Today was my second day in Auroville, and it was much better. I zonked out yesterday at 4 p.m., after a good cry- I just process that way sometimes!- and I slept until 4 a.m., just before sunrise.
I felt like a new woman. I went for a little sunrise jog, exploring the surrounding pathways to the Tibetan Pavilion. However, I jogged my way into a small local Tamil settlement, and found myself surrounded by four small yapping dogs. Having had bad experiences with dogs in both the US and Ecuador, I was scared! But luckily a small old Indian man came by and understood my rather desperate expression and plea for the "main road?!".
At the end of my jog, I returned just in time for most of my other classmates to arrive, just as exhausted and disheveled as I had been the day before. They had waited for 4 hours in the airport- I felt lucky!
I had much more energy for exploration and interaction today, and I ended up having two impactful experiences.
The first was when I went to the Saturday farmer's market (-YES! I am so happy that I can continue feeding my newfound love for farmers markets!). There are quite a lot of farms here, who grow a whole range of foods- lots of grains, some cashew orchards, and fruit. There were also beautiful local handicrafts- jewelry made of bamboo and some of glass. Auroville is all about supporting local food and crafts, which I love! I feel very in my element here in that way.
So as I looked around at the booths, I came upon a table with some raw foods. I got instantly excited, because raw food has become a passion of mine through working at Chaco Canyon. I instantly engaged in an animated conversation with the indian woman at the booth. Alight with excitement, she told us how she was starting a raw food restaurant here in Auroville in the next 6 weeks! What good timing to be here! I told her that I worked at a restaurant that sells raw foods in Seattle. She got really excited and said, "Oh! I've been there. I know your teacher Karen. I visited a wonderful raw food restaurant when I was there. What was it- ah, yes! Chaco Canyon."
"What?" My excitement level jumped up a notch. "I work there!" I exclaimed fervently. What a crazy connection to have! I just love how synchronistic the world can be.
It was also really exciting for me, because the food I eat is so important to me, and I believe in the heath and emotional benefits of raw food; it feels familiar to me, and more than that, it feels like more than just food. It is the direct connection to the earth that I love about raw foods; It is almost like growing a garden. You can see every step of the process from earth to food- and I love the process of soaking nuts, dates, and other common raw food ingredients. I feel passionate about the way we can choose to feed our bodies with ingredients from the earth.
So that was very exciting, and I even picked up some kombucha for 25 rupees- about 50 cents!
After that I went with one of my group mates - Jessica, who has been traveling in North India for the past 3 months and is really great to be around- to the farm "Solitude". We had heard that they sell fresh fruit and veggies there.
Well, we ended up staying there for lunch, sitting in a large circle sharing food with the 7 or so volunteers. The farm is SO cool- as we entered, 3 of the volunteers- all young 20-somethings from various parts of Europe and Israel- were sitting together peeling rosebuds for tea. They looked dirt-stained and healthy. It was such a chill vibe there. We walked around the farm a bit, and the volunteers stay in wood huts about 10 feet off the ground. I would much rather stay there than in the spacious stronghold of the Tibetan pavilion. Don't get me wrong, the pavilion is really nice, but I can already feel myself realizing how unnecessary all the space is.
Anyway, the farm was amazing, and I could totally visualize myself spending days there, working barefoot in the rich soil, pulling up plants to prepare for food and things, and planting seeds. In their main food hut, they have hand drums and guitars strewn around, and there is a hand painted message on the wall, saying "Nature is a teacher when we take time to observe."
Beautiful place. I am having trouble, because of our program is a volunteer project. The problem is, I want to volunteer everywhere! I have been thinking about teaching children in one of the schools here, and then meeting the raw food lady planted that idea on my head, and the being at Soiltude was amazing and made me want to work there. So I will keep you posted on what I decide- I am sure I will learn a lot from any place I work!
So after lunch, Jessica, Karen (my teacher), and two dudes from the program and I rode our bikes about 20 minutes to a local village to buy some supplies.
Can I just take this moment to insert- how wonderfully free I feel on my bike here! The air is rich with smells of the earth and trees, the paths are red dirt, and I feel so wonderfully alive, light, natural, connected, and yummily in flight. It is a simple, luxurious, fantastical way to get around.
SO anyway. Back to the bike ride to the village.... well, the real impactful experience I had there came at the end, after I had chatted with quite a few Indian salesmen. (All very nice, accommodating, and adamant about purchase.) I had just bought a candle from a little shop, when a woman came running up and sputtered something in Tamil to the shop owner. The shop owner instantly ran to her outside racks, dragging them inside hurriedly. I looked up, and every shop owner was doing the same thing, shutting down their shops with a desperate fervor.
"What is going on?" I asked the woman who had run up.
"There has been a murder. Two people, just down the road."
Well that was new. I felt scared, but some of the shop people were still standing around. Honestly, I didn't know quite what to make of it - what to imagine. In America, I would have been scared shitless, imagining a raging person with a gun. Here, I don't think the poor villagers have guns. All I knew was, I wanted to get out of there NOW. I looked anxiously around for my groupmates, but I didn't see them. I didn't want to be caught in a dangerous spot just for waiting though, so I went to grab my bike. Fortunately I found them in a shop up the road a little. I told them the news, and they agreed to leave immediately. At the shop, an Indian salesperson was completely unworried, reassuring me that it was just between those people, because they had political differences. "No problem." He assured. "Nothing to do with us." However the calmness with which he regarded the situation was surprising. Definitely a cultural difference. "Murder, no problem" would never be uttered in America. People are much more accepting here of life's hardships. Death, trash, feces, and poverty are much more visible. Which could be a good thing- in the west, we live in such denial of how life is for some. We don't dump our trash directly on the streets, but we dump it into huge landfills where we can't see it. We just choose to remove ourselves from it so we can pretend it doesn't matter. Food for thought...
So, these were the big highlights of my day. I hope you don't mind the long blog, and I am thinking of you all! Tonight is NEW YEARS EVE! I don't know if I'll make it to midnight- jetlagged and all. But there will be a large silent meditation gathering in the Tibetan Pavilion, with thousands of candles. It will be very introspective, which is just what I need right now to keep myself grounded and in the moment.
I hope you all have peaceful, magical, loving and fulfilling New Year's celebrations. Feed your hearts and spirits! Do what nourishes you most deeply! :)
I love you all dearly. Namaste!
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