{"id":2873,"date":"2021-04-12T09:45:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T05:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/?p=2873"},"modified":"2022-05-06T12:59:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T08:29:16","slug":"victory-to-the-most-enduring-angelika-from-solar-kitchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/12\/victory-to-the-most-enduring-angelika-from-solar-kitchen\/","title":{"rendered":"Victory to the Most Enduring: Angelika from Solar Kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The spirit we cannot kill, the spirit will wait and press us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Solar Kitchen is our community canteen, where many Aurovilians come together daily to enjoy a lunch cooked on solar power. A large solar bowl on the roof collects the sunrays into one spot to turn water into steam, which is then used for the cooking. We spoke to Angelika, who helps to run this essential community service since almost 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flowers to Food<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Angelika is one of those people we can count on to keep an essential service running. Yet like many in that position, she did not exactly apply for the job. \u201cNearly everything I am doing now, I never intended and never planned to do. I ended up in the Solar Kitchen because Andrea, who was running the place, asked me to come and do the flower arrangements for the Dining Hall. At that time, Solar Kitchen received a donation of flowers from Ashram friends every week. So I started to make the bouquets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angelika contracted an illness and was out for many months. When she came back, her job of arranging the flowers had been given to someone else. \u201cI agreed with Andrea that I would take over the vegetable coordination with the Auroville farms. I did that for one year, and then Andrea left, and suddenly I seemed to be the only person to run the Solar Kitchen.\u201d She remembers this as quite a shock. \u201cIt was absurd for me, after just one year in a huge new place\u2026 \u00a0And I never really wanted to go into the kitchen, I just came to do the flowers [laughs<\/em>]!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She took up the work and looking back, has a good laugh about how little she knew about what the job would entail. \u201cI had no clue what would be asked of me. But I felt I had to continue, because I had the feeling from the start that the Mother was drawing me into it. But the first 12 years were very tough. I felt that I had to endure it. I am always reading Mother and she often says things like, \u2018Victory to the most enduring.\u2019 So I felt that I had to do it. After 12 years, several things happened which made me shift in my attitude. It has a lot to do with learning what I can do as an individual, and what I have to give to the Mother, let go, because it is just beyond my capacities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n