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 4th 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 4th 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.