Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

So I´m on my fourth full day at "Eco Yoga Park," basically a Hare Krishna commune that takes volunteers and tourists to work on its farm and enjoy yoga and meditation. Where to begin? I arrived during the late afternoon on Thursday, just before yoga class, which was very relaxed. I was pleasantly surprised that it was not too difficult to follow in Spanish. Interestingly, though, the teachers here say everything in the first person, as in: "I inhale deeply, I exhale deeply...I put my left foot forward and bend my knee..." Also, they don't use pose names in Sanskrit or English.

There were eight of us volunteers here the day I arrived, but four left the next day, and another left the day after. Now there are three: Dagmar (female--pronounced 'Dalma') a 26 year-old Psychology student from Denmark, and Ben, a 20-year-old Bio-chem(?) student from New Jersey.

In the mornings, we have breakfast at 7:30, work from 8:30-1:00 (Dagmar and I in the garden, Ben with two men building a straw-bale cabin), lunch at 1:30, Yoga at 4:30, Snack afterwards, Dinner at 8:30. In between, our time is our own. We spend it reading, journal writing, and sharing observations and gossip we've picked up about the state of affairs at our host farm.

There are various Hare Krishna male and female monks, as well as lay people with varying degrees of devotion to Hare Krishna, who live at the farm, which they call "Nueva Vrindavan." They have services 5 times a day, which are not mandatory and which are signalled by blowing a conch shell several times. The female monks are young--women in their early twenties. The men are older, but most are fairly young as well. They spend their days cooking, praying, and taking turns at being our yoga teacher. We're not quite sure how they support themselves.

I had thought this stay would be an opportunity to cleanse myself--there's no alcohol or drugs allowed, and the Hare Krishna don't eat meat or eggs of any kind. Overall the food has been very good'-lots of vegetables and very colorful plates with salads, squash, beets, and fruit dishes. However, they seem to be quite fond of both sugar and salt, and portions are generous at all four of our meals--I may be lucky if I don't gain weight while I'm here!

My plan was to stay here for 3 or 4 weeks and then move on to a less spiritually-focussed organic farm, but I may make my departure earlier, and leave after two or two and a half weeks. Other volunteers have said that securing spots at WWOOF farms has been trickier than expected--this early in the season it's difficult for many small farms to take on extra bodies when they don't yet have a harvest. So, I've emailed all of the farms on the WWOOF list, and will hopefully be invited to at least one of them! If not, I may be chanting (yes, they really do chant "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.." over and over again, all the time) for a few more weeks. Don't worry, though, I'm pretty sure I won't be returning to the states wearing robes and smelling of incense.

PS I had hoped to upload a couple of videos, but it was taking forever. In the meantime, here are some photos for your viewing pleasure (sorry they´re not embedded!)

http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahfbarnes/Argentina?feat=email#5392186269057936898