By Niki
Last weekend Buddha Smiles, a dear friend of Sadhana Forest, invited
us to celebrate their annual school event with them. Buddha smiles is
a community that works with children and involves them in all of their
community projects, including environmental education, permaculture,
and social outreach. Around 25 of us, including 3 families from
Sadhana, set out in a bus to get to the community in Vellore. The
happy bus that stopped for an idli-dosa breakfast and a water melon
break got to Buddha Smiles around noon to be welcomed by the warn
smiles and hugs of the people there and by the interesting sight of
some banana leaf mummies (who we soon learned were taking a special
banana bath that is an old technique where a person wraps up in
banana leaves from head to toe and then sun bathes for over 30 minutes
to sweat it all out). No surprise, a whole bunch of us soon decided to
experience the goodness of the banana baths. After the banana baths and after a delicious lunch meal in the beautiful dining hall,
everyone present joined in for the ceremony where all the teachers,
volunteers, supporters and friends of Buddha Smiles were felicitated.
This was followed by Ramu introducing Buddha Smiles to all of us by
giving a tour of the place and sharing their ideas, plans and
experiments with us. We were all very inspired after learning about
the beautiful project.
As the sun was beginning to set, people were in
great spirits and came together to play some fun games that filled the
atmosphere with laughter and happiness. Later in the evening we all
got a chance to enjoy some live traditional south Indian music. The
beautiful open space outside was perfect for some happy chicken
dancing. As we danced and played we laughed hysterically together and
bonding beautifully. When it was time to sleep the open space was like
a reflection of the dotted sky with people dotting the entire place
with their mats and blankets, sleeping under the open sky, enjoying
the pleasures of sleeping under the stars. After some cricket and
breakfast the next morning we set out again to come back to Sadhana in
the happy bus that always stops for lunch breaks, snack breaks, and
even peanut jaggery sweets 🙂
pictures by Myrtille
Baby Bath Mat says:
April 7, 2010 at 7:28 am -
Wow, what amazing photos, this sounds like a wonderful project!
Jerrica Zarrabi says:
April 4, 2011 at 3:58 pm -
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