auroville, india is a very unique place, without a doubt.
for instance, last night our college guest house guardian, martine, arranged a bellydance class for all the girls on our "campus". when the class started, our dinner guest, who is also my mentor/boss for my service learning project, joined us. only in auroville, india would you get to bellydance with your internship mentor the day before you start your internship... haha. this morning when i met up with Min, he just laughed and asked me "how was the rest of class" since he had to leave early since he was laughing too hard..
oh man, so many thoughts have been swirling through my head. our community is becoming much more intense as we get to know each other better, for sure. this is part of why we are here.. to learn how to live in an "intential community" devoted to environmental and social sustainability. people are clashing and (not to make a general statement about ALL girls/young women, but..) the gossiping has already commenced. without a doubt we have entered the part of community building that requires some ironing out of our differences. just about every other day we have meetings that last at least two hours on how to communicate more effectively and work for the common good of the group. it is exhausting and draining, but most of the girls come out smiling and ready to take on the challenge of establishing a "true community". it'll take time, and i am a TAD bit skeptical that everyone (including myself) is up for the challenge, but i am trying to trust that we will learn to trust and deal with each other in a healthy way.
besides our arduous consensus decision-making meetings, we've been doing yoga or tai chi five mornings a week at 6:15 A.M. this is without coffee in my system. i repeat: NO COFFEE. i am no doubt enjoying the yoga more than the tai chi we had last week. originally we were all going to do tai chi, but so many of us wanted yoga that the program has been changed. i even wrote a note to tai chi last week expressing my discontent, haha..
i don't have the note on me, but it goes something like:
dear tai chi,
you suck so much ass,
even though the Chinese practice you with such class.
Thlaloc (my instructor) seems to love you so,
but for right now i must go.
i swear it's not you, it must be me,
right now i just fail to see your chi.
maybe we will meet again when the time is right,
but right now i have a gut feeling i must not fight.
goodbye tai chi.
disclaimer: sorry to those of you who like tai chi. for the most part, i was just frustrated with having to do tai chi instead of yoga. i really wanted to do yoga.
now that that situation has been worked out (the tai chi-ers vs. the yogis), some tension has been lifted from the group dynamic. we are all practicing what we want now!
so, in the past week i have visited some amazing places in auroville. last week our group visited thamarai (a village school, thamarai = lotus flower in tamil), the life education center (a women's school/outreach center, AMAZING!/made me cry), upasana (a clothing designer/tsunami relief project), the isiambalam (spelling?) school for little kids, the botanical garden, sadhana forest, and others..
let me just say, sadhana forest is the SHIT. last friday we took a van to the outskirts of auroville with ross, our wild-eyed, Australian mentor/teacher/friend. after driving down a heavily forested road that seemed to stretch for miles, we arrived at a beautiful community composed of humongous keet-roof (interwoven leaves) homes and dorms that housed dozens of families and volunteers. we were ushered over to an outdoor dance area for an african dance and capoiera class with anna and tiago, a couple who are from portugal and brazil respectively (did that sentence make sense??). in the class were little tamil kids from the surrounding villages, korean teens that are a part of a traveling body percussion group (i know, random.), and various aurovillians and sadhana-ians. after sweating more than i did at the gogol bordello show, which i didn't think was possible, we were handed glasses of warm ragi (a local grain) and coconut milk and taken on a tour of one of the most surreal, awesome places i think i will ever step foot in. ben, the man who started up sadhana (i think), showed us the giant kitchen where everyone takes turn cooking and cleaning dishes, a pool that they fill with water to cool down in before draining that water for plant watering purposes (so the water they use for watering the plants everyday is first used in the pool to provide recreation for the people who live there- makes sense, right?!), the dormitories where ALL volunteers can stay for FREE (my thoughts at the point= jesus christ, this place is the shit..), and the giant keet-roof building devoted to library/hanging out/watching movies every friday night. oh yah, and the ENTIRE place is off the fuckin' grid. solar panels and bike-powered generators galore. can it get any better? yes. yes it can..
