Autor: Sudaka

Suryavana Retreat Centre, Jérica. Castellón, Spain 

Hi all, sorry I missed December. With this new way of submitting I let it slip. Also we have had a “difficult” month here at Suryavana. On the 29th October I was down at our local garage signing papers to send our beloved Peugeot Partner, a real workhorse, to car “heaven”. Recycling I hope, after 25 years of service. It was raining. On tropical monsoon proportions. A warm, torrential rain. And that night it didn’t stop raining. We listened all night long to cascading waters fall on the metal roof of our shrine room abode/living quarters. 

…and it rained 100’s of litres in a few hours. One commentator said that the amount of water that fell that night was equivalent to 80% of London’s annual rainfall, in just a few hours. 

And the rest is history in these parts. Over 200 souls washed away with harrowing stories of children being ripped from the arms of their father as they struggled against the wall of water that flowed down off the hills through south Valencia. Entire houses washed away, ground floor homes and businesses, schools destroyed. Over 100, 000 cars wrecked. A natural disaster of biblical proportions and here in our lovely city of Valencia. Then, the indignant stories of the slow response of the authorities. Some villages not seeing the authorities for a week after the flood. Spending days and nights with no water. No electricity. Delinquents robbing the abandoned houses and property. Meanwhile a few neighbourhoods away tourists having “cafe con leche”in the main square! This strange, tragic and wonderful world. 

There was too a spectacular response from the public, as you have no doubt seen with thousands of volunteers going in to help clear up and provide support. Literally walking over the bridges (that weren’t washed away) to south Valencia with brushes and mops and buckets. Yashomani (our treasurer) did 15 days straight helping coordinate groups of 50 volunteers in various operations. My wife’s sister, Ester, is an “Unidad Militar de Emergencias”, “UME”. The emergency services military wing was active within 15 minutes, to their credit, but totally under-staffed given the scale of the disaster. 

Up here where the rain fell, the next day, the spectacle of our rivers full to the brim, gorges usually bone-dry flowing with torrents of water. One of our terraces damaged. A parched land grateful for nourishing waters.

It has had a profound effect on the region and even if you weren’t involved directly there was anxiety, concern, and outrage. Grief. My wife being from Valencia, took it almost personally. Then you hear of friends and relatives of the village affected. The manager of our local supermarket lost both her elderly parents, unable to react sufficiently quickly to escape the tide. 

Over a month has gone by and some schools are still closed and almost no businesses are operating. There is anger, some folks no doubt wanting to drag out figures of authority on to the city square and hung, draw and quarter them. (A very English interpretation). And no doubt there were mistakes made. We pray that more systems of warning and protection are put in place as inevitably the conditions that provoked the “Dana” (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos) will arise more frequently with the rising sea temperatures in the Mediterranean area. 

Up here in the hills, we canceled three events as a consequence of the Dana. Never good for the delicate economy of Suryavana. Fortunately, one of our best clients wanted to go ahead with their programme which effectively “saved the month” of November. I decided to work alongside our veritable cook Padmashalin, partly to support him, but also to get a more intimate idea of the kitchen work for big groups. We were in and out of the kitchen for 14 hour days and we provided an excellent service. Now I know a lot more about the kitchen here at Suryavana even though I have been living here nearly 5 years and also I got to know and appreciate our good friend Padmashalin better. He really shines in the kitchen!

As I reported last month the main “obsession” in Suryavana is getting a shrineroom built/erected. The response has been amazing, with one Order Member friend of Suryavana promising a substantial gift and others also pledging a thousand or two thousand euro gifts. I can’t quite believe it. It is looking possible. Probable even. I was half joking to myself that the only way we will raise the funds to do a build project is that the money falls from the heavens like the torrential rains last month. 

We are now frantically consulting with architects and builders, as well as many friends to see what is posible within the quagmire of rural building permissions. The dream option is to re-roof what was a long time ago the corral for the animals (sheep and goats) which the builder said he took down during the two year renovation of the Masia into a hotel some twenty years ago, long before the Buddhist Centre bought and made Suryavana. I have this image of the Masia “wanting” to return to its former glory! As always we are working with the past. 

“Tío Patron” Captain Uncle, the local builder, said in no time you could have a wonderful meditation hall but told me building bureaucracy is a nightmare! As it is everywhere I am sure. We are very fortunate to have Jesu, my Spanish wife onboard to decipher the enigmatic scripts and communications from the powers that be. Let’s see. Option B is a large temporary structure like a yurt or geodesic dome.