November 2009
13 posts
Earth Pilgrim
Last night we sat around the campfire (an in-door campfire - it’s fuh-reezing here at night) to listen to one of our teachers, Satish Kumar, tell the story of how he and a friend walked from the grave of Gandhi in India to Moscow to Paris to London to D.C. and Jfks grave to protest nuclear weapons. It was 8000 miles, it took them 2.5 years and 8 pairs of shoes. This was 1962, the height of...
Community stew
The course participants have started to trickle in. There is a farmer from washigton state. A 65 year old travel addict from Bordeaux who is here for 7 months (don’t you miss the wine and cheese?!) there’s the yogi fm Canada, the German coeds, the Canadian doctor, the Aussie on a post college tour, the international studies teacher from Denver who is on a 2 year tip around he world...
20 points for the bovine
Commandment for Surviving in India #23: Thou shalt maintain complete and utter faith in thine driver. Failing to heed this commandment could expose you to cardiac arrest, hysteria, or cause you to inadvertanlty fling yourself from a bus window in a fit of madness. In any instance where you feel your faith slipping, You shall reassure youself repeatedly with the following mantra: “This man...
Mussoorie - the Queen of the Hill Stations
My lodgings in mussorie were wonderful. The hotel is surrounded by terraced gardens and it hangs off a hill. My room had a little enclosed glass solarium with one of those wicker bird swings so I could sit inside while I watched the stars and the night life across the valley. The shower was hot as can be, although the pressure left much to be desired. Finally I just started filling up a small...
"Just Don't Sleep With a Samosa Under Your Pillow"...
Me: So where did you stay in Mussoorie? I’m looking for a good hotel. Volunteer Kate: Let me think… oh, the Broadway Hotel Me: Yeah I saw that in the Lonely Planet Guide. Was it nice? Kate: Oh yearh It was really nice. Very peaceful and spacious and kind of quaint. Me: So you’d recommend I stay there? Kate: Definitely. I mean, we had rats in our room but just don’t keep...
You can take the girl away from her laptop...
I wish I could figure out how to upload my photos from my camera to my blog. There are so many great visuals in this country! But alas, we must make do with with the written (typed) word. I should be more than happy - after all, I am blogging wirelessly from an iPod touch on which I just scandolously downloaded and watched the season finale of Mad Men this afternoon while the other volunteers were...
Why I'm here
Nov 15 So I don’t think I’ve actually ever explained to most friends or fam what I am actually DOING at the navdanya farm. Let’s see if I can boil it down to it’s choice bits: The global food system is a wreck. Currently, large corporations such as monsanto and cargill are trying patent seeds - patent LIFE as it were - and prevent farmers the world over from saving seeds...
Whatchyu lookin' at
This afternoon I walked with another volunteer to the local Friday market in a nearby village. The other volunteer is American but of Indian descent, although her denim pants give her away. We went to check things out and to by some fixings for a salad. The Indian cooks don’t serve us raw vegetables - just cooked, and we were hankering for a salad. As I approached each booth, people would...
This is LIFE
Yesterday we were visited by about a hundred students from a nearby boardingschool of Tibetan refugee children, grade 8. They were here to study ecology. The English they spoke was quite impressive. “ma’am, can you please tell me was this plant is? Ma’am can you please tell me what is the county with the largest apple exports? Ma’am at what latitude is best for growth of...
sweet leaves
Newsflash - farming is physically demanding. Who’d a thunkit? Yesterday I planted basil and cut down massive amounts of it for drying. When planted in a field ( not a windowsill planter) it grows quite high and study. You have to hack at it with a sickle then prune it more than put it through a manual grinder. We ground bales of it. Today I pruned weeds, which is not technically even...
Redemption in the north
This morning I left the chaos of Delhi behind for the ownknown (but very likely much improved.) On the train i sat next to a german couple who are visiting India for 5 months. They had been delayed in my hotel for 3 weeks while recovering from typhoid (yikes!) and a nasty case of street food poisoning. Cautiously, I ate nothing but naan yesterday so as to avoid that predicament. The train ride was...
Redemption in the north
This morning I left the chaos of Delhi behind for the unknown (but very likely much improved.) On the train i sat next to a german couple who are visiting India for 5 months. They had been delayed in my hotel for 3 weeks while recovering from typhoid (yikes!) and a nasty case of street food poisoning. Cautiously, I ate nothing but naan yesterday so as to avoid that predicament. The train ride was...
Delhi
Arrived in Delhi last night, and all I can think is… naive, naive, naive. Me with my romantic notions of India. Apparetnly when the Lonelyplant guidebook said the Paharganj Area had a “seedy reputation for drugs and dodgy characters - not everyone’s cup of tea” I eroneously pictured something like Mission Beach, where I lived in college, where your neighbors all sold pot,...
