Green Team

On Saturday the Green team went around the middle school campus Ganga to see all the trees that had been planted in previous years. The trees are still fairly small but are progressing healthily at their own pace. Ganga has a fair amount of undeveloped land so we trekked through the thick trees hunting for passion fruit and pears. We got some unbelievably juicy pears and some nice tart passion fruit. The pears made our fingers sticky but it was so worth it, I even got some to take home; one of which I just finished eating right now. There is just something so peaceful about eating freshly picked fruit under a tree with the sun streaming through the leaves slightly warming your skin. I guess that is one of the reasons why I want to rewild, go back to nature and back to my roots. I want to be responsible for finding my own food (and getting the satisfaction when you do) instead of just being handed food. We are so disconnected from our food in many ways. Most of the time we don`t know where our food has come from, how long it took to get here, how it was grown and with what chemicals, who grew it, how it was shipped... I have so many questions about the efficiency and sustainability of our food system I would rather not be involved in it at all. I want to gather and grow my own food and hopefully be able to supply others with local organic produce. Sure organic local food is a bit more expensive up front but when compared to the long term cost of conventionally grown food, it seems like nothing. Here is a great article published by Time Magazine titled: ``The Real Cost of Cheap Food`` http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1917726,00.html. We need to start making decisions for our planet first and our wallets second, because without our mother earth and her natural resources we will have no economy to supply us with our flow of cash. Also look at where your spending your money because I can almost guarantee that most people spend their money frivolously on unneeded items. Spend more on GOOD food (quality over quantity) and less on material goods your body and spirit will thank you. By nourishing our bodies with healthy food choices (in the words of Michael Pollan ``eat food, not too much, mostly plants``) and declutter our lives of useless material objects we will be lead to happiness, true happiness.

Here in India I have very few possessions with me, only clothes really and surprisingly I don't miss any of my possessions from back home, I am content with having little, coupled with the fact that many of the people in this country have little to nothing. It makes me appreciate what I have but also realize that most of what I have I don't need. On our walk back to the campus we saw a small tent made of plastic, Bryan Plymale (who works with the social experience department) told us that a family of twelve lived in that tent. I was saddened to know that such poverty exists yet most people are not aware of it, nor do they want to be. I mean you have some people that own multiple houses (sometimes using it only a couple weeks of the year), others living in such excess and here is a family of twelve living in a tiny plastic tent, during monsoon and everything.

Unfortunately in the West they have the complete opposite problem of what is evident here. If only we could have enough to meet our needs, to find a balance...