[My name is Sareena, I'm 8 years old and live in London. In December 2018, I visited India, the country of my heritage, for the first time in my life with my parents and sister to attend a Mindful Families Retreat at ESI in Ahmedabad. Below is one part of my India trip journal from our time in Gujarat, when we visited the Gandhi Ashram and I attended my first ever ServiceSpace retreat!]

After 3 nights in Delhi and Agra, we landed in Gujarat, where my heritage is from. We were welcomed to Jayesh Nana's house and we happily ate some scrumptious, homemade food. It was the only homecooked meal we had in India (up to then). During our visit at Jayesh Nana's house, a little, fluffy, white, playful dog caught my eye. This dog was called Reign. At first, I was climbing chairs because I was so scared but then Raghubhai told me to come over and pet the dog and in the end I was holding him!! Now he is my buddy and I love playing with this cute, adorable dog. It was amazing to see Reva, Uncle Nimo and Meghna Masi for breakfast in our hotel the next morning. Uncle Nimo and Reva did a silly but fabulous pyjama dance and made me laugh so much I got the hiccups! [...]



Gandhi Ashram

One afternoon, we visited Uncle Nimo's heART Centre where we sat at the top of the slide, with our eyes glued to the rehearsal of Jai Jagat, a show performed by seventeen slum kids about the teachings of inspiring people such as Gandhiji and Malala. I'm really excited that they're bringing the show to London and I get to be one of the volunteers showing people where to sit. As a treat, we gave them one big chocolate bar for them to share and I found it really funny that they called it "Western chocolate." After that, before we left, we did their prayer with them before they ate and amazingly, they sang a bhajan we know, "Saathe Ramiye". Finally, Kiyaben sang a song ("ben" means elder sister).

We continued our visit to the Gandhi Ashram (the next day), this time with the organisers of a Mindful Family Retreat, Mommy, Suchi Aunty, Nisha Aunty, Shaalini Aunty and Meghna Masi. We all met our new friends, Simu Didi, Aumbhai, Khimaya (and Reva) in the Toilet Cafe at the ashram (at ESI). It was really cool meeting them as they're some of my first Indian friends from India. Jayesh Nana was also the keeper of the keys to Gandhiji's room in the Gandhi Ashram so we got to go inside. I was surprised by what I saw, a spinning wheel, cotton and two pillows. I was expecting some big fancy bed because I know that he is famous and people who are famous often have lots of big fancy things and gigantic palaces made out of gold. From this, I learnt that he was a very humble person, who said this quote, "There is enough for what you need, not your greed."



Ashram Shala

The kids in the Ashram Shala (ashram hostel for kids) were mostly from villages so their families let them come here for school. They welcomed us with a welcome clap and said bye to us with a bye bye clap. :) During the visit there, they showed us their dormitories and classrooms. I thought their dormitories would look like Harry Potter's, which has beds and wardrobes, however it was a room with concrete floor and they slept on mats, which they rolled up and put on a rack. Even though they had so little, and they slept on a hard floor, they are very Happy and grateful for what they had.

Suddenly, some loud bangs of a dhol played by some of the boys made all the girls yell "Yey" and run and start doing garba in the middle of the courtyard. I wished I could do garba every day at our school because it looked so fun. Finally our visit ended by us sharing about ourselves and why we had come. Then we all sat and did prayers before they ate and some of the prayers included were "Saathe Ramiye" and "Om Tat Sat " (which we knew). When we were leaving, a young boy (from the streets) gave us all handmade decorations that his mom made for him to sell. He didn't even stop to think if he was going to give it to us as a gift.



Mindful Families Retreat

Over the years, Mommy has been going to and organising retreats and they have always been for grown-ups, so I've never been able to go to one. When we first heard it was a Retreat for families, I nearly jumped out of my head because I couldn't believe that I could go to a retreat this time. When we arrived, I was so excited to see my friends and I ran out of the door of Pavitra to go searching for my friends. Soon I learnt my way around the whole campus of ESI with the help of my friends, Simu Didi, Reva and Aumbhai, who have been there many times.

We split into the two teams with grown-ups included, to do a treasure hunt together so we could get to know each other. The aim was to find letters on the back of a clue for the next area of the next letter and the final word (it spelled) was "Group Hug" :) We were also warned not to go in the bushes because a python lives in the campus.

Afterwards, we had a circle on the big grass spot sharing about our likes and childhood pet names and I got to properly know everybody and their names. By dinner time, while eating uttapam, I finally got to become friends with all the kids. I felt even more excited about the next three days because the first day had been so fun.



