Workaway - Patiswara 🇳🇵
After our lovely arrival to Patiswara the previous night, we re-introduced ourselves to the fellow workaway volunteers – this time in day light. A group full of diversity, people from all around the world. Each individual brought their own uniqueness, making it a fantastic gathering of people. At the beginning it tends to be a little challenging, little obstacles that get in the way, it requires acceptance and letting go of resistance because of holding onto old patterns. It definitely takes courage to do what we are doing and we are finally ready to recognize it and to honestly admit it.
At the Patiswara workaway, they have a permaculture farm based on self-sufficient farming lifestyle. We started the volunteering “schedule” which was generally from 9-11 am and then later on from 3-5 pm. The group had been doing various jobs around the property such as mulching, landscaping, farming, digging and planting new trees, etc. When we arrived, Maki and the other leaders of the workaway decided to make a big push to clean up and finish building a small house on the side of the mountain. We spent our time mulching, mining for clay, sorting through clay, and plastering the clay to the cinder block walls inside and outside of the house! It was impressive how we all worked together, a group of 10 volunteers plus 5 locals, as if we had known each other for years. There are three main powerful thoughts that seemed to be key for this experience. Tolerate - allowing you to maintain your inner peace so nothing external shakes you and you are able to cope with others and with nature. Accommodate - to merge and adjust. Cooperate - seeing the specialties and uniqueness of each individual. When we value each other, let go of our egos, and appreciate working together, inner transformation takes place.
Apart from the “work” we were doing, we had plenty of down time to explore the village/hills, relaxing with the others, reading/writing, enjoying incredible sunsets, laughing and sharing with others… AND more importantly – the farm tour presented by Maki.
The farm tour may have been the best part of the time because Maki showed us how they truly live off of the land. The village is so remote that they must depend on what the land provides. The extent of knowledge that Maki possesses is absolutely incredible from plants, fruits, vegetables, soil, etc. One plant that we used and saw its effects was the Mexican Devil (easy name to remember). This plant is used to cure cuts and close them up. You grab a hand full of leaves, crush them up, rub them together, and squeeze out the liquid from the leaf. You rub the liquid on the cut and within minutes the cut stops bleeding and boom. Each tree or plant had a medicinal or eatable purpose and Maki knew each one. There were tomato plants, orange trees, banana trees, avocado trees, millet fields, and many more (that we cannot even remember all of the fruits and vegetables)! Here is their website for more info:
https://reeprepublic.com/
The food provided to volunteers came from the local farms and village, cooked by Maki and the other workaway leaders. We all huddled around the camp fire or in the kitchen area to eat the meals and hang out. Tea and local coffee were also prepared by others among the group from plants around the property – delicious!
We had a couple of afternoons free, so one day we went for a hike around the village and the surrounding hills. Another afternoon we went with a few others to a temple about an hour up a hill from the village. We didn’t think it was going to be a difficult trek up, but we were struggling within 15 minutes of getting past the village. However, once we reached the top and arrived to the temple it was all worth it. We were able to see both sides of the hill, with the sun shining on all the villages throughout mountains.
After work one day, we all decided to walk up to “the rock” of the village. An incredible place to watch the sunset. We made it up the hill at the perfect time, just enough time to relax, settle in, and enjoy the sunset.
We had planned to spend three weeks at the workaway, yet with only a couple of weeks left on our visa (30 day visa), we decided to head over to Pokhara and hop on to the adventure of doing our first trekking!
Little did we know what awaited us...
Namaste and lots of love to you all,
M & M
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