all the visitors from around the globe, the hippied-out residents, and our living routes group then gathered to watch a national geographic film about solar panels in nevada for an hour. the man who ran the projector looked like jesus and wore nothing but boxers. and as we watched the movie bats zig-zagged across the screen from time to time. that's what an auroville drive-in movie experience is like, haha..
then everyone was served a vegan feast for free. after munching on pesto covered tomatoes, french onion soup minus the cheese, sauerkraut in spicy sauce, and homemade bread, the late night festivities started to unfold. there was hula-hooping, a drum circle, spastic dancing, a body percussion group performance, and beatboxing.
as soon as we got back to the guest house i missed sadhana forest. i think i'm going to stay there for a couple weeks later on in the semester. and i think i'll be going to an african dance class later on with michelle, mayana, and some other girls from the LR group..
oh man, i still have so much to say... in brief, today i started to look into doing an internship at the Center for Scientific Research (CSR) with Min and some other people there. i want to help them out with various projects like algae wastewaster management and making butanol for fuel from that algae, helping with distributing LED lights to villagers in the area to replace dangerous kerosene lamps, and possibly working on the sustainablity display at the auroville visitor's center. i need to get the ball rollin' on my service learning project and figure out what i want to focus on. hopefully i'll figure all that out this week because i'm ready to start working more!
finally, i hope everyone is enjoying themselves at home.. i miss you guys!! i hope you are all enjoying the fall weather and indulging in some bangin' coffee/beer!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
"is that human shit in the middle of the street?"
this week has been overwhelming.
today was the first day we got to sleep in and it was fantassssstic. i woke up, made tea for myself, took a long shower under the bright, blue sky, and then biked over to the "tibetan pavilion" for a lunch fundraiser to fix up the pavilion before the dalai lama's visit in january. we had veggie dumplings, grated carrot salad, fresh cucumber and tomato salad, grated cabbage and green peppers, fried noodles, and interesting soups and breads for lunch. not as much a fan on the tibetan food, not going to lie. it actually tastes bland compared to all the indian food we've been eating, haha..
then we went to the visitor's center to look at more clothing and drink iced coffee. you have no idea how intensely fantastic it was to have an American-sized glass of coffee. when i woke up the first morning i realized one of my looming fears had come true... there was no coffee. only spiced "milk tea" was sitting on the breakfast table and after two large cups, i was still feeling drowsy and spaced-out. then our group met for a "check-in", which is basically a time for everyone to check themselves physically/emotionally/spiritually and report back to all the other girls, jake, bindu, and martin. as we went around the circle the first couple of days some people cried and talked about upset digestive systems, missing boyfriends and parents, and feeling overwhelmed. when it was my turn i said, "i know this might not seem like a big deal.. but it really is to me. there is NO COFFEE and i feel really out of it." and of course i also miss family, especially after hearing about the little get-together at kim and chris's new place.
besides the bugs, the layer of sweat that constantly covers my body, and only being able to get cups of coffee that are gone in two sips and taste like pure palm sugar, india has been wild and beautiful. yesterday we went to pondicherry, where we visited the sri aurobindo ashram, the lakshmi ashram, and all the clothing/art stores on the main streets. sri aurobindo and the "mother" (the two founders of auroville) are buried in the sri aurobindo ashram, so it was interesting to see all their admirers meditating and praying by their resting places. we also were blessed by an elephant at the lakshmi temple.. although i didn't get blessed officially because i tried to pet the elephant as he lifted his trunk to touch my head and he got distracted, haha.
the street vendors and beggars were WILD. some ladies approach you and physically push/elbow you until you notice them or give them some kind of response. lots of men followed us with mini chess boards, necklaces, and other trinkets, waiting to get a reaction from one of the many American girls filing down the busling alleyways. as i walked around the crumbling buildings and roads, i couldn't help but feel that it looked like the end of modern industrialization/mainstream product production. i know this is not the case, as india is becoming more industrialized each year, but it felt like the crumbling structures represented perhaps my expectations of india. not that my expectations are crumbling.. but that i expected a certain conquest of industrialization/modernization to exist since farming is still huge in india and many trades are still common. therefore the buildings represented what i expected in india. i don't know if that makes sense.. it is hard for me to explain.
