“Bas itna hi dig kiya, itne mein kya hoga? Aur deep dig karo!” said Nawang, our uber-cool guide. The sun was killing us with its harsh rays and lifting the 16 kg pickaxe and shovel was just adding to it. But this didn’t deter Nawang from commanding us. For him and his village people working at the field under the sun is an everyday job, but not for us, “The so-called city folks.” Frankly, at an altitude of 4270 meters, doing anything is a task, and here we are talking about digging up trenches.

I, along with 8 volunteers from across the globe was part of Spiti Ecosphere’s Trek and Volunteer Programme. Spiti Ecosphere is a social enterprise that has been involved in creating sustainable livelihoods for the local community with a focus on nature and culture conservation. Our basic task was to build a rainwater/snow harvesting system (you can read more about it here) by digging-up trenches alongside a hill outside a village called Demul. These trenches are important for the village because Spiti is a rain shadow area, where rain is negligible. The trenches act as storage to collect the snowfall during the winters, post-winter when the collected snowfall melts, it is used for agriculture by the villagers, thus keeping their land alive for the next six months when the sun is out and shining. This was designed and developed by Spiti Ecosphere. They do some really great work for the betterment of the locals in Spiti. There have been numerous projects undertaken by Spiti Ecosphere in the capacity of providing a livelihood, spreading awareness about global-warming and respecting the environment. 

We were stationed at Demul during our volunteer work. We were divided into a group of three and each group was given a family to stay with. The homestay where I was put-up belong to a couple “Nawang Chhopel and his wife” (Yes, even my host’s name is Nawang). Like most locals at Demul, Nawang and his wife are farmers and every day from dawn to dusk they work at their field.

Our task started around 8.30 a.m. post a wholesome breakfast of Tirik, Spitian bread, and chutney that our hosts stuffed us with saying that we would need the energy to work on the field. After fueling ourselves, we started our small hike carrying the tools to the hill where the trenches were to be dug. Nawang (our guide) along with one more local gave a quick demo on how to operate the tools. Suddenly, Nawang said, “Aaj main aap logon ka guide nahi, supervisor hoon. Kaam thik se hona chahiye. Ek break gyarah bhaje hoga, phir lunch break ek bhaje. Chalo kaam pe lago.” Nawang had this sarcastic sense of humor that made him cool. By now we were used to his humor. We started the work.

This was my first time picking up any digging tools. And frankly, I did struggle initially, but after a few rounds of let’s say warm-up, I kind of got my grip on them. Digging trenches is a two-man job, where one is required to use the pickaxe to loosen the soil and the other one to shovel the loosened soil. The work might sound easy, but trust me, it wasn’t. It needed all our muscle-power to be put in use. We started the work by dividing our selves into four groups of two where one would use the pickaxe and the other would shovel. In between, there would also be a switch between our tasks.

The harsh sun and the altitude made the tasks hard for us, but the breakfast kept us going until it was time for lunch. There were mini-breaks in between for water and some rest, but a lunch break was much needed. As the soon became harsher, Norbu (Amchi – the local village doctor), Nawang, his wife, and one more villager got us some cold sherbet and hot food. We quickly assembled and sat together in a circle around the food. Over some conversation about Demul, it’s people and the water scarcity in the mountains; we finished off the delicious meal. Nawang extended our break for another half-an-hour (maybe he realized these guys are useless to finish this task). This break was spent sleeping against a wall, which was the only shade area. After some rest, we got started with our work. The work continued till evening, until Nawang said, “Aaj ke liye bas! Ab andhera hone ko hai. Chalo, jaate hain.”

We packed our gear and started walking towards the village. Though it was tiring and my arms had given up, there was a sense of content in my heart of contributing point zero percent of my time and energy in doing something good. As a person from the city with access to many luxuries, I never thought building trenches would be this hard. How many times would have we looked at the people that work day and night digging the land for various works like wiring, water connection and etc? The answer might be, hardly. In our everyday chaotic life, we often ignore the ones that do these jobs so that we have comfortable lives. When things are easily accessible to us, we often take them for granted and do not value it. That day in Spiti, after digging the trenches I realized the effort and the hard work that goes in while doing this work. I felt more grateful and humble towards the people that help us live a comfortable life.

Some of us are lucky to have a life with basic amenities, luxury, and comfort. Let us be grateful for the things we have, and “VOLUNTEERING” is a great way of bringing the feeling of gratitude in us. There are volunteering opportunities available with many organizations; all you need to do is choose the one that interests you the most. And for volunteering you do not really have to travel, you can choose to volunteer in your city too. Try it once, it will definitely change your life and the way you look at things. When I took this trip to Spiti, I thought that I am going to make a change in someone’s life, but little did I know that it was going to be the other way round.

It CHANGED me.

Have you volunteered before? Let me know. 

*If you are interested in volunteering or exploring Spiti in a local way, then do check out Spiti Ecosphere. They have some off-beat experiences to choose from.