Adventures: Mountain Cleaners

As our third and final volunteer project approached, yet again we had no idea what we were really getting into, but yet again it turned out to be absolutely amazing. After our “personal vacation” in Rishikesh we hopped on a train to Chekibank, and so did hundreds of other Indians as a holiday celebrating the harvesting of the wheat was just finishing up in Hardiwar and they were all headed home. It was a packed, yet an interesting 10 hour train ride; I got harassed by some beggar children, made some friends, got some free food, witnessed some bribing and still managed to get a little sleep. We arrived at around 3 am and the five of us shared a 3 and a half hour taxi with a couple from Mumbai, and a couple from Mexico and Israel. As we started our accent up the mountains to Dharamshala, the foothills of the Dhauladhar range, it began to get light and the snow capped peaks were illuminated like an angel in the distance. Lush green trees covered the hill sides, leading to perfect snow capped peaks. I hadn’t seen snow since my week home in March, and didn’t expect to see any until next winter. Though I was exhausted from an almost sleepless night, I was able to keep my eyes open most of the time fixed on the paradise I would get to call my home for the next month.

We were staying in Bhagsu, one of the three areas of upper Dharamshala. Our project in Bhagsu is volunteering with an organization called Mountain Cleaners (MC). MC was started in 2008 by a wonderful women from the UK Jodie Underhill. It is in the process of becoming a NGO and is run by volunteers from all over the world and three paid workers, two Indians (Manu and Lockman) and one Tibetan (Thrinli). Work quickly turned more into an opportunity to have fun with great people while doing good things. Though Jodie made it clear that we should always do what we wanted to and if we didn’t feel like volunteering one day that was totally OK, most of the time I wanted to be volunteering since it always involved amusing times hanging out with an awesome crew.

MCs aim is to clean up India, little by little through a combination of direct action, liaison and awareness raising. There are three volunteer treks that MC runs to clean the surrounding mountains. The Triund trek, which has been running for over a year now, is a two day trek running every Monday. The treks are encouraged for all types of hikers and quiet laid back. We slowly make our way up the mountain picking up waste and getting to know other volunteers on the way up, with of course stops at all the chai shops on the way. It took me a little bit to get used to seeing little shops in what to me seemed like the middle of nowhere on a mountain side, but given the popularity of such a beautiful hike I quickly understood why. MCs provide the four chai shops on the trail, and three shops at the top with bags for non-recyclable and recyclable waste that each week the volunteers sort and then the mules taken them down the mountain where the recyclables are sold to local rag-pickers and the non-recyclables are taken to the landfill in Dharmashala. After about a four hour hike we reach the three upper chai shops, campsite and Forest Service guest house where we stay and enjoy lunch surrounded by the snow capped peaks and over looking all of lower and upper Dharmashala. Even though this is a weekly trek after lunch there is usually plenty more waste collection to due around the campsite followed by more segregation. One of the biggest issues is food waste being thrown into the bags, creating a more difficult jobs for volunteers when the food waste can just be given to the many hungry crows, mules or dogs. In the evening the crew enjoys Thali’s around a campfire and in my case I was lucky enough to always have fellow volunteers that brought up beautiful voices and guitars.

My first week up Triund, even though it was cloudy and filled with rain showers, I still continued up the following morning with a smaller group to the snow line. As we walked upwards into the snow peaks and clouds little bits of snow became more and more frequent. We finally rounded a corner to find the Snowline Café (small chai shop) barely poking out under loads of snow. I couldn’t believe someone lived there all year round buried in the snow truly in the middle of nowhere. It was like we entered a whole new world, still in the clouds, no sign of civilization except this small shop and snow everywhere! I quickly ran up the hill and discovered that our waste bags made great sleds. We all explored the area, Sophie practiced snow headstands, Michael made a snow angel, Trinli sent massive snowballs flying down the hill to create a snowman, as I perched on top a rock in the mist under prayer flags fluttering in the wind attempting to pick out ski lines thinking of my friends back home. After spending the first half of the winter following behind my best friends in the powder of Wyoming snow will forever remind me of their love and passion for the sport and my love for them. As my thoughts drifted to Ryan, as the usually do, I took a look around and couldn’t help but smile through my tears. I longed to share all my experiences with Ryan, tell him how amazing my trip had been, how beautiful India and Indians are and how I wanted him to see it. Though I couldn’t send him an e-mail or call him up, I knew he was there with me (picking out much harder skiing lines). I could picture his genuine enthusiasm and support for everything I had done, and how happy he would be for me following my dreams that we had spent many summer nights discussing. Though he can no longer pursue his dreams, he will always be there to support and encourage me to live my life to the fullest, to make friends everywhere I go and spread his love and happiness all over the world.

