Written by Mateo Lombard, 2022-23 Latitudes Student
My semester started in South India a few hours away from Chennai, at a place called Sadhana Forest. This place is a vegan community that focuses on reforestation and water conservation. At the time I arrived, Sadhana Forest was hosting a huge Vegan Festival that took place over three days. Guests were able to camp out and enjoy many workshops and free meals for the whole weekend. A total of 400 people attend the festival, which blew my mind! I was learning so much and providing my services to ensure all the guests enjoyed their time.
For the next four weeks, I stayed on as a regular volunteer and helped around the community to keep the lovely land in great condition. I met so many different people who have been traveling all over India and the world. As great as it was being a part of a special community such as Sadhana Forest, I wanted to learn and gain experience where I felt I was impacting the planet. Instead, I felt like I was just living in a community.
This time was hard for me because I expected to spend my whole placement at Sadhana forest. I was scrambling and trying to find new ideas of things to do or places to go with my six weeks left. As I was doing research, there were so many other opportunities to embark upon. After a few days of searching, I came up with a plan.
After a month in Sadhana Forest, I would spend a week in Varkala, which is also in southern India. It’s a small beach town that has restaurants and stores on a cliff, with a beach right below. My week there was much needed after living a very rustic lifestyle at Sadhana Forest. While I was in Varkala, I met up with a friend from Sadhana forest who happened to be staying in Varkala, too. We spent most of our days at the beach and playing soccer with the locals. After the week sadly came to end, it was time to adventure on to North India to a place called Dharmshala, where I would volunteer at an institute called Dhamrlaya!
When I arrived in Dharmshala – the moment I got off the plane – the entire atmosphere felt very different. It was quieter and greener and the air felt so much better. After being in heat and surrounded by fast-paced life, it was nice to have a complete flip. When I made it to Dharmalaya, everything about the place felt special. The main building is a natural building – also known as a mud house. Here, I joined two workshops. The first is the Permaculture course, where we have been designing different beds for plants and trying to work with nature by giving back rather than taking. After being part of this course for two weeks, I will then be joining the Carpenter workshop for another two weeks which will be another amazing process.
What has challenged me this semester:
The most difficult part so far during my semester has been doing last-minute decisions and deciding to go somewhere else. For example, my goal was to be in Sadhana Forest for my entire ten weeks. Or at least most of it! But it wasn’t exactly as I had hoped, so deciding to leave and go up north to volunteer was difficult to plan around.
The highlights of my semester thus far:
My highlight so far has been being able to make so many new friends and experiencing so many different things. At Sadhana forest, we had new volunteers coming in almost every day so I was blessed with the opportunity of meeting so many new and amazing people. Also being able to travel quite a good amount and seeing different parts of India has been a blast. There is still so much more to see!
My gratitude:
What I am most grateful for is how fortunate I am to have so many opportunities to do the things I love and to explore so many different aspects of the world. Being in developing country for the first time changed my perspective heavily – and most of the world lives more like this. What has made me grateful is that I can offer my mind and body to places that are trying to change our modern world for the better, so that we all can enjoy a happy healthy future.
Inspired by Mateo’s gap year? Learn more about the Latitudes Year and carve out your own journey!
