The Happenings of Patrick and Tara: Wwoof India

The house

Banana and coconut orchard

After two months on the road in India we grew a little tired of visiting tourist hubs where too much was customised for tourists, from the Western food to the hippie clothes. We felt like we were just seeing the tourist India, the sliver of the country that is set on display for us. What were forts and sights really showing us of the "Real India"?

So naturally our solution was to go WWOOFing (volunteering on organic farms, organisation WWOOF; World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), this is how we met and seems to be our saviour in many ways! We thought this would both give us an insight in the exotic plants grown here and also be a doorway to see the Indian community from the inside.

We got even more than we anticipated, a lovely Indian family that welcomed us into their home and took us to many functions. We got a good insight to the local culture and traditions going to various temples and a wedding. We were invited to many feasts where we got to sample up to 20 items of traditional South Indian food! Everything was served on plates of cut up banana leaves and everyone ate together sitting in a row on the floor.

Us with our host Mahadevi

The extended family

Feast

The bride and groom about to walk around the fire.

Our room

In the house lived the mother, her husband and the husband's mother. The family spoke only a little English which was enough to get along with everyday needs, though it sometimes brought some misunderstandings! In their garden they had coconut trees, banana trees, areca nut trees, pepper, tapioca, pineapple, mango trees, papaya trees, cashew nut trees and various vegetables. We got to harvest both coconuts and papayas, most food cooked in the home contained coconut and we were feasting on a papaya a day plucked straight from the tree ourselves! The mother cooked the most delicious meals and we all ate together sitting on the floor and scooping the food into our mouths as they traditionally do - with our fingers only! The father of the house was a man of few words and every evening he would call us to dinner by an obscure grunting sound!

Laundry time!

Who needs soap and a brush when you can wash up with ash and a chunk of coconut husk

A thing that strikes you in India is people's good personal hygiene, which can seem surprising in a country that otherwise is dirty and dusty and a grime-free spot is hard to come by. Being nicely groomed and respectably dressed is of utmost importance, especially for the women. Women wear brightly coloured sarees and dresses, often alternating with a different one everyday. Dressing nicely is very important to everyone, even poorer people and people living on the streets will have a nice dress (which can sometimes be confusing to distinguish the poor beggars in fine clothes). People bathe and wash their clothes everyday.

All this became evident to us when we were on our first wwoof farm. As we were getting dirty everyday it seemed pointless to give too much attention to getting clean, thus showering a little less frequently then one normally would do. So one morning our host inquisitively pointed out why we had been wearing the same clothes for three days straight and indicated that she herself changed hers everyday! Funny to think that us coming from countries of utmost cleanliness have what is considered to be bad hygiene in India!