Calm in Coroico

La Madre, a wee'un and Daniela at the Uchumachi Govardhan finca, near Coroico.

Searching for a little peace away from the city Daniela and I headed to Coroico and to this small farm Uchumachi Govardhan run by a lovely Hare Krishna family.  La Madre, Ragga and their wee girl Jaira.  Arriving we were surprised we were the only 'volunteers', though over the three days we were there a gorgeous travelling family passed through - Spanish Irene, Chilean Igor and their two wee girls, then as we all left a German couple arrived (funnily enough the lad had been a volunteer at Sustainable Bolivia last year). 

Made very welcome by the family, we shared delicious vegetarian meals either sat on cushions in circles either in the meditation-holy room, or outside on the grass.  Both having grown up in agricultural families in Colombia la Madre and Ragga are hugely experienced in farming and have spent the last 3 years preparing the land, planting and are beginning to harvest, so we ate lettuce and bananas from the land in our meals.  They do buy some produce from the town but hope to be fully sustainable in 3 more months.

(Left) A weaving that Daniela mostly made, though she taught me the technique so I contributed a little to the design. 

(Right) the patch of earth Daniela and I helped la Madre prepare for planting - a few hours strenuous labour clearing the land of rocks and roots and sifting and turning the earth multiple times to make it as fine and welcoming as possible for small seeds.  My first real experience of working with the land.

Ragga was eager to talk about the Hare Krishna philosophies that he and La Madre follow.  What most impressed me about the belief system is it's tolerance and respect for others, such as Buddhism, Christianty, Hinduism, Islam.  Ragga explained that rather than a religion, the Hare Krishna movement is an 'etiquette'.  In the same way that all cultures use different language and perspectives to describe and understand the world, so too do different cultures use different names and rituals to relate to the spiritual world and the energy or essence which some call 'God' 'Allah'  'Pachamama' etc. This really resonated with me and I've had similar conversations before.  It makes most sense to me that we are all praying to the same Being.

The other part that I enjoyed hearing was the idea of the soul, that we all have obligations as an eternal soul and as a temporal being.  So our eternal part is the part searching to deepen consciousness and lessen ego, and the temporal part is the part of our identity that interrelates with our friends and family in the here and now.   All beings, be they animals, trees, rocks or humans, have an eternal soul and 'Krishna' is in all beings (which in turn links to the Upanishad's world view that I was reading about in "Seeking Silence in a Noisy World"by Adam Ford where Brahman, the World Self and World Soul, is in all beings, meaning all beings are One, Brahman (god) is in all, and all are Brahman.)

Daniela, as we left the finch, heading for Coroico for a 'Women's Gathering' where women and girls of all ages, Bolivian and foreigners, danced, laughed and played in celebration of womanhood! :-)

The sunrise view out the back of our 5 boliviano accomodadtion in Coroico... at 50p that's got to be the cheapest 'hostel' experience so far... Daniela and I sharing a bagged-straw mattresses on the floor of a rickety room, shared with a lovely couple -a Uruguayan artisan and Brazilian musician traveling living from their work and 'el Pirata' as Daniela named him, a Bolivian artisan also traveling with his jewelry who shared his local rum with us.  Unfortunately a sixth room member was a mouse that the couple warned us about that disturbed Daniela all through the night until eventually around 5am she decided it was time for us to leave - as I said to her, she became my mouse! :-) 

Laughing about it in the square we were cheered by drinking hot milky quinoa and eating cheesy pastries. 

Arriving back into La Paz the familiar Obama-Osama bus was spotted again!

Thanks to the Family at Umanachi for sharing your home and food and knowledge with us! 

Wishing you happy and peaceful planting, harvesting and hosting in the months ahead, and that you make it to Colombia as you are hoping.

:-)