Tehri part 3 and Navdanya Intern Departure

To conclude my series on Tehri, I should write a bit more about it.  The purpose of the journey was to visit a group of women farmers and hear their stories about their experiences with climate change.  After a beautiful welcome folksong, delicious chai and snacks, the women talked one at a time about how they have been experiencing "climate chaos," in the words of Dr. Shiva.  Either there is too much or too little rain.  Instead of saving 5kg of seed each year, they are now trying to save 25kg in order to have enough to eat and to replenish when seeds get washed out or dried during draught.  Negiji and Dr. Shiva tried to give them women suggestions of healthy intercropping strategies in order to protect their plants; however, mostly they just listened and after only a few short hours, we got back in the car to make the long trek down the mountain toward Dehradun.  More photos!

Dr. Shiva being embraced (the warmest embrace I've experienced in my life) upon departure

.
The many faces of the farmers:

Talking about seeds:

In the car, descending.  Notice the incredibly kind gentlemen on the left - he made me switch seats with him so I could sit in the middle of the car in order to feel less carsick, saying "I'm rough and tough. Let me sit in the back."

Our first glimpse of the dam itself, which has submerged an entire community and is causing major soil erosion and terrace destruction.  Tehri dam is one of the largest in Asia (I hear different numbers) and supplies Delhi with its hydroelectric power.

The Shiva household and Navdanya office in Dehradun:

The bustling city of Dehradun:

A new variety of millet we found while up in the mountain:

Hanuman, the monkey god, who hung out on our back window of the car throughout the journey:

On another note, when we got back from our journey, we had to say goodbye to three of our longterm interns, and so decided to send them off with, what else, food.  Here is the cinnamon banana cake we baked:

And the treasure hunt we created for them:

Dr. T, dressed up as captain geography (as a challenge, they had to find and wear something from each person on the farm... the map is my contribution):

All three, in all their gear, with bean, the dog:

Blowing out the candles on their cake:

Last supper in the kitchen:

Satyaji, dishing out upper. Kamal, in the background, also left the farm that day to go back to cooking at Navdanya's Delhi location.  No more flowers or airplanes made from vegetables to garnish our salads!

Finally, we just said goodbye to this beautiful soul not long ago as well.

So much has happened in this past week alone that I hope to post another couple of blog entries soon before I forget all that has happened!  Until then, be well...