Last days at Navdanya, the future, and the train ride trough hell

Aah Navdanya Navdanya. Two months and one week we spent at Navdanya. And it was truly a wonderful time we had there. We left Navdanya very early Monday morning, which is 4 days ago as of writing this. We’ve met people from all over the place, and learned something everyday, could be the details of a a plant or a word in another language or a usefull skill for life; EVERY DAY we learned something new. Many people came to Navdayna to stay 2 days, 5 days, even 10 days, but to get the most of what Navdanya has to offer you need to be patient and spend alot of time there, but you get out of it what you put in I suppose. There is for sure more things to learn for us also, and its sad leaving without any control or knowledge about what will happen next. The puppies are all grow up!

Our hands and feet are strong from blisters upon blisters and cuts from trees, rice crops, and stupid accidents. We’ve lost weight, quite evenly actually, and until monday it was a healthy amount, but I’ll get back to that. Our nails are strong, as strong as they have ever been from the super healthy food and all the cool herbs that can benefit us in millions of ways! Seriously, my nails lookes buffed, they are shining and I have done nothing to make them so.

The Bijak Garden flourished under our presence, thanks to all the knowledgeable bijaks that came and went from Navdanya. So happy to see the lasagna beds working out so well and our tiny seeds becoming seedlings ❤

But what we got most of out of Navdayna is inspiration. Both of us have been looking for a worthy cause to take up as our own, for most of our lives, and Navdanyas “philosophy” encapsulates everything we have been looking for. Its been staring us in the face for a long time though, it’s time to go back to the ROOTS, in more than one way. Plants, my friends, wil be our salvation. Biodiversity is our protection against climate change. Biodiversity will save the bees and the pollinators, will save the birds who eat the pollinators and so on. We just have to make sure that the plant species are kept alive and to keep letting them adapt but this part is easy. Find seeds from flowers and cool plants and throw them everywhere. This mostly applies to farmers, but the cause of the planet is all of ours, right? But where we are going with this is a whole other thing, maybe I’ll explain in an other post later when we ourselves, have a more clearly defined path.

So, we were coordinators for about three weeks. It went fine. The group was fine and everyone cooperated like one expects a community to function. We had a great three weeks now at the end, although it got ALOT colder, with a rainy two days, temperatures dropped to chilling 5 degrees in the morning. Everyone participated in volleyball, not every day or for the entire time, but everyone showed up more than once, for which we are very grateful (Volleyball was very dear to us). We were only six now in the end after Nev and Bee left. Kathrine, Esther, Pauline, us and Ikuko. I have to write a short line abour this one woman: Both of us are amazed by this Ontario-based Japanese woman, Ikuko, who has fought for good food for the people most of her life, in several countries. 70 years old and dances wilder than me, musically gifted, humorous, strong, proud, wise and beautiful. THE coolest grandma we have met. Ever. Period. We wish all the best for her.

This last weekend we went to Rishikesh again, for the last time. With us came Kathrine from St. Louise, USA, and we had a fantastic time! We had some actual shopping done, we spent alot of money though, but hopefully it was worth it, only time will tell. We got our blessings in a tempel and we took a footbath in the Ganga river. It was as cold as a mountainriver back home, or as the Baltic Sea in spring, almost so your feet gets numb, but not quite. Here we are:

We stayed for one night and August has his first professional massage ever ^^ but then we had some bad luck and got back to Navdanya late so we did not get to say good bye to all our friends 😦 We didnt have the chance to play another last volleyball game. But it’s ok. The last game we played was really great.

So Monday at 04:00 a taxi picked us up at Navdanya and dropped us at the train station in Dehradun. We had booked the ticket ourselves, and apparently there is a system of “waitlisting” here in India, which means that you pay for a ticket but you have to be in que to get a seat. So we did get a seat, but just ONE. In a Sleeper cart, so its big enough for us both to sit, but the problem was that this trainride was going to take 30 hours. 30 hours, with one seat. Later that morning we start to feel funky and are shivering in the freezing cart. August gets ill first then me. Headache, violent diarheea, nausea, low blood preassure… All this on the train. This family was seated next to us and the girls spoke perfect english. She offered us her blanket when August was shivering, and then even tucked him in. This saved him somewhat I think. Later, when we tried to sleep on our one seat, which seamed impossible due to all the pain it was causing, I was seriously crying. So the same girl offered her sleeper to me. She gave me her seat!!! A whole bed!! On this overbooked train! I slept almost all the way, which bathroom breaks atleast every hour. I am eternally gratefull to this girl and her family. Forever. ❤ August was not so well of and hardly got any sleep. Also, the toilets could have been alot worse, so I’m happy abut that too, just bring your own soap!!!

We reached Vasai Road railway station in Mumbai at 10:40. The train was early. we have at this point not eaten for one and a half days, we are dehydrated, dirty and all of a sudden its 30 degrees outside! We get off the train, but I can’t walk with my bag. I have no strenght and no balance, but we managed to get to a tuc tuc to a hotel in the area. We were supposed to continue the same day to our next destination, but we are still in Mumbai as of writing this. Today is the first time we went outside the hotel. Its quite nice with a soft bed, a shower head and our own bathroom. Here we have recovered well and we are thankfull for the staff here at Hotel Sai Residency in Vasai area for being kind to us when we’ve been ill. Its a really nice room! Excecutive 😉

(Today we found out that Kathrin also got sick monday, so it must have been something we got in Rishikesh. Also she went to the hospital. If we were in our right minds we probably should’ve too.)

But three days wasted in Mumbai when we are so eager for our next adventure!! This Place: Sapna Ranch!! This guy, Hasmuk, has the Sapna Ranch 5 hours busride south east of Mumbai. There he is building a space for himself and sharing knowledge with children and other knowledge seekers. We will volunteer with him to work at the Sapna ranch, and help him with what ever he requires. We are both very excited and tomorrow we are going!

Now we are all caught up, we are alot better, can eat semi-normal food and have no fever so we are ready to get out of this room!

Peace and love ❤

Linnea & August