Retreat - Day 2: Opening Circle, Family Game and Bonding with Volunteers

At the beginning of day 2, we went on a peace walk around, hugging the ginormous, magnificent gold and white peace pole before we walked mindfully to the Maitri Space. The Didi Bhaiya volunteers welcomed us warmly, placing joyful orange tikkas in the middle of our foreheads, pinned colourful, heart-shaped name tags with our pet names on them, and smilingly hugged us. When we entered the stunning Maitri Space, my first impression was how neat the circle of cushioned chairs of bright colours, with mindful words on them such as sacrifice and oneness, were arranged. Every day, the volunteers artistically created a bright, colourful, fresh flower rangoli in different designs each time. The opening circle was a chance for everybody, parents, kids and volunteers, to share about their journeys and lives.



The sun was shining, I felt warm and happy as we chatted and walked outside to the big, green grass spot to play "Kho" (with a funny parent-kid twist), a game where you make a circle standing in pairs linking arms. Then there is one child and one grown-up and the grown-up chases the child around (saying "bukka, kha lo" which means "dear, please eat") until the child finds a pair to link arms with. The person on the opposite side runs and becomes the child. If you got caught, you would chase the adult and it would keep going until it was time to stop. That was the highlight of day 2.



After lunch and rest, the parents had a mindful circle while the kids spent the afternoon with the volunteers drawing, playing frisbee, pracitising dances for Seva Cafe and going cow-seeing with Jayesh Nana and Anar Nani in their car. Reign (their dog) also came on my lap for the whole car journey and I got to sit in the front with no seatbelt because there is no seatbelt rule in India. Jayesh Nana had to go reverse by accident because he missed the turn - ha ha it was really funny!



Night of Inspiration at Seva Cafe

We went back to our rooms and got on our Indian clothes we had just bought and got ready for Seva Cafe! We were really excited when we spotted a picture of Nipun Mama and Guri Mami and me on the bus we were going to ride to get to Seva Cafe, run by Raghubhai and Baskerbhai. When we got there, there was a welcome party and music followed by a speech from Bhaskarbhai and Raghubhai to tell us more about the cafe. After dinner, we gathered in a private room and the kids plus grown-ups got to perform as many talents as they wanted to -- we even did the dance we did for Diwali, which was really fun as we got everyone to get up and dance! My favourite dance was Simu Didi's Bharatanatyam dance, as she did a head movement from side to side without moving her shoulders but not just looking from side to side but looking at us. Another memorable moment was when Reva and Meghna Masi sang a song from Moana called "Walking on the Edge of the Water", which is a song that I love the tune and lyrics of, which is why I hum it all the time.



Retreat - Day 3: Lilapoor Village Visit, Silent Dinner and Mela

We had an early start on day 3 as we were going to a village called Lilapoor! The volunteers and some grown-ups drove all the children in their cars while the main organisers and most of the adults stayed at ESI and did a circle together (with Jayesh Nana, Anar Nani and Sanskruti Masi).



When we reached Lilapoor, we met some of the children who introduced us to their cows and one cow's name was Calicut, the baby cow. My first impression was the one hall for school, unpaved roads and tents for homes. After a while of introducing, we got to experience riding on a camel cart! At first, I found it bumpy but in the end got used to it! Me and Manya, my friend, were brave enough to spread cow dung on the floor of a house because I heard it was "mud" and when I finished I heard cow dung and was so mad at myself for doing it :)



After risking my clothes and shoes in cow dung, all the volunteers gathered around a campfire and roasted corn for the kids while we kids played and held the goats as well as dozing in the shade (Aumbhai fell asleep)! After about ten minutes of playing with calves and goats, we ALL gathered around with 3-6 villagers and shared some roasted corn between us all. After an exciting day in Lilapoor we were all ready to go back to ESI and rest ourselves. We left at 4-4:15 (actually it was 12-12:15 :) ) and went back in the same groups from when we came and headed off down the road.

After a rest, we played a game called Gratitude Bingo followed by a group photo and then a "SILENT" dinner. After a "SILENT" Dinner we had a "LOUD" fun mela all dressed up. It was Christmas Eve so it was really exciting but I was a bit worried because in India people don't believe in Santa, so I wondered if he would come or not to us!



Retreat Day 4: Christmas Day in India

Christmas day was quite an experience in India and very different from London. We were woken up at 7:30am in the morning by a Bhaskarbhai Santa Clause, a few others who had gotten woken up before us and a pouchful of sweets. I found it extremely funny by the way they sung "Jingle Bells". Instead of "jingle bells" they said "jingala bills" and sang this song as they came and woke us up. We all later ate toast and masala for breakfast and then did our last circle together and we all watched a video that the volunteers had put together of the whole retreat. Then, the grown-ups chatted and the kids played in the big grass spot saying good-bye and packing their rooms. We departed from ESI at 1:30 to go to the airport to fly to Pune, a new part of our India trip!



My younger sister Ariyana, who is 5, drew a word collage to share her highlights from the retreat as well -- here it is below :)



[Here is a more complete collection of Photo Highlights from the Mindful Families Retreat. Also, if you'd prefer to read my original hand-written journal pages before Mommy helped to type them up, you can view them here :)]