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Life at Sunseed – Rabbiya Naveed

At the first glimpse, Sunseed appears like a rather ordinary not-so-well maintained place. At Sunseed, we bake our own bread and jams, harvest our own crops, use seasonal fruits only, exploit the solar energy, use urinals and compost toilets, use organic products, recycle our waste, use limited Internet and say goodbye to a chemical-enriched life. For anyone, this package is a bit hard to digest initially. To be honest, I kept delaying using a compost toilet till my intestines gave up. I regret that.

However, in less than three days I had adapted to the lifestyle and started enjoying the tranquility of the place. Sunseed is located in the middle of mountains and caves, and has been blessed with a natural swimming pool which is an absolute delight during the summer. There is no such thing as ‘working’ at Sunseed. What we are assigned is our responsibility and what we do is what we owe to nature. All the staff members and volunteers live like a family in a community with the motto of minimizing the impact on the environment. Sustainability first! 

I can write a whole journal about my experience at Sunseed and how little bits from every single day have taught me one thing or the other. At the Appropriate Technology Department, I have worked on a few projects like Fuel Gasifiers, Establishment of a Compost Toilet Light System, Maintenance of Solar Panels etc. I always had a strong inclination towards Sustainable Engineering and working on these projects has only strengthened my resolve and reinforced my belief that Engineering techniques can indeed push technological development further whilst staying within the shell of sustainability. I can’t help thinking that if such a lifestyle was implemented on a larger scale, global problems like energy crises could be tackled to a substantial extent.

Sunseed has taught me that every individual has his own niche in the environment and something unique to contribute to the world. It has taught me that writing and speaking about sustainability and environmental conservation is one thing, but taking a step to bring a real change is a completely different ball game. It has taught me to value nature and it’s products and has reinforced the tranquillity of the natural world in my mind. It has taught me that low impact living extends from our kitchens to our toilets and is perfectly viable. All in all, my experience at Sunseed has taught me how to minimise my carbon footprint without compromising on my comfort and ease. 

I already feel guilty by the thought of the lifestyle I used to have. I will always value the time I have spent at Sunseed and given an option, I would’t exchange it for any other opportunity. I would highly encourage everyone to spend some time of their lives dedicated to a similar cause. It will be an extremely vital experience to put things in perspective. I want to thank all the Coordiantors at Sunseed for their guidance and for making all the volunteers believe that ‘Yes, we can!’, all the volunteers who turned out to be amazing friends for the absolutely lovely time I have spent with them, and Chitto for being the best demonstrator one could have.  

La vida en Sunseed – Rabbiya Naveed

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I guess you people are expecting a long recounting of all the things that happened to me during my six month stay, some sort of big walk down Memory Lane, but I won’t do that.

I’m going to tell you a different kind of story.

And so here it goes, here’s how Sunseed changed my way of viewing life…

There is a point in life in which you may feel like you are not going anywhere and you don’t have anything to give anymore: that usually means that you really need a change. That’s the situation I found myself in a few months after graduating from college, more than a year ago.

At that time, when thinking about my future, I used to get really scared – sometimes I would tell myself I wouldn’t even get a real one. Now I’m not afraid anymore. Now I’m aware of what I can do. Now, when that word comes to my mind, I can actually see one and it’s thrilling, it’s exciting but most of all, it’s real.

I literally landed in Sunseed last June with no expectations or plans or anything of the sort; I only told myself to keep mymind and my heart wide open and ready for anything because I thought it would be the best and most sensitive approach. Well, after half a year, I went back home with so much more that I’ve bargained for or that I would ever imagined or dreamed of gaining.

Also, I arrived with a friend and left on my own; according to some weird logic of mine, I got to experience twice as much and consequently, I have gained double because it felt like living two different “lives”, one over the summer and the other in autumn, with two completely different mind sets that gave me the opportunity to experience things in different and marvellous ways.

During these six months, I have met so many people from every corner of this strange and beautiful world, each one of them with their own life and personal background, and every day I feel blessed and lucky to have shared even just moments with all of them. Because when you meet these people, see them coming into your life, staying for a while and sharing their time with you and then leaving, people that you learn to call friends and even family, you have the chance to dive into this endless ocean of humanity, appreciating even the smallest things, and then you come up to the surface feeling richer, refreshed, wiser and with a bigger heart each time.

Seeing as I have been working mostly in the gardens, now I tell you this. Imagine yourself as an onion, or if you wish – something else equally made of layers. Each one represents something that you think it’s important in your life. Once you get to Sunseed, you find yourself slowly stripped of all these layers, because you gradually discover that a lot of what you needed before is not essential after all, and the only thing that remains is the core, the centre. It represents who you really are, what you really want and what you are capable of. This place has the amazing power of showing you your real potential, your true nature in a simple way. You find out that at the centre, at the core of it all, there is just you and nothing else.

On a more personal level, I have to say that all the experiences I have had at Sunseed made me go through some serious emotional transformation, and because of it I had the chance to discover a part of myself I didn’t even know it existed. I have always felt like I was made of stone because of my supposed incapacity to connect with my feelings. Now that this part of me finally came out, it almost feels like a Pandora’s box has been unlocked and with it, all these deep and enveloping sensations. It might sound scary and new – in some ways, at least for me, it is – but I have to thank Sunseed for letting me reconnect with a side of myself I have always thought I didn’t possess and for showing me something I thought it was forever lost.

So, dear Los Molinos and my dearest Sunseeders all, remember that I will always keep you in my thoughts and my heart and be forever grateful because you showed that a different way of life is always possible if you really want it, because you are an example of how you can have so much more in life with a lot less to worry about, because you have been a home and a family for me for a long time, because you sent me back home with an incomparable personal and cultural baggage.

This, in the end, is my short story for you.

Someone that I hold very close to my heart once told me that life is like a book. Each experience or moment of your life is a different chapter and every time you finish one, it doesn’t mean it’s completely forgotten. It’s still there, for you to go back to and enjoy with a smile on your face anytime you wish to.

Yo literalmente aterricé en Sunseed el pasado junio sin expectativas ni planes ni nada por el estilo; solo me dije a mí misma que mantuviera mi mente y mi corazón abierto de par en par y listo para cualquier cosa porque pensé que sería lo mejor y la actitud más acertada. Bueno, después de medio aňo, volví a casa con mucho más de lo que he pedido o lo que nunca hubiera imaginado o soňado ganar.

Alguien que tuve muy cerca de mi corazón una vez me dijo que la vida es como un libro. Cada experiencia o momento de tu vida es un capítulo diferente y cada vez que terminas uno, no significa que está completamente olvidado. Sigue ahí para que vuelvas y disfrutes con una sonrisa en la cara cada vez que así lo desees.

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