back home.

after landing in cyclonic conditions - something i never want a repeat of in a tiny propeller plane - and after a bumpy ride in a 4x4-taxi through flooded motorways and obstacle-ridden dirt tracks complete with fallen down trees, roots and debris, i am home.

i arrived at midnight to find my community huddled in one of our main huts, sharing beds, as the winds howled, rattling the bamboo and keet roof. exhausted, i threw myself down on a makeshift bed and passed out. after almost 24h in local buses, three-wheelers, jets and taxis, tiredness took over and i lapsed into sleep.

as the sun slowly penetrated the clouds and the soaking curtains, i opened my eyes and sighed; home.

smiles and hugs followed. anouk, dimitar, dorian, raj, allan... being surrounded by friends as they welcomed me back was heart-warming, i am so grateful for every single one.

i'm home.

our hut

sally

remember i told you we share our hut with a dog?

she adopted us from day one. well, she decided our hut was the one she planned to sleep in and we came with it.

she looks a bit like scrat from iceage. slightly boggling eyes and a thin, quivery nose.

when i make my way home after nightfall, i know she's there because her tail knocking against the bamboo floor sounds like an african drum, beating through the jungle.

now, does anyone have a huge accorn? 

babylon

i'm sitting in the main hut, quietly reading my mail, and i tune into the conversations going on around me.

we are such a diverse community, so many personalities, opinions and experiences to share. a non-stop of give and take, give and take of ideas. it's like studying a major in international anthropology and communication, with a minor in languages. and hoola hooping.

this sharing happens in a beautiful mix of languages; a true babylonia of tongues. as the community stands right now, we have accents from spain, england, france and brazil. south africa, germany and america, india, new zealand and korea.

10 nacionalities, 26 people. it's beautiful and it makes my heart sing in a thousand tunes.

clockwise: alia from spain, my husband from south africa, alan from india and myself. 

hut, sweet hut

my husband and i live in a hut. a bamboo and keet hut. quite the pimped-out hut, in fact, located in the south of India, surrounded by other huts, inhabited by those who call Sadhana Forest home.

it's our quiet space away from the bustle of community life. so different from our apartment in Barcelona, except for one thing: there are books everywhere. in piles, on makeshift shelves and by the bed, on the coffee table and on the floor. 

i open my eyes to see a thousand shades of green spreading out into the distance, twinkling and turning orange and pink with the sunrise. it makes me wonder if i'm ruined forever for city life.

the hut is not ours alone, however; we share it with a dog and a humming bird. photos of that to come...