DAY 15-20: Farmville
After my first 2 weeks of moving around, I wanted to find a place to settle and give something back. After some research, I applied for volunteering in a mindful farmđ˝. I received an email with confusing instructions on how to get into a secondary farm. As the rest of the people were moving there too. After hours waiting for a âbusâ that I thought wasnât coming, and a ride with confused locals staring at me, I finally got dropped in the middle of the road next to a temple.
I started to walk up and down the road with the hope of seeing some sign pointing me to the farm, nothing! I tried not to panic and go back to the empty-looking temple, hoping that someone would show up.
At some point, I called the attention of a monk, who after some sign language communication showed me a path through the jungle which would lead me to the farm. After 5 min walking the path I heard one dog barking, a few seconds later I was surrounded by more than 20 dogs barking, and me, almost shitting myself on the spotđŠ. It felt like an eternity standing there not knowing what to do until some locals came to my rescue. They took me to the farm, where there were only locals who didnât speak English. I started to panic, the following days were going to be rough!
One of these locals was very friendly and using a phone app he tried to teach me some farm stuff. We gather red flowers from banana trees, banana tree stem, and some roots similar to potatoes. After the farm work, he took me with his bike to an area with hot springs where we boiled eggs into the hot waters. Then he asked me if I wanted to go to the temple. I thought he wanted me to pray, so I explained to him I am not religious, but that I would join him if he wanted to go.
After a brief ride, we were back in the temple, and when we entered one of the buildings I almost cried when I saw a group of another 20 international volunteers that had finally arrivedđ. Yuhuuu!!đĽłđ
There we would meet Pi Nan, a former monk that married a Japanese woman and now they dedicated their lives in developing these mindful farms.
For the following days, most of us would live at basic rooms on the monastery, except Pi Nan and me. We lived next to each other on the farm, in âluxuriousâ open-air rooms of 1 m2 with a âbedâ made out of bamboo (I must have been his favorite! it was such an honor to experience the let go of all the comfortđ).
Despite the painful nights, I felt such a great connection with everybody in the community that the long hours under the sun doing farm work didnât seem that hard. Pi Nan also instructed in meditation and mindfulness. Some of the tasks included sweeping all the leaves from the monastery (so much fun!đ§šđ), and eating in silence (that was hard for a Spanish guy). One of the monks of the monastery also wanted to contribute to our education and a couple of nights was talking to us about the âteachings of the Buddhaâ (Iâm good - Iâm God - no good is good - good is God, think about thatđ).
After several days of intense work, most of us were ready to move on, and we decided to keep our adventure together in Pai.