First of all, I would like to say that this farm is very very beautiful, as well as the surrounding towns and mountains, but our stay on the farm wasn't as we had hoped for and we left early due to a lack of personal fulfillment. We had a slightly complicated workaway experience with Mona, our complications with the farm came from a lot of
… read more misunderstandings of what the farm is like through the workaway descriptions as well as misunderstandings between the two of us and Mona herself.
The farm has a beautiful atmosphere, and you can tell that over the course of the last 40 years there has been a lot of life, love and learning happening in this beautiful space... but as of right now the farm is very quiet and not much is happening any longer. Mira and I came there with the impression (because of the workaway description) that it would be a very busy farm with plenty of guests, workshops, projects and a community of volunteers and we came with the intentions to be involved and learn through the work experience and observations of the ongoings of the farm and with the interactions of the passionate people involved in the farm. When we arrived, however, we came to realise that the glory days of the farm had passed. Mona expressed to us that she is winding down in her busy farming days and values her quiet time and seclusion very much and she spent nearly all of her time to herself in her own private quarters. We were the only volunteers on the farm and had little to no interaction with guests or passionate eco-farmers, we were given tasks such as weeding garden beds with no guidance from the owner at all, only through guidance from local Indians who worked on the farm and who spoke no english. We agreed to a 3 week stay with Mona (she usually only allows a month minimum but she made a very kind exception for us) but after less that a week we questioned what we were doing on the farm and what experience or knowledge we would take with us.
Mona listened to our concerns about feeling like we needed more education and a deeper connection to the farm and the work we were doing, and she seemed to really open up to us for the first time and told us that she would work on developing something more involved for us, but this request ended up being more complicated and bothersome that we intended. Mona is indeed a kind and experienced woman but it should be known that she values her personal time very much and unfortunately it leaves very little time or involvement with her volunteers.
Sadly, we cut our stay short from 3 weeks to only one week and made our way to Mumbai. She was very understanding and gave us the freedom to do what was best for ourselves but also expressed her disappointment that we did not fulfil our 3 week agreement. We are certainly sorry for this but we have very limited time in India and to stay for 3 weeks on a reputable and established eco farm and feel like we left with very little new knowledge or understanding of sustainability or permaculture was not possible for us.
If you seek to have a very quiet and secluded working experience on an old farm, this is the place for you. Maybe you will have an opportunity to receive an educational experience from Mona but be aware that she might rather spend her time alone... in which case there are no other permaculture experts to spend time with or learn from.
If you are a traveler who is hungry for knowledge and would like to be busy with lots of like-minded volunteers on exciting permaculture projects, you may want to keep looking. (Or at least make sure that you arrive to the farm if or when she has a workshop event happening.)
Thank you very much Mona, we wish you the best in the years to come.
