Isabelle's report from the Thai ashram

My arrival

First I spent a few days in Bangkok. From there I took the night train to Nong Khai. I traveled in 2nd class, so I didn't have a bed, just a seat with a reclined backrest. With a ticket price of around €11, this class was even cheaper and perfectly adequate for me in terms of comfort. Unfortunately, my train arrived an hour late, so the owner of the ashram, Tom, was already waiting for me and then drove me about 45 minutes to the farm. On the way I was already given some information about the farm and the course of the next few days.

Upon arrival, Tom showed me around and showed me the dormitory, kitchen, showers and toilets. After a delicious tea and breakfast I had some time to arrive and settle in. Since I arrived on a Sunday, there was no more work to do that day. I went swimming with two other volunteers in a small canal located on the farm grounds. After that we went together by bike to a café in the next village.

Orientation week

A so-called “Ecovillage lifestyle experience week” takes place on the farm every two to three weeks. Such a week also started the day after my arrival. On Monday Tom gave all newcomers a big and detailed tour of the farm. Every day from Tuesday to Friday we talked about one of the following pillars of an ecovillage: ecology, economy, culture and social issues. During this week we always had a more theoretical unit in the mornings, in which we received a lot of knowledge, talked a lot, discussed and exchanged ideas. In the afternoons we were always active and lent a hand in the garden and got a taste of the most diverse areas.

My everyday

For me, every morning started at 5:50 am with my alarm clock. While others got up earlier to meditate, I preferred to take a little more time to sleep and started the day at 6 a.m. with yoga. After about an hour we were done so it was time to go to the mandala garden and water the vegetables. After breakfast we all met for the morning check-in. Here it was possible to address problems or concerns and to exchange views on everyone's well-being.

Then work started in the morning. In the first few weeks, I helped out on many different projects, depending on where support was needed at the time. For example, I thinned out the so-called Food Forest, produced organic fertilizer, laid an irrigation system, sowed vegetable and herb seeds, painted the café, made essential oils, roasted lemongrass tea and reactivated compost heaps.

After a few weeks I decided to focus on the mandala garden. My main job there was to build raised beds. Together with other volunteers, I first sewed so-called earthbags, filled them with loosened earth and pressed them together again with the appropriate tools, creating a kind of solid replacement brick. These filled earthbags were first plastered with a mixture of clay and rice husks, then with a mixture of limestone. Finally, we painted the beds colorful. We also layered various materials such as cardboard, leaves, compost and straw in them to create a nutrient-rich substrate for the plants. Finally, the preferred vegetables could finally be planted.

I was busy with these activities in the morning and in the afternoon. On the lunch break, after lunch, I usually went to a straw hut next to the canal. There I read, wrote a diary, sunbathed and went swimming. After the garden was watered again in the early evening, a dance session was finally on the plan, which I always liked very much. After dinner we usually went straight to bed, since the day was always relatively full and exhausting and the next day started early again.

In addition to the daily routine, there were also certain rhythms within a week that I really liked. On Monday, for example, we always cleaned in the morning and washed our plastic waste in the afternoon, which was then dried in order to fill it in plastic bottles. These plastic bottles could also be used as building material. We always had afternoons on Wednesdays and Sundays free. Once a week we usually watched a documentary about permaculture, for example. On Saturdays we sometimes had special activities. For example, we had lectures on topics such as “Food as medicine” or meditation. We also visited a monk in a nearby temple.

Essen

Basically, all volunteers divided into three small groups, so that every day they took on a different task in the household. Accordingly, each team was responsible for preparing meals every three days. Since cooking was more of a fun community activity than a chore for all of us, we often spent a lot of time together in the kitchen, listening to music and chatting.

The food was always delicious. Above all, we were able to harvest and process a lot of fruit, but also some home-grown vegetables directly in the garden. In addition, our chickens have always been busy laying eggs. The family of the farm owners has paddy fields nearby. We always got the rice that we used for cooking from them.

Once a week there was a market in the nearest village. All other groceries were obtained by the owners from larger markets. Since there were three Thai interns in the ashram during my stay, I learned many recipes that are typical for there, which I was very happy about. During my “Ecovillage lifestyle experience week” we even had the honor of having a chef visiting us who cooked for us three times a day.

My free time

During the week the day was always quite full, but especially at the weekend we often all went to a café together in the village. Together with the owners we went to Nong Khai and went to the night market, enjoyed the sunset directly on the Mekong and tried delicious food from the street stalls. On a weekend we also went to a national park where we went hiking and stayed the night. During the week we often made a campfire in the evenings if we weren't already too tired.

A very special experience

A ceremony took place on a Sunday in a temple near the farm. We walked there in a group of four volunteers and looked around the temple complex. We were then invited to lunch by the locals and danced to Thai music with them. It didn't feel like we were tourists. Rather, we were treated as part of the village community. We could hardly communicate in English, but communication with hands and feet worked. This day was unique for me and I will certainly not forget it in a hurry!

Isabelle, March 2022