I am Sagar from Navdanya, India. As part of the ASA internship in ZSL, I have stayed in Berlin for three months, from April to June. This was my first experience abroad and it was really difficult to accept the culture differences in the beginning but after some time I was able to get used to it. The work culture that I have observed here in Germany is more of an individualistic style, everyone knows what their task is and how to approach the task. At the same time all these tasks come together in forming a holistic approach of the whole teamwork. Through regular meetings the entire work is planned and distributed clearly.
International exchange
During the past three months, we as a team of four, have worked on the 2000m² field, also we were able to get some schools to participate in the international exchange between classes from Germany and India. We have successfully record a few video messages from the school pupils which will be shared in participating schools from India. We are hoping that the cycle will continue and will try to set up a long term relationship.
Discovering Europe
Apart from that I travelled to few places in Europe and Geneva among them was the best experience I had. When it comes to food, it was a bit difficult to get used to all the salty dishes because I am from a background where we use a lot of different kinds of spices, but in the end I started to like it more and more. I definitely would miss the cheese I never had so much cheese that I had in the last few weeks.
Coming to my experiences in Berlin, this city is awesome, there are so many parks and so many events going on every day. Luckily this spring in Berlin was really great, that’s what I heard from many people from Germany.
Through farming here in Berlin the most important experience that I take home with me is how to plough the field using a mini tractor and the importance of the grass plants which can improve the soil structure and health, and through the 2000m² I did learn and got more understanding regarding food consumption and land use.
Text by Sagar
