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原文
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My stay in Makaibari Tea Estate: September 28th to
November 3rd 2001
I'm Melisande Rodenacker, 20 years old and I live
in Germany.I visited Makaibari Tea Estate for about
5 weeks and I tried to write down my experiences to
share them with you. When I didn't know how to spell
some names I added a question mark. There might be
some mistakes in my English, but I'm sure you
understand it better like that, than if I had written
it in German. I hope you like reading it.
FINDING MY WAY TO MAKAIBARI
'I love India' used to appear on almost every piece
of paper among the drawings. I did during rather
boring lessons in grade 9. 1996 I had come to
India with my family. We spent two weeks in Kolkata,
Santi Niketan and in Digha. This trip had given me
great moments of happiness and love and a good
friend in Kolkata. During the last five years
I was waiting for the chance to go back to India.
This summer I graduated from school, I passed the
exam called Abitur which allows you to join in
University and I decided to take one year off
before moving on with my studies.
In spring I began thinking about what to do and
where to go in India. I got hold of a collection
of addresses of social anthroposophic institutions all
over the world among which I found a short list with
bio-dynamic farms in India. There it said: 'Makaibari
Tea Estate,Kurseong, Dist. Darjeeling.' I like farming
and have been spending someweeks on several bio-dynamic
farms in various countries. They have always been
family-size and I wondered how this kind of farming
is done on a plantation with lots of people and
in a tropical country with a different flora than
in Europe. I wasn't planning any scientific studies,
I just wanted to experience the place. Why Makaibari?
I had been told that Darjeeling is beautiful,
it isn't too far from Kolkata where I wanted
to visit my friend and somehow
“Makaibari Tea Estate”
just appealed to me. Spontaneously I sent a letter,
asking, whether it would be possible to spend there
one or two months in autumn.
And to my surprise I got a positive answer only
about one or two weeks later by Rajah Banerjee via E-mail.