anyways, the difference between the dress of men and women was quite evident as well. quite a few men walked around in tight, embroidered jeans and flashy t-shirts. almost all the women however wore saris and jasmine flowers hung from their pinned back hair. much more traditional and BEAUTIFUL! in the stores, everyone knew english and some people knew french as well. it seemed that most of the guys spoke more english and the women were less willing to speak with us. it is this way even with the local tamils who live in our village and the living routes community. kalai and nandu (spelling correct?), the guys who sleep above our bikes at night, have been slowly teaching us some basic tamil phrases and we have been helping them with their english grammar in return. gandimathy (spelling correct??!) and the other woman who cleans the Joy family's house seem more hesistant to interact with us though. for the most part (not all), women in auroville who are native indians are less willing to smile and shoot the shit with us so far..
the other people who live on "our" little compound is the Joy family. there is jason, laura, and jason's son and daughter. oh!- and they have two puppies and kittens as well! anyways, we played a variation of the game called "mafia" with them this past friday and it was really great. we played with two new aurovillians who were more our age, laslo (russian?) and nikolai (english), and the entire Joy family. laslo kind of looked like a pirate and nikolai was a very sweet guy who was dressed in quite unique attire. hopefully we'll continue our mafia and cookie time this friday as well because there was bushels of good, warm familial energy there!
this afternoon i did my laundry outside, read some of Siddhartha, made more tea, and talked to the other girls about why i was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by india. nothing major- i just felt a little homesick after reading e-mails and facebook messages from people. also, everyone pretty much agrees that it feels like we've been here and known each other for months, which is overwhelming to consider with the realization that this is only the first week. so at this point i am just looking forward to getting into more of a routine and starting my service learning project/research projects.
anyways, tonight we are celebrating jo and jenny's birthdays at the tibetan pavilion with a movie and hopefully some cake of the non-chocolate variety. :) and tomorrow morning we start tai chi with our smiley, perpetually shirtless instructor bright and early at 6:15 AM! wooooo. oh jeez... sans coffee. should be good though. i am excited to visit more places in auroville (like solitude farm!!) this week and to spend more time with people around the village.
in sum: there is no good coffee in india. with our loud dance music (MGMT, the knife, and grateful dead often blast through our small, tinny laptop speakers), hula hoops, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and tie dye tees we are slowly creating a lively, American microcosm of joyful, progessive energy in auroville!
to everyone who reads this: i hope you are well and smiling while reading this. much love!
today was the first day we got to sleep in and it was fantassssstic. i woke up, made tea for myself, took a long shower under the bright, blue sky, and then biked over to the "tibetan pavilion" for a lunch fundraiser to fix up the pavilion before the dalai lama's visit in january. we had veggie dumplings, grated carrot salad, fresh cucumber and tomato salad, grated cabbage and green peppers, fried noodles, and interesting soups and breads for lunch. not as much a fan on the tibetan food, not going to lie. it actually tastes bland compared to all the indian food we've been eating, haha..
then we went to the visitor's center to look at more clothing and drink iced coffee. you have no idea how intensely fantastic it was to have an American-sized glass of coffee. when i woke up the first morning i realized one of my looming fears had come true... there was no coffee. only spiced "milk tea" was sitting on the breakfast table and after two large cups, i was still feeling drowsy and spaced-out. then our group met for a "check-in", which is basically a time for everyone to check themselves physically/emotionally/spiritually and report back to all the other girls, jake, bindu, and martin. as we went around the circle the first couple of days some people cried and talked about upset digestive systems, missing boyfriends and parents, and feeling overwhelmed. when it was my turn i said, "i know this might not seem like a big deal.. but it really is to me. there is NO COFFEE and i feel really out of it." and of course i also miss family, especially after hearing about the little get-together at kim and chris's new place.
