Every week we receive visits from Apres School (Wednesdays) and New Creation School (Fridays).

Both groups are motivated to do things in the soil.

“Kaigani Totem”!!! In Tamil language this means Children’s Garden and now it is time to plant. But this time with a new technic that we learned from Bernard and Dipika, our neighbourds from Pebble Garden. Thanks to them, now we have a lot of seeds, thank you!!

We did the first Circle Garden with 15 kids from Apres School. It was very important for them to learn this design, because they have lots of land in their school and they want to use it properly. So we thought that there must be many places and people interested about this simple and efficient process. Here is the explanation about what we did in Children’s Land.

Circle Garden, step by step:

-         Find a nice place wich has access to water

-         Mark a circle 1 meter in diameter

-         Dig a hole in the middle, 30cm deep, and collect the soil at the edge of the circle

-         Collect materials: cow dung, dry leaves, human urine, water

-         Put two handfuls of cow dung in the midle of the hole.

-         Soak the leaves in water + human or cow urine for one day, then put them above the cow dung.

-         Put dry leaves on the top till the boundary height becomes the same level

-         Plant in a zigzag pattern on the soil bunds. The plant species that requires more water and nutrition should be placed more towards the centre.

-         It is possible to plant vegetables mixed with flowers, shrubs or ornamental plants.

In a circle garden, the plants benefit from the nutrients from the biomass in the midle of the circle. And you just need to water it 2 a 3 times per week, because the mulching (dry leaves) retains the water and prevents the soil drying easily.

Have a wonderful time making you circle garden!!

It is very easy and practical to do it at home or at the school with children!!

 The surrounding area in this new area of land will be a high intensity growing zone with wateremelons and beans already growing near the base of the huts!

 Work on the new Sadhana Forest Amphitheatre will begin this year, enabling us to host even bigger and better Eco-Film Club Nights and other events with a capacity of over 400. Watch this space!

We had the presence of Manu, an Architect from Auroville, to help them to develop their ideas.

Actually, they agreed to call this place “The Idea Hut”, where they can be even more inspired to have new ideas for the future of their land.

We had a productive morning, with a beautiful sharing of what they will need and how to do what they want done. Many of them agreed to have a hut with natural materials and without walls, so they will be in harmony with nature and will feel the blowing of the wind.

After the “catarpilar” game, everybody decided to continue developing the hut plan for the next Sunday, where everybody can make a 3D model.

Nice!!!Mudpool going? Yessssss!!!

We are all very excited about the whole process.

We are looking forward to the new hut that is coming soon!!!

And guess what?

We did all this with environmentally friendly and recyclable balloons.

These balloons are made with latex, this material is a 100 per cent natural substance that breaks down both in sunlight and water. The degradation process begins almost immediately. Oxidation, the “frosting” that makes latex balloons look as if they are losing their colour, is one of the first signs of the process.    Exposure to sunlight quickens the process, but natural microorganisms attack natural rubber, even in the dark.

Research shows that under similar environmental conditions, latex balloons will biodegrade at about the same rate as a leaf from an oak tree.   The actual total degradation time will vary depending the precise conditions.

Rubber trees, from which the latex for balloons is harvested, are one of the main forms of vegetation in tropical rain forests, which in recent years have become crucial to maintaining the earth’s fragile ecological balance.    Harvesting latex can be more profitable to poor third world nations than raising cattle on the deforested land.

Even when the trees producing latex for balloon manufacturing grow on plantations instead of in rain forests, they help the ecosystem, as the natural biology of the trees helps maintain our atmosphere and protect the ozone layer.

Was amazing to see the kids so happy, so astonished and surprised with all the creativity that Rachel demonstrated. They had a lot of fun, learned to build flowers with balloons too, and all the eyes were shinning, the mouths were open, the atmosphere was of pure bliss and joy. One day that nobody will forget, the proof that life is full of magic.

In this last century, there have been countless changes in our lives. We have passed from a simple and traditional way of living to a fast-paced and complex way.  Computers have become a necessity and we can’t live without them. We are able to know what is happening virtually anywhere around the world, every second of the day. Our generation have become dependent on all the technology around us. Television and cell phones are being used and removing us further from nature. Cities are becoming larger and congested, and people are constantly worrying about money and not worrying about being in contact with each other. Many people took out bank loans and have become dependent on this money and have lost their freedom.  Diseases such as depression and stress are becoming more commonplace.  

