Timbaktu

Aaaaaand now an introduction to Timbaktu!

http://www.timbaktu.org/

TA DAAAA! I'm done now!

Joking.

I have completed my first full week at Timbaktu and my second week on placement. I am not entirely sure what I have learned but it has been an experience. Before I continue I would like to apologise for the lack of photos. I went through last night and selected a few photos from the last few days in Bangalore and from SEDS and then realised I had selected about 80 photos and they were uploading at about one every 5 minutes so yeah... I am not sure what the data limit is on the internet router I'm "borrowing" and have decided you can wait for more extensive photos when I visit Bangalore sometime in August. I will try to be more constant with posting photos on Instagram and Facebook but we shall see what happens.

Anyway, Timbaktu! I got given an annual report booklet to read when I first arrived at the Timbaktu Collective offices. Apparently the "Collective" is separate from "Timbaktu". Timbaktu itself is a 32 acre agro-forest habitat and intentional community which prioritises organic farming, renewable energy, and sustainable living. That is where I am living. The Timbaktu Collective is the non-profit organisation...
I have yet to explore much beyond my immediate vicinity of Timbaktu. So I know the guest house (I am not sure if it even is a guest house but the building I live in - it has 5 or 6 rooms opening onto a courtyard. There is also a kitchen which I am allowed to use but as I have nothing to cook I have not taken up that opportunity yet), the kitchen, some of the other houses staff live in, and of course the Nature School (or Prakruthi Badi - I've been told prakruthi means nature so I am assuming badi means school. Look at me learning Telagu!!! Incidentally I was told the local name for the building I stay in and the kitchen and have forgotten both of them). Its been a little too hot to do too much exploring plus if I did get lost I would have no way of contacting anyone to tell them I'm lost.

While Timbaktu Collective works across farming, marketing, enhancing livelihoods, enterprise development, natural regeneration, biodiversity conservation, financial empowerment of women, and advancing the rights of people with disabilities, my work so far has been within the Chiguru program (New Leaf) at the Nature School. And apart from my trip from the office on Friday the 20th, and a visit to a local temple with the school on Tuesday to celebrate a Hindi festival, I have not left the compound. I may be going a little stir crazy and my aim for this week is to at least be allowed to go into the village because I need to buy some things. The english proficiency of the staff here vary between "hi, how are you" and being able to have a conversation. The majority of the people with the more advanced levels of English work at the office and so I have had very little contact with them. I got a little bit too excited yesterday afternoon when foreigners moved into the room next to me. I finally got to meet them at lunch today and they've already left - so it was a very short lived experience.

On a whole the things I was most worried about and most excited about have not come to fruition. I was told that I had to be extremely careful about scorpions (have not seen any), would not have power overnight (lies! But apparently the compound runs off solar power), and that monkeys would try and break into your room (apparently this was the case in the past but I have not seen even a non-criminal monkey on the compound and that is very disappointing). Wildlife we have geckos, lizards, squirrels, birds and more birds (including some funny ones that jump across the ground) plus of course dogs, cats, cows and chickens.

The food has been quite good. I think there has only been one thing I've tried that I truely disliked (banana and okra pickle anyone???), and I'm doing my best to avoid the constant offer of buttermilk. If I'm eating with the kids and school staff someone will often tell me what it is I'm eating but I rarely remember what it is called. Breakfast is a little bit hard for me because I don't really like eating in the mornings and I am not used to eating such rich and flavourful food. Sundays for breakfast we have Dosa (I like Dosa) and I also like whatever we had yesterday as well.
When I'm at the school I also get morning tea and afternoon tea. Both are usually fruit or vegetables or some type of nut mix. When we have a snack mix the bowls are actually made out of pressed leaves which is really cool. We also sometimes have a drink (I swear the first one was like a hot sweet corn juice... It was so very weird yet also so very good). Then there is tea for the staff and I get poured a little cup of tea and then am not allowed to touch it for at least 5 minutes because its "mala" (hot). I am always asked if I want more and if I do say no I get stared at until I change my mind.

Accommodation is in a building as mentioned earlier. Most of the rooms are taken up by staff who work for Timbaktu and do not live locally. The room next door (where the other foreigners stayed) was until Friday occupied by one of the teachers and her family but they moved them into one of the empty little houses to make room for the foreigners. So now I think that is the new guest room because I am here pretty permanently until the middle of October. My room comes with its own "ensuite" or wash room which comes with a bucket and a jug for showering. Oh and there is no hot water (or if there is I am just completely clueless but I haven't seen any of the typical signs to suggest that it exists). But I have 2 beds, a desk and chair (fun fact - I got annoyed I didn't have a chair when I first arrived and then realised that I had already covered it in things as my "bed side table". Now I have a "bed side suitcase" and a chair for my desk) and a cupboard that is lockable if I need to. I also have a lock for the door but I have only used it when I'm leaving the campus... I also have a balcony type thing and a weird section of the room that can be sectioned off by curtains but I have not figured out its purpose unless if one lived here permanently that became the bedroom and the rest of the room becomes a living space. The door to the courtyard amuses me because its just a screen and privacy is offered by curtains - just on the outside of the door.

Aaaaand thats a bit of random information about my first week and a bit here at Timbaktu. 

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