resplendent in fauna and flora.