Sadhana Forest

It's been a while since I wrote last time. Days have passed so fast here and I haven't really been in the mood of writing. But now finally I will try provide you an introduction to the life here in Sadhana Forest. I arrived here last wednesday (19th of february) so it's been over a week here already. My arrival was a bit turbulent. I was late because of the Chennai traffic and once I got picked up from the Pondicherri Toll Gate (after all the stressing) by an other short term volunteer we managed to fall of the bike because of my heavy luggage. What a great start. We survived however and got alive to Sadhana Forest in the end.

So first of all I will put the link to Sadhana Forest homepage here so that all of you who are interested in what this project really is can read and have a look. I will try to explain some things by myself but there really is a lot to explain.

http://sadhanaforest.org/

quote from the webpage:

"The vision of its founders, Yorit and Aviram Rozin, is to transform 70 acres of severely eroded, arid land on the outskirts of Auroville. In a spirit of human unity, their aim is to introduce a growing number of people to sustainable living, food security through ecological transformation, wasteland reclamation, and veganism. Our energy and resources are focused on the creation of a vibrant, indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF)."

So basically people are living here together practising sustainable living as well as ecologically as socially. We plant trees and take care of the forest and the community. Our food is strictly vegan, eco and as unprocessed as possible (for example no white rice, no milk products and so on). Alcohol and drugs are strictly prohibited here and also outside the community during the stay. Everyone participates in the daily workshifts that can be taking care of the forest or fixing things in the community. In the afternoons the people of the community arrange workshops in which they share their special skills, everything from poi to poetry and dance to languages. At the moment there are around 100 short term volunteers and 30 long terms, that live here permanently. The children in the community are raised according to the principles of unschooling (check it on the internet if interested) and the whole community tries to be competition free. All kinds of competitive games and activities are banned in order to create a mor accepting and open atmosphere.

Sadhana Forest is part of Auroville, which is an experimental village dedicated to human unity and founded by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Read more about it here http://www.auroville.org/ . Sadhana Forest has also established projects in Haiti and Kenya.

So here you have a short introduction to the place I'm staying at. I will be here until the 15th of March, so almost one month. It is really nice here and I enjoy it a lot, living up to certain principles. Living in a tight community of so many different people from all around the world is however not easy all the time. But for everyday that passes I learn more and come closer to finding my own place in this all. At the same time I'm already waiting so much to come home. It is only a couple of weeks left!

The Main Hut

Breakfast

Mudpool!

water for the trees

Planting