Our association with FSL-India has grown further in 2017 and 2018. FSL-India and their volunteers have already become an integral part of our project.

The farm was new and mostly barren in 2016-2017. There was a lot of work that happened in that period, right from land preparation to the plantation of crops, putting fencing, building a farmhouse, installing our drip irrigation system, and so on. The village school management, teachers and students were not used to foreigners. I was very skeptical and had many reservations about an overall plan of accepting volunteers in our project.

Our very first batch of volunteers – Miriam Nass, Thomas Hassler and Anja Bitter worked very hard to clear all our doubts and made sure the project sailed smoothly.  Shruthi was the FSL-India coordinator at the time, and she was in constant touch with us and guided us in hosting the volunteers. Frankly speaking, the first batch of our volunteers set a benchmark in our project for volunteers to come, over the years.

In 2017, we contacted Manjunath, FSL-India’s coordinator at Mysore and he placed volunteers in our project. We have built a great relationship with Manjunath since then. We are indebted to him for his guidance, help and love towards our project. He has been very supportive and accommodating to our requests.

Selma Bruing was our first volunteer, very soft-spoken and emotional. She was excited with the project, but at the same time she was going through a tough phase with adjusting to the environment of volunteering in India. She harvested chillis and helped us utilise the waste plants in the banana fields. Selma along with Jette and Luisa attended a festival in our neighboring village, and stayed at our farm for a weekend to bid farewell to our project. We wished her good luck.

Jette was alone after Selma left, but we made sure that we gave her a good amount of work to keep her occupied. She was very interested in Indian culture and the Hindu religion. So, our discussions were mostly on those topics. Jette was jovial, lighthearted and caring towards us. She was fond of our cats and calf.  She was a dear friend to our farm workers. We gave her a nickname ‘Guruji’, which means ‘Hindu saint’, for her love towards yoga and meditation, and made fun of her all the way. She cleared the field from waste plants, helped us in plantations, and distributed organic fertiliser over the farm crops.

Her most outstanding effort was during the harvesting of turmeric. Our worker family had quit the job before the turmeric harvest and I was alone on the farm along with the support of a few daily women workers.  Jette understood the situation and supported me emotionally during those difficult days. We had to let go of our cows due to lack of maintenance. Jette went the extra mile to come early in the morning and leave a bit later than usual, and stood strong beside me along with my beloved friends Manish and Roman, a volunteer during the summer.

We enjoyed working together and had a lot of fun with the women farm workers. The harvest brought us close and gave us an opportunity to know each other better. We made sure that we celebrated and enjoyed the harvest with evening parties in Mysore. She graced occasions, functions and festivals by wearing sarees. The sarees looked beautiful on her.

Jette, Luisa, my friend Manish, my brother Roshan and myself made a club for fun and parties. I have to write a few words on Luisa, here. Even though she worked in a different project, she always made sure she was part of events, weekend stays and parties organised by Krushi Kutumba. She was chock full of fun, and a strong woman at the same time. She showed her sensitive side during the farewell of Jette. She missed her so much. That is the beautiful part of the volunteering program. You get a chance to work with new people, a few of them in turn, become long-lasting friends.

We are so lucky that most of the volunteers who worked in our project turned into family for us. This was evident when Miriam and Thomas who worked with us from December 2016 to April 2017, took some time during their holiday to visit us again. This is the best thing that happened to us this year. The experience of reunion cannot be explained in words. We were overwhelmed by their love and affection towards us. We spent most of the time together during their visit and shared even more bonding than before. It was like meeting a family member after a long time.

They were very happy and excited to see the progress and changes brought into the project. Memories of the initial days of hard work and fun passed in front of our eyes. Our hearts sank and we felt so heavy when they left for Germany. In fact, every time our volunteers leave the project, it creates an emptiness in us, and it takes a lot of time to sink in. That is the kind of relationship we maintain with them.

Overall, we have had an amazing year with the volunteers and FSL-India, the whole concept is moving towards building a commune on its own.  I hope and wish that FSL-India will agree to let the volunteers stay at the project, so that our vision of creating a farm commune of volunteers who are totally dedicated to research, adapt and are trained on the concepts of natural farming, sustainable living, rural economics and rural culture.