besides the bugs, the layer of sweat that constantly covers my body, and only being able to get cups of coffee that are gone in two sips and taste like pure palm sugar, india has been wild and beautiful. yesterday we went to pondicherry, where we visited the sri aurobindo ashram, the lakshmi ashram, and all the clothing/art stores on the main streets. sri aurobindo and the "mother" (the two founders of auroville) are buried in the sri aurobindo ashram, so it was interesting to see all their admirers meditating and praying by their resting places. we also were blessed by an elephant at the lakshmi temple.. although i didn't get blessed officially because i tried to pet the elephant as he lifted his trunk to touch my head and he got distracted, haha.
the street vendors and beggars were WILD. some ladies approach you and physically push/elbow you until you notice them or give them some kind of response. lots of men followed us with mini chess boards, necklaces, and other trinkets, waiting to get a reaction from one of the many American girls filing down the busling alleyways. as i walked around the crumbling buildings and roads, i couldn't help but feel that it looked like the end of modern industrialization/mainstream product production. i know this is not the case, as india is becoming more industrialized each year, but it felt like the crumbling structures represented perhaps my expectations of india. not that my expectations are crumbling.. but that i expected a certain conquest of industrialization/modernization to exist since farming is still huge in india and many trades are still common. therefore the buildings represented what i expected in india. i don't know if that makes sense.. it is hard for me to explain.
anyways, the difference between the dress of men and women was quite evident as well. quite a few men walked around in tight, embroidered jeans and flashy t-shirts. almost all the women however wore saris and jasmine flowers hung from their pinned back hair. much more traditional and BEAUTIFUL! in the stores, everyone knew english and some people knew french as well. it seemed that most of the guys spoke more english and the women were less willing to speak with us. it is this way even with the local tamils who live in our village and the living routes community. kalai and nandu (spelling correct?), the guys who sleep above our bikes at night, have been slowly teaching us some basic tamil phrases and we have been helping them with their english grammar in return. gandimathy (spelling correct??!) and the other woman who cleans the Joy family's house seem more hesistant to interact with us though. for the most part (not all), women in auroville who are native indians are less willing to smile and shoot the shit with us so far..
the other people who live on "our" little compound is the Joy family. there is jason, laura, and jason's son and daughter. oh!- and they have two puppies and kittens as well! anyways, we played a variation of the game called "mafia" with them this past friday and it was really great. we played with two new aurovillians who were more our age, laslo (russian?) and nikolai (english), and the entire Joy family. laslo kind of looked like a pirate and nikolai was a very sweet guy who was dressed in quite unique attire. hopefully we'll continue our mafia and cookie time this friday as well because there was bushels of good, warm familial energy there!
this afternoon i did my laundry outside, read some of Siddhartha, made more tea, and talked to the other girls about why i was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by india. nothing major- i just felt a little homesick after reading e-mails and facebook messages from people. also, everyone pretty much agrees that it feels like we've been here and known each other for months, which is overwhelming to consider with the realization that this is only the first week. so at this point i am just looking forward to getting into more of a routine and starting my service learning project/research projects.
anyways, tonight we are celebrating jo and jenny's birthdays at the tibetan pavilion with a movie and hopefully some cake of the non-chocolate variety. :) and tomorrow morning we start tai chi with our smiley, perpetually shirtless instructor bright and early at 6:15 AM! wooooo. oh jeez... sans coffee. should be good though. i am excited to visit more places in auroville (like solitude farm!!) this week and to spend more time with people around the village.
in sum: there is no good coffee in india. with our loud dance music (MGMT, the knife, and grateful dead often blast through our small, tinny laptop speakers), hula hoops, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and tie dye tees we are slowly creating a lively, American microcosm of joyful, progessive energy in auroville!
to everyone who reads this: i hope you are well and smiling while reading this. much love!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
vanekum/bonjour/hello india!
i arrived in india sunday night after an almost nine hour flight from germany. what an experience it was being on a plane with multiple floors, sections (smoking section), and personalities! i sat behind a little Indian girl that we will call shiva, "the destroyer" (of my sleep). after sleep deprivation and melatonin pills lulled me into a fitful sleep, shiva would start to whine and then would erupt into a full-blown, high pitched scream. to my left sat a svelte, older Belgian man who told me about the company he was starting up in chennai, india. when there were lulls in our conversation, he would crack his knuckles all the time and fall asleep to blaring techno music. everything about the flight (even down to the food- spiced yogurt and pickled mangos) was interesting to me.
