Volunteers

There are all sorts of volunteers. those who work hard and believe in the cause, those who work hard and not necessarily believe in the cause, those who work hard, but don't believe in the cause, those who think believing in the cause is enough not to work hard, and those who don't work hard because they don't believe in the cause. Of course, there are plenty of medium points to this and I would consider myself within one of these.

I didn't believe in the cause, and wouldn't say I was either a hard worker or a lazy bastard. On the other hand, Miguel, whom I mentioned before, didn't believe in the cause or how it was being managed but worked as hard as anyone else. Reza, on the contrary, was one those who thought believing in the cause was enough hard work for the day. Amit, Julie, Tom, Xavier or David loved the place, loved the idea, and therefor worked very hard, and were definitely compromised with Sadhana Forest.

But I haven't introduced properly some of these volunteers. Xavier, for example, is a french guy with few friends, not because he didn't look forward to it, but because his English was very poor, and it was hard on him to communicate. We talked in Spanish and got along pretty well, but still was hard to communicate with him. No fluent conversation seem to appear. He disappeared every weekend to discover the surroundings and moved around always in bicycle, and mostly by his own.

Tom, was similar to Xavier in way of action. He was quiet, didn't say much. Even on Sunday meetings, when everyone would talk about the place and their sensations, he would limit his words wisely by just introducing himself: "Hi, I'm Tom". Sometimes, not even the "Hi" was mentioned. I had the honor to talk with him for more than 15 minutes, which seemed like a miracle around the place.

And then there was David, from Brooklyn, NY. That was a quick connection we had there, and when he took Amit's place at the kitchen doing the morning ragi and as lunch chef, man that was the best time in the Forest. David and Alex together was even a better combination of laughter and fun working. David came after my first week there. However, he had already spent sometime in the community before, and was considered a long timer.

Volunteers kept coming and going. Gita, Miguel and Samantha, Sean and Todd, Esra, Cameron, the New Zealand family and others left. And to occupy their space were David, Shimri, Nora and Neal, Tanzuk or Eric. And each fitted in one of those definitions of a volunteer, each had a different world to show, a different life to live, different experiences to share. But we were all together, and worked together for each other, and in a way, that was also wonderful.