When Deepa first travelled to The Gambia she instantly fell in love with the country, the year round warm climate, abundance of generosity, openess and simplicity of the West African people was an immediate attraction.
Another immediate attraction to holding retreats in The Gambia is that it fits in exactly with the ethos of yoga and deepaspirit's philosophy - ethical living, conscious tourism and resources being put back into local communities.
The project has involved employing over 90 local villagers, and has been a huge success in training them in a variety of skills and employing them in building on land that is of shared ownership that will fully revert back to them in 25 years. A few of the local Kartong workers have also had the opportunity to travel to India to learn how to use machinery to build the eco lodges at Sandele.
With these natural materials they have also built a wonderful yoga platform over looking the sea that has been named the deepaspirit yoga platform, it’s a circle of enchanting energy. The local people have been fascinated by the whole concept of yoga and have frequently enquired about its origin and purpose. The Gambians are naturally inquisitive and articulate people who are always keen to learn and try something new, and although they have initially thought of yoga as a form of religion, Deepa has been over the years developing relationships with the local people and de-mystifying their concept of yoga as more of a universal path and way of living than a religion. She has left yoga books in The Gambia for them to read and has already started teaching some of them yoga asanas.
During her last retreat in April, Deepa extended her stay so that she could fulfill her dream of teaching the Gambian’s; she taught over 30 of the staff who work at the project in Kartong and staff from Fajara a 90-minute asana class. The class involved Surya Namaskar (Offerings to the sun), balancing asanas, forward bends and relaxation. She geared the class towards everyone with both men and women taking part, she even had an interpreter helping her out.
Everyone commented on how good they felt and one student loved it so much that he wanted to be able to teach yoga in the future.
Deepa currently run classes and teaches privately around London, for more information on deepaspirit retreats in The Gambia (November –April), please visit www.deepaspirit.com, if you would like to become involved in this project you can e-mail Deepa directly at info@deepaspirit.com, or contact her on 07779 240985
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