Irene and PaulPaul and Irene who recently came here to help out with our training group workshop , probably never imagined what a great adventure they were about to embark on when they left Switzerland for Bombay on the first of April. Considering it was his first visit to India, just being here must have seemed very exotic to Paul. (Irene is here for the second time - her first trip to India was in the late eighties some time).
Everything was going just fine when this thing happened. The volcano in Iceland began to cough out mountain loads of ash and gases and here we all are biting our fingernails thinking of how P and I will get back to Europe. After much reflection they have decided to fly to Tunis and to take the ferry from there to Genoa. From Genoa they will have to take a train to Berne in whose vicinity they live, with their four children ranging in age from four to eleven years.
The whole incident has started off a serious inquiry in us as to how accustomed we have become to certain luxuries which include air travel and so many other aspects of modern life. Not for the first time, we are all looking at the possibilities of how we will travel in the future when petrol and diesel prices sky rocket due to scarcity. Will it be back to sailing ships? And within India will we be restricted to train travel? Maybe walking and cycling will come back into fashion?
It looks like for many of us, life will be turned inside out - and maybe that wont be such a bad thing in the long run, at least for the planet.
Irene helping A in the kitchen
