Tashirat

I came to Mexico for a vacation and an opportunity to evaluate the path that I wanted to walk on for the next few years of my life. As I explored the internet (since the internet always is true) for ashrams that I could afford, I ran across Tashirat through the WWOOFing website (Willing Workers On Organic Farms). Tashirat offered a deal of working in the garden for 6 hours a days/6 days a week in return for a place to crash and free yoga and mediation. On the website, it seemed as though there was easy access to alternative medicine, nutritional guidance and diet analysis. I was even looking forward to trying an enema. I imagined that morning yoga and mediation would instantly transform me and that I could master any yoga position in a matter of days. I also invisioned that I would be granted perfect health after a few days on a raw and vegan diet. Yeah. Not so much.

I am creature of habit and consistancy. I like order and efficiency. I came to a place that does follow this. Heck, the entire country doesn´t even believe in this! Even though the application (a very long one, 13+ pages) asked if we were flexible, I was unprepared to stretch my comfort zone this much. At the beginning, I could think of nothing but going home and say adios to this place that seemed to disapoint me. I mean, I came here for me, right? For the first week, I woke up wondering why the hell I was here. I tried to wake up positive in the morning-with a daily lunch break meltdown and blue cheese cravings being the only consistant events of the day.

Tashirat is a place that 10 or so individuals (staff) have the left the material world, have said goodbye to their biological relatives, nights out on the town, glamorous dinning, and consuming traditions for a new life that is dedicated to community service through diverse and difficult ways. They live in humble homes with only clothing as their own possessions, with daily meditation at 5 am. They are mothers and fathers to 5 or 6 kids that the rest of the world has abandoned and abused, which many of them experience disability. There is also a school for 45+ children that come from nearby that sometimes arrive to school with no shoes and always an empty belly. The diet for staff, children and volunteers is stict. No meat, dairy, coffee, sugar, or processed food (most of the volunteers cheat, I have yet to do so... so it´s raw fruits and veggies for lunch and dinner with a cooked vegan dinner at night) The school and staff try their best to feed and teach this children but with a budget dwindling everyday. The children are inspiring. The staff are amazing.

Volunteers from all over the world for many reasons sign up to give back to the community. They all come with different expectations, talents, and backgrounds. Currently there are volunteers from Scotland, Japan, Tiwain, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Mexico, Australia, USA and Alaska (I definately throw out the Alaska card in Mexico, it makes me look cool)



After 2 weeks, I am finally realizing why I am here. I know that the work that I am doing is more important than myself. I know that I can love the children. I know that I can work hard without a monetary bonus. I also know that I have much to work on. I have come to the realization that self discovery and improvement has no end date. I came to Tashirat for a different reason, but I am fortunate enough to say that I will be leaving with a different outcome than I had imagined. The internet is so slow, I won´t be able to add any photos until maybe I return to Tara and Landons. Boo.