Second Weltwärts Report Paul
The last report in the beginning of December helped me to figure out that I really needed a project change. I didn ́t feel at ease and connected with Sadhana Forest. Nevertheless I can ́t say going first to Sadhana was a mistake. With discovering my basic needs and the structure I prefer to work in I learned a lot about myself. So just one week later I moved to Discipline Farm. Now I stay in one of the two Bamboo Huts and share a kitchen and a bathroom with up to four volunteers. Living in such a small group was a big change after crowdy Sadhana. Relationships are deeper, we know each other much more and therefore I feel responsible for the well-being of my mates and the beauty of our spot. Good conversations or just some quiet minutes together, sharing, helping each other, cooking and having Yoga-sessions together – all these things make me enjoying our small community. Soon we started creating our environment together towards a sustainable and cosy place: After visiting some other farms we built a small herbal patch irrigated by a pipe with our kitchen waste water; out of scattered earth bricks we made a nice pizza oven; painted our kitchen colourful and made some furniture out of bamboo; we also experimented with different techniques to improve the quality and benefits of our compost toilet and suddenly I realised I have fallen in love with the place and the people around me.
I haven ́t spoken about my work on the farm yet: Working here became more and more an act of joy. Even some unlucky events like breaking my wrist falling down from the straw pile couldn ́t lessen this joy. After years of mind-based school time I now feel like meeting reality. I feel close to something deep and eternal by living this simple lifestyle, doing some hard physical work nearly every day, taking care of plants and growing my own food. Putting my hands into dirt every day helps me to ground and root myself. Thought-free gaps are becoming longer and longer so easily. Although some conflicts occurred, when I brought up some new ideas, I soon realised that I can ́t change everything immediately. Otherwise I wouldn ́t feel respectful for the local workers and their familiar routines. But I am really happy to see that change is possible with some effort and persistence. What remains is a practice to learn surrender, acceptance of the presence. But I would like to go further into detail. In the first weeks we were pretty busy cutting bamboo and building a new fence around the cow- house. After that I suggested bringing the cows out so that they can graze as it is supposed to be in the natural way. Therefore we started building more and more fences around our orchards. It made me so happy to see the cows jumping out into their freedom for the first time. After that we got more routine in our daily working life. Every morning starts with bringing the cows out, then cleaning the cow-house for the compost. Then we do different types of other work such as mulching, a permacultural technique I am trying to introduce to Discipline, charcoal making, “wormy-compost” preparation and planting. It is so wonderful to accompany a plant during its growing process, taking care that it gets enough nutrients and water, protecting it from harmful bugs with self-made organic “pesticides”. To me this seems like a metaphor for a person ́s inner growth and a great practice of losing ego. Another amazing thing which I missed in Sadhana is happening now as well: We are not just working, we also learn a lot about what we are doing. On the one hand Frank, a biologist in earlier life time, can tell us a lot about plants, insects and gardening techniques. On the other hand every second week we participate in Doctor Lucas agriculture lessons for the farming group. As you can see, I am so happy to be here and looking forward to the following six months here in Discipline. Thanks to the Weltwärts Programme. It is a life, where I can focus on essential things because I don ́t have to care about income, insurance and stuff like that. It is a year for personal growth, for simple and good life without too many worries. “No worries, friends!” how our Italian roommate used to
say. That is how education should be like: based on individual responsibility and inner motivation and a little bit protected from our much too often inhumane society.