when i stepped out of chennai's airport the air smelled faintly like asparagus, there were cars honking and almost running me over, Indian men were sleeping on the sidewalk outside the exit, and i knew that i was not in fuckin' kansas anymore.
on our way to auroville, about 11 of us crammed into a bus straight out of the 70s and peered out at the foreign scenes flashing by our windows with wide eyes. we stopped at india's answer to the 7-11 at around 2 a.m. for some INCREDIBLE chai tea. seriously. .we got freshly prepared chai tea at 2 a.m. on the side of the highway. the building was an open-air structure, with no bathroom, and bananas and foreign looking packages hanging from the ceiling and walls.
when we drove into auroville the tree stands were so thick that the bus could barely fit down the road to the "college guest house". my room at the college guest house has solid walls, a roof made of palm leaves woven together, a loft made of wood and strong fibers to latch everything together, and large mosquito nets to guard you from the salamanders, cockroaches, mosquitos, and other lovely creatures that come out at night. so far i haven't woken up to anything crawling up my leg, but i'm sure that'll happen at some point.
the showers have no roofs either! you can shower under the blue sky/stars with the salamanders and fireflies and it is always a gorgeous experience despite the ice cold water (which has refreshing in the humid 90 degree weather...). and the toilets are.... quite rustic. welcome to the land of holes in the ground and no toilet paper. just water and your left hand, my friend. oh boy.
people here are so open and charismatic! in brief, there is:
1. bindu: the fiesty, smiley native indian who stays with us in our little community
2. jake: the chill, american tai chi instructor
3. martine: the smiley austrian instructor
4. ross: the wild australian who told us stories about doing drugs with the prime minister's daughter and likes to play games all day, everyday
and so many more wonderful people that i will try to describe better as the semester goes on.....
within seconds of arriving, i could feel india's boldness and brilliance. i don't think love at first sight applies to my situation now, but it certainly feels like love at first intuition?
when i stepped out of chennai's airport the air smelled faintly like asparagus, there were cars honking and almost running me over, Indian men were sleeping on the sidewalk outside the exit, and i knew that i was not in fuckin' kansas anymore.
on our way to auroville, about 11 of us crammed into a bus straight out of the 70s and peered out at the foreign scenes flashing by our windows with wide eyes. we stopped at india's answer to the 7-11 at around 2 a.m. for some INCREDIBLE chai tea. seriously. .we got freshly prepared chai tea at 2 a.m. on the side of the highway. the building was an open-air structure, with no bathroom, and bananas and foreign looking packages hanging from the ceiling and walls.
when we drove into auroville the tree stands were so thick that the bus could barely fit down the road to the "college guest house". my room at the college guest house has solid walls, a roof made of palm leaves woven together, a loft made of wood and strong fibers to latch everything together, and large mosquito nets to guard you from the salamanders, cockroaches, mosquitos, and other lovely creatures that come out at night. so far i haven't woken up to anything crawling up my leg, but i'm sure that'll happen at some point.
the showers have no roofs either! you can shower under the blue sky/stars with the salamanders and fireflies and it is always a gorgeous experience despite the ice cold water (which has refreshing in the humid 90 degree weather...). and the toilets are.... quite rustic. welcome to the land of holes in the ground and no toilet paper. just water and your left hand, my friend. oh boy.
people here are so open and charismatic! in brief, there is:
1. bindu: the fiesty, smiley native indian who stays with us in our little community
2. jake: the chill, american tai chi instructor
3. martine: the smiley austrian instructor
4. ross: the wild australian who told us stories about doing drugs with the prime minister's daughter and likes to play games all day, everyday
and so many more wonderful people that i will try to describe better as the semester goes on.....
within seconds of arriving, i could feel india's boldness and brilliance. i don't think love at first sight applies to my situation now, but it certainly feels like love at first intuition?
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