Workaway ~ Camp Advait, Dugadda 🇮🇳

“Welcome to Camp Advait!”

Filled with excitement, the driver turned to the back of the van and welcomed us to camp.

We arrived on November 6th at 4:00 am. Riding from New Dehli with lots of ups and downs, loud music, and random stops along the way.

Waking up to fresh air, monkeys everywhere, guava trees, birds singing, pigs, cows, all sorts of wild life just behind us in the jungle, is a blessing. We got here right for Diwali, the big festival of lights in India. We met Adil and Ayub, part of the camp staff, two distinguished, generous, and humble souls who immediately made us feel like home. Oh! They don’t speak any English, yet we are communicate with them through hand gestures and head movements.

We kindly asked if there was a place where we could shower and they just said “come, come”. Per usual we just follow with no expectations, just a little curiosity. We got to the beautiful river and there was a nice deep side of the river, they all jumped in and said: SHOWER TIME! This would become our daily routine/shower for the next 20 days.

Mannu, the camp owner, took us to a couple of villages. For Diwali they offer gratitude with small gifts, usually sweets, to family, friends, and respected acquaintances. Lots of sweets in Diwali. The hospitality of Indian people doesn’t cease to impress us. They are extremely welcoming to foreigners, they open their doors and they really want to share everything they have. We are merging ourselves with the culture very comfortably and lovingly. We got to his grandma’s house in Lansdowne, where lots of sweets, traditional Indian food, tilak, and many hugs and smiles were shared. It makes us feel extremely humble, fortunate, and special to be able to be here.

This is the kind of experience we wish to live while travelling around the world. It gives it a huge meaning. It is very different from being in cities. We are constantly interacting with locals, exchanging smiles and kind gestures, we are able to see how they live in completely remote villages. It is interesting how we are able to adapt ourselves to any place we go to pretty quickly, and we will only improve with time. We adapt ourselves and yet we maintain our healthy routines, with small modifications depending on what’s available.

There are, like always, a couple of things that come to you as challenges to make you stronger. It is frustrating to see so much trash around in such a beautiful place. We feel like we need to immediately help them with this. It is a lack of education on what to do with it and also lack of places to put it. That’s a huge point to not forget as you are travelling – don’t take anything personal or compare it to your old beliefs. We are all different yet more similar than we think. You can only experience these similarities when you look directly with the eye of the soul, from soul to soul.

The food is so spicy that it makes you want to cry. We are doing our best because food can be a real challenge. Some people don’t treat animals, cows, monkeys, dogs very…respectfully and that really touches us. In some circumstances you have NO IDEA what’s going on. Although at this point for us, anything and everything is accepted and possible. You see certain things that just start to become “normal”. Who defined normal anyway?!

Our daily routine would be to wake up really early and spend some time in meditation and read a spiritual text. Afterwards, go for a walk/run around the mountains. We make our own breakfast and off to “work in the camp”. After lunch we would read, write, or explore around. After the sun goes down around 5:30-6:00, it is family time in the kitchen.

Some of the volunteering we have done is clean up the camp, and do our best on educating on waste segregation. Also cutting grass, and landscape work, with unique old fashioned tools, paint, feed the cows, build stepping stones and new paths, create a meditation labyrinth, cook, and plant flowers.

The meditation labyrinth was our main meaningful project while at camp. Right from the beginning of our time at camp, Mannu gave us the opportunity to be creative with our volunteer work. He essentially left it up to us to find things to clean, improve, modify, etc. With open spaces and what seemed to be an endless supply of stones, we decided to add a spiritual touch to the camp by building a meditation labyrinth. The labyrinth symbolizes a safe space to explore your own thoughts and to travel from the outer world to the center of the labyrinth, the SELF. There have been guests, camp staff, and other volunteers who have entered the labyrinth with a certain energy and exited the labyrinth with a distinct relaxed energy. The idea is to enter with a powerful thought and churn this thought throughout the walk in the labyrinth. Here are some thoughts that came from people:

“I am peaceful and I will remain peaceful to others.”

“I remain on my path to find my true self. I must remain patient, and aware of all while maintaining my aim to find my inner peace, my true self, my true soul.”

We look at the labyrinth as an indirect service to others. We have created this space to allow others a moment of peace and time for themselves. It may not affect everyone that enters, but if one person is impacted by it and spreads that story and energy to others, there can be a ripple of POSITIVITY.

Apart from the volunteer work that we have done at camp, we have been able to explore around and enjoy ourselves. The river provides great moments whether it be bathing or cliff jumping. We were fortunate enough to take a drive up the side of the mountain to reach a tiny village right before sunset. The village was an incredible sight to see. The fields on top of the mountain were perfectly organized and were being tended to by all capable hands of the villagers, from grandparents to grandchildren. We had chai in a tiny house with one of the families and caught a glimpse of their village life in a brief evening visit! Everyone always wants you to come into their home to have tea and they will make sure you are comfortable. For them visitors are God. It is an opportunity for them to do good service to God directly.

Masé, thanks to the support of the SHRI family back at home, was able to teach a yoga class at a local school. *We will write a separate post for that*

Our biggest adventure was the SAFARI TRIP! Mannu organized the day and had a safari jeep come pick us up directly from camp. We drove through town and up around the mountains until we reached the entrance of Corbett Tiger Reserve of the Jim Corbett National Park. We handed over our documentation as the Park Rangers opened the gates. As we slowly drove through the jungle we saw monkeys, spotted deer, leopards, and elephants. We stopped at the top of the river and enjoyed the tranquility of the park, looking around at the jungle, open fields, river, and mountains in the distance. On the return trip back to camp we were guided by the brightness of the full moon and the stars!

After nearly three weeks of living in a place you find your routines, your comforts, and your space. Each visit will provide you with its own difficulties, but the key is to turn those difficulties into challenges to improve yourself. Whether it is the people you interact with, the food you eat, the “bed” you sleep in, the atmosphere of the space, turn the difficulties and negativities into opportunities to learn and improve. We have been focused on maintaining our meditation and yoga practice to remain stable for those challenges. We modify our routines and expectations to benefit ourselves during our time in each place. We have enjoyed so many interactions with the town people, the guests, and the camp staff. We have found our comfort at Camp Advait and in the town of Dugadda as we hope to have left a positive impact on the community.

You all will be very missed, including Sami, the little puppy we adopted while at camp. We are planning on coming back to rescue her and take her to Spain… hehe. It was a little heartbreaking to say goodbye.

Here is our family from left to right, Kelash, Gourav, Manuu, and Santosh. Adil, Ayub, and Sumit are missing in the picture. We really became to be very close with these fellows and will keep them in our hearts, always sending good positive vibrations to them from the distance.

Namaste and lots of love to all,

M&M