Traveling on, meeting new friends, making connections and experiencing love

It's been two months since we last posted something on this blog. It is not that there was nothing to write about, on the contrary there was so much to write about that we got a bit overwhelmed and also traveling has caught up with us. So even though we have not written we carried on traveling both on the outside and that prompted further our inner journeys.

The New Year began with a wonderful re-connection and tonnes of laughter with our busy urbanite friends from Mumbai, Kamayni and Ulhas, who came to Thekkady to spend the holidays with us and they managed to squeeze in every tourist attraction Thekkady and PeriyarTiger Reserve had to offer, they saw more tourist attractions in three days then Jerry and I managed to see in six weeks. A day after day left we left Thekkady on 4^th January. It was not easy to leave TheChrissie's Hotel, which was our temporary home for 6 weeks. There, while offering some of our hotel consultancy work we experience wonderful connections, made some new friends some of whom, we know, will stay in our life wherever we might be in the future.

Adel, a lovely, friendly and warm owner of the Chrissies Hotel and Cafe and his quiet yet equally loving girlfriend Ulli had welcomed us, with open arms to their jungle dream oasis. From the day one they trusted us and were open to ideas and changes we wished to introduce. The rest of the staff needed a bit more time. They knew we were there to introduce some changes that were supposed to bring improvements and potentially more customers and they wanted those changes, but they also needed time to develop their trust and to feel at ease with us 'roaming' around kitchen and the hotel checking things out. In the first few days we had quite a revelation about our own behaviour.  We realised that sometimes we were sitting on our, proverbial, European high horse looking a bit down at people judging them from our cultural bias rather than seeing their actions or inactions as it may be in the cultural context of India. Needless to say it seemed to us that some members of staff were not very friendly towards us, of course they were not, they were just mirroring our own attitude and behaviour. Luckily, we had enough awareness between us to see our behaviour for what it was, we caught our ego by its tail and we managed to remind ourselves about the NVC values and consciousness from which we wanted to live our lives. Always try to see and connect with the human being and their needs first and foremost, and only then look at the actions and behaviours as a way of trying to fulfill some of those needs. Once we realised that our whole demeanour changed, we stopped judging the actions and we started trying to connect to needs members of staff were trying to fulfill with those actions. We identified that the main need for all the the staff members was safety, other needs such as inclusion, acknowledgement, being seen and heard were also highly present. From this perspective it was much easier to stay with the human and to look for new strategies that might meet the staff's individual needs mentioned above, while at the same time meeting some of the hotel's needs: efficiency, professionalism, financial safety and a few others. The staff was not just staff for us any longer, rather they all became individual human beings namely: Bindu, Sathish, Binsi, Rajan, Anthony, Anshad, Arun, Mahi, Siva, with their own needs, and with their individual life stories. The more we got to know them, the more we were seeing and acknowledging each one of them, the more connections (despite the language barriers sometimes) we were experiencing and the more warmth and love was being sent in our direction. Somehow, we were included in what Adel calls his Chrissie's family. 

Next to the Chrissie's family, we also met new friends Jane and Chris, long term guests of the hotel. With them we created a strong bond and connection,  laughing a lot about our experiences at the Chrissie's, which out of warmth and love we occasionally referred to as '' the Crazie's''. In the early days of the hotel one of the members of staff was pronouncing Chrissie's as Crazies, hence he used to welcome the guests to Crazies hotel! And just as you think that the things cannot get better and crazier life surprises you. Another workawayer Floor from Holland arrived on the scene of the Chrissie's in mid December. Like us he came to the Chrissie's through Workaway. Apart from bringing gezeligheid* by lighting candles around the hotel, including several in front of our door, with his unique, dry sense of humour and his Dutch directness he brought lots of brightness, insights,warmth and love in Jerry's and my life.

You travel, you meet people, some of them start touching you deeply and then it is time to say good bye. This time at the Chrissie's we had quite a few people who touch our hearts and it was not easy to say good bye and to sail into new adventures. With a mixture of slight sadness because we were departing, and joy of full heart because we have experienced connections and love we said good by to our Chrissie's friends on 4^th January. Our friend Sathish went with us to the bus station and made sure we and all our language were safely on the right state bus to Madurai, Tamil Nadu ... and onwards we went.

* a Dutch word often translated in English as coziness, however it means much more than that, it describes and depicts an atmosphere that is cozy, convivial, sociable, light, friendly, inclusive and so much more.