Observation

I am a person of observation. Then, I act. And on this basis, I spend my first week in Sadhana. I observed the work being done and the volunteers.

We were supposed to work 4 hours a day for lodging and pay 100 rupees for our 3 meals. Work started at 6:30 a.m. until 11:30 with an hour break between 8:30 and 9:30 when we had breakfast. First work would consist either on going to the forest or working in the kitchen preparing our first meal for the whole community.

On my first day, I went to the forest. There, it was season for bunding and digging holes. That day I stuck for the first option. Bunding is basically used for water conservation purposes. A big hole is dug to store water and bunds are built to prevent erosion. So in the rainy season, or the Monsoon in India, water would flow into the holes and the extra water would flow slowly downhill permitting plants to absorb as much as possible.

Second day, and I decided to go for something else. Bunding wasn't really hard work, but working with flip-flops wasn't ideal either. And it turned out, obviously, that it wasn't either for digging holes. However, flip-flops weren't the worst problem, tools were. We had crowbars, which actually worked out quite good for loosing up the soil, but then we also had folded shovels great for throwing soil into a bucket, but awful for digging holes 1 m deep and 60cm wide at each side. They were just too big for its purpose and you would end up using your hands, or whatever you could find that would be more appropriate.

If, to all the inconveniences, you add the holes were separated by scarcely one meter, the work altogether seemed useless more than compensating. So on my third day, I went for work in the kitchen, and there I would stay for my whole stay in Sadhana until my second to last day. At least for the first shift.

The first week was also for observing the volunteers, and of course, the couple running the place, which hardly showed themselves. On my arrival, there were 4 volunteering families. A family from New Zealand with amazing hard working kids. They all worked in whatever was needed. And two Israeli families with smaller children, about 3 each, and were only the father would work. And then there was Jack, Dorothe and Jonathan, whom will have their own post.

At the time, there were other volunteers worth mentioning. Spicy Alex from California, who stayed in the kitchen after getting ill and hurting his leg or foot at some point. Anva, whom, as Alex, arrived the same day as me, took a week to learn my name, and spent the same week talking to me in Hebrew, which I obviously don't understand, because, NO, I'm not Israeli.

Dreads are a fashion in India. My volunteer welcomer, Cameron, whom I spoke about before, had them. Amit, who doesn't like ragi, but loves it, our morning chef, had them. And Reza, the German with the laughing treacherous eyes had them. Except for a week Amit was sick, I worked with him in the kitchen every morning until a perfect understanding of what each had to do was accomplished. And he ended fucking up my English while I was with him. I started talking like Israelis. I love that guy. If I ever go to Israel, he is definitely one of the main reasons. Though, he has a German passport.

Reza, on the other hand, wasn't as hard working as Amit. And I realized with him how age difference can be so noticeable. Julie, an American Jewish girl was one of the long-timers along with Reza, Amit and others. On my arrival, she was definitely trying to hook up with Esra, who's girlfriend was somewhere in India. That girl really needed to get laid.

And then there was Sean and Ross, Tom, Carly, Gita, or Xavier among others. I had tons of fun with Sean and Todd. Sean was crazy, while Ross, despite being American, was more settled. Carly was an amazing English girl, and boys, no, she wasn't hot, but that wouldn't have mattered, had I several more centimeters up to the sky.

At the end, I would naturally spent more time with some of the volunteers and less with others. With some I would connect more and others I would not trust. I liked them all, but there wasn't the same connection with each of them. Age, interests, hobbies, language were factors that influenced on spending more time with one person than with another. With Amit for example, I spent plenty of time inside the compound, specially in working hours, but outside, I spent more time with others, and it all will be seen as time goes by.