The decision to sign up for a month long spiritual retreat in the depths of rural india which involved working with and alongside people who had been affected by leprosy wasn’t really made consciously. It came from a deep knowing that this was somewhere I needed to be. I did a little research about the people running it and the ethos behind it, but I knew very little about leprosy or what I might be doing when I got there. Continue reading
Daily life at Anandwan follows a simple routine and rhythm. I wake around 6am both because I feel rested having slept from about 9.30pm and because I’m cold! The temperature drops to about 8 degrees overnight (up to mid to late 20s in the day) and all I have are some thick cotton covers which are not very effective in keeping the heat in. I share a stone floored room with 3 other women, mosquitos, geckos and dust. The beds are simple painted metal with thin cotton filled mattresses. Continue reading
I have often worked on Christmas Day in hospital or the hospice when I was nursing. It was an active choice to be there on a day which offered something different to the usual routine. Generally it would be quieter on the wards, less staff, less busyness and doing and more joy, more banter, more laughter. Patients would have family visiting and there would be a party atmosphere. I liked the intention of us working around the patients rather than expecting them to work around the routine Continue reading
I’d had a number of imagined scenarios of how the first week of our month long retreat would be but none of my day dreaming came close to the rural idyll we found ourselves in.
We are in Maharashtra in central India taking part in a month long retreat Continue reading
Travel With Grace 