And Bhagsu is certainly a place of happiness. My first week there I was almost overwhelmed with the amount of things to do in addition to volunteering; music lessons, yoga, cooking classes, mediation, art classes, sewing classes, jewelry making and much much more. I wanted to do it all, but ended up learning the most just by sitting with friends and travelers over tea and talking or listening to amazing musicians jam around town. Given the beautiful environment and people, amount of activities offered and perfect weather its defiantly a place I could stay for a long time. Unfortunately I only had less than a month there and there was nothing I could do about that except enjoy every minute of it.
There is endless work that can be done for MC to keep us busy and everyday it seemed Jodie could think of another amazing idea to be implemented one if they ever have the money and volunteers for it.

It was amazing to work with someone so dedicated and positive on what can easily seem to be an over whelming and impossible task. For those who have never been to India it is dirty. First off there is almost no infrastructure for waste management. Secondly, throwing waste on the ground, dumping and burning is part of the culture. Before plastic made it to India everything was given on leaves, clay or biodegradable material so generation after generation threw their waste on the ground and that was perfectly fine. As plastics took over India education about waste and pollution didn’t. In India throwing waste out the bus or train window is a second nature as throwing waste into a bin for me back home. For Jodie to take on this task is huge and never ending. It was truly inspirational to feel her passion and enthusiasm for such a daunting task. As each week on treks we picked up more waste that seemed to return the following week and witness burning almost daily it was easy to feel like maybe this was a waste of time. But MC is much more than just picking up waste. Though it is important to keep the trails clean, what is more important is implementing education through action. Each week the chai shops get better at segregating their own waste, each week new trekkers (Indians and foreigners) see what we are doing and read our signs about waste management. Jodie is slowly reaching out to all the businesses and restaurants in the area to educate about waste management and environmental issues. She has created a Green Guide to Dharamasla for tourists to teach them about MC, volunteer opportunities, environmental issues, what is recyclable and how to take care of waste, and which local businesses offer filter water bottle refill stations and have their own waste management systems. The Green Guide offers incentive for business to be green to have their name in the brochure. During our time with MC their first waste collector, Lockman, was hired to collect recyclable and not-recyclables from businesses in Bhagsu providing even more incentive not to burn or dump waste. Jodie hopes to offer more jobs with good pay and working conditions for more local workers in the future.

In addition to the Triund hike I went on several other hikes, including a four day trip to Kearii Village. I was sick when the group of 12 MC volunteers went so I ended up going with another volunteer Josh (Australia) to meet Sean (England) who stayed behind when everyone else headed back to Bhagsu. The Karri campsite and village can only be reached on foot right now, but a road is in the process of being build to the village. The campsite sits on a crystal clear river in a beautiful valley, and is the first of three campsites leading to Karri Lake (which is supposed to be amazing, though I never made the 13km journey). Over 5,000 people visit the campsite between May and September and obviously there is no waste management system. Jody feared that with the road coming in that number will explored the pristine environment will quickly become filled with trash. Our job was to educate the groups that came to the campsite while we were there are about waste and to clean up the area. The area was surprisingly really clean, and the groups that came were all well off families or private school groups that had environmental education. They enjoyed our speech on the importance of keeping the environment clean and recycling. They especially enjoyed Sean’s performance of “From Little Things Big Things Grow”, an environmental song he wrote for our Earth Day activities.

The campsite was run by a trekking organization so people paid and had tents, meals and outhouses. We quickly made friends with the trekking organization worker and had three delicious free meals a day and another guitar player. Though we did hike in our own food and Josh did some amazing cooking over the fire it was a four star camping experience. I think it was on the edge of that river, or laying in the tent for hours with Sean and Josh that I learned how to relax, and how important that is.

Throughout university, and during our projects in India I was always wanted to be getting stuff done, doing things, being productive. Which is good, but I now know so is sitting by the side of river and enjoying life and doing nothing. I used to always want to be doing something productive, I couldn’t even sit down and watch TV without doing some other productive task. With the help of two wonderful friends I met along the way, Sean and Josh, I finally saw the beauty and importance of doing nothing. They taught me how to slow down, stop and enjoy. And that is one of the most important things I learned while in India.