always learning

this past week has been full of learning...hindi, organic farming, and indian culture. i can now say 'my name is hannah, what is your name?' or 'how are you.' i can count to 10, know the names of a few foods and crops, and for all the words and expressions i have yet to acquire, my smile has grown a few centimetres wider.




it is rice and millet transplanting time at bija vidyapeeth, and we are spending our days pulling up young rice and millet seedlings from their beds, which feels awfully like ripping out hair. i was enchanted with the system used on the farm of tying a bundle of one kind of seedling together with another long grass or reed. i had to be very careful doing this job, as i ended up slicing many of my fingers on the sharp edges of the reed, giving myself what looks like papercuts. navdanya's promotion of biodiversity is reflected in the array of cultivars planted... each square foot plot of rice seedlings seem to be a different variety, and in the seed bank there are 450 varieties of rice alone. i preferred plucking the millet, which is slightly larger and thicker and thus easier to yank out by the root. next to us in the paddies, men and women are taking the bundles we've created and plunking them into the mud at a pace that defies logic, after which the paddies are flooded. despite being monsoon season, it has been a few days since we've seen the rain.



in the kitchen this week, we have been sorting rice, giving me a newfound respect for grains and pulses! the job is painstakingly slow and takes a small army of people sorting through mountains of grains to remove the stones and other undesirable objects. the task was made more pleasant by conversation with sheila and bindu, the expert women who lead farm tasks here, and who teach hindi by proxy, teasing and directing, asking questions and offering advice.






yesterday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn (5am here) and went for a forest walk with Jeet, the herb expert and jack of all trades. we wanted to see peacocks and maybe deer, but all we found were animal tracks, dung beetles, termite hills, and incredible greenery. before this, i had never seen a teek tree. they do the most amazing things...if you rub the leaf, it appears to bleed and will dye your hands red. Jeet said this is the stuff henna is made from!





the other big adventure we had this week was a group excursion to Ramgarh's friday market on friday evening. we traipsed out down the long path of the mango orchard to the main road, took a left and walked ten minutes down, past waving children and shyly smiling adults, to where there were a small assortment of vendors assembled to sell their wares. goodies included gorgeous and richly coloured fabrics, fried snack foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, dried chillies, sacks of spices, pulses, and grains, and an assortment of shoes, electronics and plastic goods. out of desperation for fresh food, i purchased some organic apples, bananas, and grapefruit to see me through the week, as well as a little newspaper bag of roasted chickpeas - channa - which unfortunately the farm dogs got to before i did.

finally, my projects here at the farm are carrying on nicely. last night, the volunteers and interns sat down and discussed our experiences more thoroughly, and came up with a list of recommendations and suggestions for optimizing the skills and capacities of this unique group. this resulted in the drafting of a job description for a farm-specific intern coordinator, which has already been given the green light, and hopefully will make its appearance on the navdanya website soon. additionally, i am working away on research for the urban agriculture manual, and as always, welcome ideas and suggestions!

tomorrow is the long-awaited mango festival, and hopefully a trip into dehradun...i wish i could send smells and tastes, but i will do my best to do it justice in photos and words alone :-).

in peace, in love, in wonder, in gratitude,
Hannah

p.s. a few interesting and relevant links...

Canadian Universities in India


"Agroecology Outperforms Large-Scale Industrial Farming for Global Food Security," Says UN Expert