Our forests are gradually disappearing just like the coral reefs. There are many animals, on land and in the sea, that have become extinct due to human existence. We are changing the Earth.  Pollution, global warming, overpopulation are a few of the crimes that we have committed.  

But we are feeling hopeful!! 

Today there are many people that are changing the current way of living and starting amazing projects and living in an alternative lifestyle. We are slowly going back to nature and having a healthy life and beginning to think sincerely about the impact we have on this planet and are consciously trying to create a better place for coming generations, like yours. We understand that it is difficult to change the things that are wrong on this planet but we have a solution. By having a spiritual life for ourselves and being as pure as we can be, we have the potential to bring awareness and to be better human beings.

We can be positive and optimistic. We need to share and to give back to the earth. To express ourselves through art, to be more ecological, to eat good food, to plant some more trees, to play with the children, and to respect everybody. These are some ways we can simply decrease the problem with the earth.  

Metamorphosize, find the inner silence, find the beauty in the simple things, find the happiness inside each of us, be grateful to be alive and to have the opportunity to see all these miracles surrounding us.

We are already creating new schools and new spaces for children. We aspire to maintain the connection with nature, to experiment and to understand that we are only a part of something better. We need to be in tune with the ecosystem around us, know the place where you live and have time to explore it. Learn about things that are really important for your life, like how to grow your own vegetables and fruit and how to make your house more ecofriendly. 

Arts are very important to help express someone’s creativity. Painting, drawing, music, dance and handicrafts are outlets for your creativity.  

Nevertheless, the most important idea is to find happiness, but this must be in balance  and respect nature and all the living beings of this Planet. You need to  view the world as a big community and to love it and make it better.

May 20th, 2010

June 1st, 2010

The dosa stove designed by Mohsin, is fuel efficient. The design is similar to that of the regular rocket stoves, but bigger and wider with a wide enough cooking stone on top. The way the stove works is that the burning fire wood in the fire area, covered by metal plates heats up the stone on top to cook the dosas and chapatis. The temprature can be adjusted by adding or reducing the firewood.

The stove was installed in the new Sadhana kitchen in January. This sure is a late post, but hey, we have our excuse: we were busy eating dosas. It has now become a Sadhana tradition to make Dosas every Wednesday for our ope stage dinner. And as we get more and more used to the ways our dosa stove, we are beginning to experiment with some vegan pancake recipes to make it a sunday morning tradition. Yum Yum Yum.

Sharing with you some pictures of Dosas and happy Dosa people.

Love, Chapatis, Dosas and Vegan pancakes

xxxxxxxxxx

This Saturday, many of us just hung out under the neem tree giving the slack line a go and snacking on some bread, hummus, wild passion fruits and such. The one hour slack and snack workshop turned into an all afternoon and evening picnic with all of us enjoying the shade of the neem tree, the slack line, the snacks and the beautiful company of each other. People playing music, sharing with each other some jewelery making skills, vegan snacks, some non-competitive cricket set the tone for the summer weekend afternoons in Sadhana.

Looking forward to many more such Summer Sunday afternoons.

Love, peace and Sunshine
xxxxxx

The Sadhana Boat Song

Work all day on a drop of love
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees
Sweat like a pig and elbow grease
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees

Hey you kitchen team
Cook me something tasty
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees
Biggin up the hygiene team
Keepin’ our bums clean
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees

Chorus:
Day oh, day oh
Me say day, me say day me say day oh
Me wanna plant trees

Me got yoga, capoeira and African dance
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees
Drums, flutes and bonfire chants
Daylight come and me feel at ease (peace, peace, peace)

Me got dogs, cats, mosquito and rats
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees
Me got neem trees, mango trees, chilli and banana
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees (eat cheese! Oops)

Chorus

Bunding, mumpteeing, shout out to the forest team
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees
Vetiver everywhere, even in my underwear
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees

I’m in a dream, wake up team, get me up and going
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees
Cycling to the village on a ya ya ya yatra
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees

Chorus

Got a moment of silence
Eco dome, my second home, gets me nice and muddy
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees

We are happy, got energy, we’re sadhana people
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees
Look after mother earth, she really deserves
Daylight come and me wanna plant trees
Daylight come and we find our way home