Join Estelle Willemse as she becomes a committed member of Khula Dhamma eco-village near East London, to live in an eco-friendly, sustainable way in harmony with nature. [for part 1] [part 2] & [part 3] and [part 4]

It is 10:38 am and I am sitting outside on the grass under a magnificent blue sky, clouds scattered here and there and I can feel the wind softly moving through the trees and leaves. I arrived back at Khula Dhamma about a week ago, and have been settling into my new room and adjusting to the change, coming, as I have, from the fast-paced city-life...

Today started as usual with a communal meeting at 7:30am outside the main house (a daily meeting attended by all members of the community and/or heads of households to discuss the order of tasks for the day). It is quite an interesting feeling, returning as a new integrating member rather than a woofer… Now the responsibilities change, and the flow of the day is less focussed on getting the hours in, but rather freely and voluntarily giving of your time to the betterment of the community and its surrounding projects.

Tasks are divided by the level of urgency, and gladly taken on by the willing raising of ‘hands’. Today the men who have volunteered will be working on completing a new ablution block for the blossoming integration village. Woofers will help, and also complete the newly built library, which is located in the communal house. Books have been streaming in from many different places - friends, contacts, supporters and more - and we now have a comprehensive variety of relevant subjects such as, natural medicines, vegetarian cooking, bodywork (yoga, massage etc.), farming/gardening, natural building and spirituality/wisdom.

One of the dynamics of living off the grid is not having an uninterrupted supply of water on tap. The farm uses a solar pump to get drinking water out of a borehole, which sometimes means, no sun = no water, which is what almost happened a few days ago: early morning the whole community gathered together, and were alerted to the fact that the water tanks were running dangerously low. This meant drastically cutting back on water consumption and mostly limiting usage to drinking and a little washing. This is something I’m not used to, but chose to embrace as part of the experience. Learning to truly respect and conserve the valuable resources the earth offers us is a lesson never to be underestimated, and here I can experience the effects of this directly.

Recently coming from the city I can thoroughly take in the different feelings and rushed aspects of city life, compared to the relaxed and open lifestyle living on a farm provides. I am still feeling remnants of my previous lifestyle, which was definitely rushed (compared to living in natural time), and the ever-present need to get more and more things done in less and less time. Here there’s no place for stress. I realized this today. The community members immediately pick up on each other’s states of minds, and help one another transcend it.

Through it all I am deeply moved and overjoyed to be back, being woken up by the birds and the sun, having the freedom to walk in the surrounding forest whenever I feel the need, and being able to share & live in conscious communion with nature & my fellow awakening journeyers of life…

“The crisis we are currently experiencing will not be overcome by tried and tested measures, carried out step by step. The way beyond today’s crisis lies in profound and radical transformation.”
~Ervin Laszlo

"In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."
~Eric Hoffer