Extended Family - A note from Ronan on his travels

Remember Ronan who worked at Sanctuary Bistro.  He is off in the world making a compassionate impact.  He wrote to us to let us know what he is up to. -Jennifer Hey there you beauties, I haven’t got around to doing a blog, but heres a little update and ill send a couple of pics too!A couple of months since leaving the Bay Area I found myself volunteering at a children’s home in Rishikesh, India. Rishikesh is now a traveller hotspot and yoga mecca. It was made popular after the beatles spent some time doing a transcendental meditation course here in the 60s. Between the beautiful scenery of the turquois Ganges cutting through the himalayan hills, and their perhaps rising consciousness, they drew inspiration and wrote a whole album here (The White Album).Anyways, Ramana’s Garden Childrens home is an amazing place. There are 60 kids living here. They are either orphans or have come from a dangerous family situation where their safety and lives are at risk. The main source of income comes through the organic cafe . The food here is amazing, cooked by Chandra and her team of nepali kitchen workers. In general in India it is difficult or unsafe for western tourists to get a decent salad, but here they do a raw and vegan friendly fresh green leaf salad with beetroot, carrots, sprouts, some shredded coconut that’s been baked with agave, and a salad dressing. Almost everything comes straight from our organic garden. The menu at the moment is full of pumpkin and spinach because that’s whats up! Being a vegan in India is very difficult if you are traveling around. They use butter in everything but the food is really tasty. Being a vegetarian here has been really easy. Even if you wanted to eat meat, in holy towns like Rishikesh they don’t have meat.In Ramana’s I work in the cafe and a few of the kids help out after they come back from school. All the profits go to running the children’s home and any tips the kids earn go into their college fund. Ramana’s has also set up a school on the site and most of our kids as well as another hundred or so attend this school for free!! In order to qualify the parents must earn below 2,000 rupees (approx. 300 dollars) a month.When I’m not in the cafe I tutor the kids, help them with their homework, do activities with them, bring them for a game of soccer etc. Sometimes there’s odd DIY jobs that need doing too. I will be staying here for christmasMy trip to Nepal had to be put on hold for insurance reasons after the earthquakes. That is all sorted now though and I plan to arrive there in March. I have heard that there are still families living in tents and that everyone needs to have proper shelter before monsoon comes around again, so the rebuilding is vital over the next 6 months or so. I have made a few Nepalese friends who need help getting their villages back together and I raised some money to help them do so, but I will wait until I am in Nepal and can see first hand where the money is going before making any decisions.Before then I’m taking a couple months in between volunteerinhg to travel and explore India. So far I’ve loved sleeping under the stars in the desert in Rajasthan. Camels are such big funny creatures! Hiking the Himalayas in Manali was a beautiful experience, being introduced to Buddhism at the home of the Dalai Lama was interesting. Spending some time in yoga ashrams has been so lovely and healthy. I also did a Vipassana - 10 days of 10 hours meditation a day, complete silence, it was tough but rewarding, I would recommend it to anyone who can find the time to do one There are centers all over the world. It’s hard to say what I’ll miss the most about India, but the fresh fruit has to be right up there. Just yesterday I bought two pomegranates, an orange, a guava, a banana, and two chikoos (which look like a kiwi but taste like a fresh juicy version of a cross between dates and figs - so tasty), all for about a dollar! I’m in fruit heaven here! Sending love your way,Ronan