9th to 21st of June, 2023.
Volunteer work in India: Jaipur.
I have very mixed feelings about this volunteer work. And it is also difficult for me to explain the arrangements of the place. I will try.
There is one finished building, with an outside kitchen; two bedrooms on the ground floor, with bathrooms inside (simple but new and tidy, no AC, only a fan in the ceilling); and one bedroom on the roof, but I think it is not finished yet. The latter and my bedroom are for volunteers. The other bedroom is where the farm keeper and his family live. They have a young boy who is about eleven years old.
Across this building, almost finished, is the orange building where the paid guest will stay. This site will be an ecotourism kind of thing; people will come here for holidays while learning more about permaculture, or simply just spend some time where this kind of agriculture is used. This orange building (apart from the colour) is quite fancy, at least in my opinion, and many workers come every day trying to finish it.
A bit further in the back there is just the base of another building, which will be the owner’s house. He lives in Jaipur but also want to have a house here.
The last building in the back is a storage place.
There is also a covered place for our two lovely cows: a mum and her calf.
By the time I come, they are still “starting” everything regarding the permaculture thing. As they are still training for it, and learning how to do everything. We have lots of green beans (those tiny and thin ones which I love!); lots of tomatoes; eggplants are just coming; some gigantic zucchinis; some green leaves and herbs. We also have fresh grass for the cows. But that’s it. There are some fruit trees around the circuit but they are still growing. We got one mango showing up and a few papayas, but they were not ready for eating yet.
I get a bit cranky with the distribution of the work. There isn’t one. At first, I get some cleaning weed job to do, but after only doing that for several days, I constantly ask the owner to speak with his employee and give me something different to, something more related to the permaculture itself. He is not here, by the way, he kept saying he wouldn’t come, but for the whole length of my stay, he didn’t show up, so I haven’t met him at all. His manager was here every day. His house is just “next door”.
I get to work a bit with the production of the compost, creating layers of different organic matter in some huge beds. But that’s only one day task. I brush the lovely cows every day too. And another day I learnt how to do the natural lemongrass soups.
A few days before I leave, we harvest almost all the production of the farm, to sell somewhere. Everybody was helping so we could finish faster. Those days were nice.
On my free time I write. The heat is almost unbearable, so what I do is to wet a cloth, wrap it around my shoulders, and sit under the fan. It is the only way to survive, really. The manager and some of the workers normally sit in front of my room, to chat, and there is a powerful fan for them there. They invite me to join them every day, and I do from time to time, we drink chai but we don’t talk much. I feel that the language barrier is the main issue.
The breakfast is prepared by the wife, who looks a lot like a character from an Indian movie. Like Gori, from Lagaan, for example, with the small habits, manners and all. She normally makes me plain parathas, and I have it with some curd, chai, and bananas. Lunch and dinner are prepared by her husband. It is basically chapati or rice, sabji, and dal. I make myself some salad with tomatoes and onions; and a few times I prepared some sabji myself too. The husband is very keen to know if I like his food. The dal, mostly. Normally, after serving me the food, he stares at me eating, waiting to see my reaction or for me to say something. And I think he feels a bit disappointed when I don’t ask for seconds, or don’t accept when he tries to give it to me. It’s only because the portions they give me are already too big, so I am full. But I do let him know that the food is very tasty!
I play cricket for the first time. Well, I try. The manager’s boys and the house keeper’s son teach me. They ask me to play almost every day, but as they normally play at sunset (which makes sense because of the heat), I am already getting ready for a shower and rest by that time. Plus, it is when the mosquitoes start to go crazy!
Even though I hadn’t stay here much longer, it feels like a lot of time has passed. My flight is leaving from Kolkata on the 25th of June. After a lot of struggles, for about two whole days, with the help of the manager and even the owner of the place, we manage to get me a train ticket from Jaipur to Kolkata, on the 22nd of June. But it is not assured I will be able to board, this being only a reservation ticket. How would I pay for the ticket if I don’t have any cash? My friend Fergus, from the UK but living in Czech Republic, has about 14 Euros of mine on his PayPal. Yeah, I know. That’s nothing really, or perhaps it would sound like if you have a regular balance in your bank account. But I had nothing! Neither balance or a bank account. And this is a good enough amount to pay for the ticket. I asked Fergus to transfer the cash to the owner of the place as soon as he could.
I am very grateful, and will always be, for these three men trying to help me to get the train ticket, even though I would never use it. What?
In the morning of the 21st, everything changes. On that day, a series of events would lead to the most extraordinary thing which ever happened to me. When I woke up that morning, little I knew that, on the very next day, I would be meeting Aamir Khan.
10 Years Around the World 