Sheep Round-up on Erraid

Towards the end of our travels, we spent a week on Erraid, a small island off the west coast of Scotland, which is stewarded by members of Findhorn.  While there, we had the opportunity to participate in a sheep round-up.  Basically, everyone got into a long line (within sight of whoever is to our left and our right) and then we swept across the island, gathering sheep along the way.  We did have some sheep dogs to help, but Simone is now convinced she was a sheep dog in a past life!

Crossing the inlet from Mull to Erraid

The "Wishing Stone"

Making candles

Cleaning up

Barcelona!

We spent a wonderful few days in Barcelona with some friends who live right in the heart of the city.  The kids loved the "Ramblas", an avenue where there are cool markets and lots of people doing street theater.  Our friends also had a kick scooter that Simone loved getting around on.

The Rich Maharajah of of Magador

The bad news is I have been having more technical difficulties and have not been able to work on video footage since Italy.  The good news is I have a video of Simone and me performing in a Community Share at the Universal Hall in Findhorn last night. Monique didn't record my intro or the beginning of the song and the video is a bit grainy, but it's still fun.  The lines you miss at the beginning are:

There was a rich Maharajah of Magador
Who had ten thousand camels, or maybe more
He had rubies and pearls, and the loveliest girls
But he didn't know how to do the Rumba

Enjoy!

Torri Superiore

After Damanhur, we spent a few days at Torri Superiore, a small ecovillage near Turino in NW Italy where members have worked for years to restore a medieval village built into the mountainside.  We visited with some old (and new) friends and also used Torri as a base to explore the surrounding region and particularly the towns of Dolceaqua and Apricale.

Our friends, Massimo and Lucilla.

The girls really enjoyed playing out front.

Just one example of their rennovation work.

Open air eating!

On a walk near Torri.

Simone makes friends with Shaun the sheep.

A river near Torri.  It was beautiful, but COLD!

Pema in the streets of Dolceaqua.

Exploring Apricale.



















Eating Torte in Apricale

Damanhur

When we arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on May 6, we picked up our rental car and made a beeline down to Damanhur, a community in NW Italy so Monique could participate in a World Midwifery Summit that was taking place there.  Founded in 1975, Damanhur is a large spiritual ecovillage with over 650 members and many more in the "wider community".  They are perhaps best known for their "Temples of Humanity" which they built into a mountain - in secret! - for years before they went public.  We couldn't take pictures of the temple itself, but if you're interested, check out their website at: http://www.damanhur.org.

The video below is of one of Damanhur's Nucleo (sub-communities) called the Treehouses where Macaco, one of our hosts and guides showed us some of their work with using biofeedback machines to communicate with plants.  Macaco used to be a jazz singer and you can see her singing to a small tree - and the tree singing back!

Where we stayed (in the small bungalow below)

Macaco, one of our main hosts and guides

The main building in Magilla, the nucleo we stayed at.  Check out all the solar energy!

In front of the Open Temple, a space created to connect with Divine Energies.

Some of the community artwork near the Open Temple.

More artwork.  Notice the baby dragon in the egg!

A Sacred Grove left to nature.

Just one example of artwork on their many buildings.

Some of their cows grazing on grasses (they are free range)

Bylakuppe

At the end of March, we stayed for 3 days at Bylakuppe, a Tibetan settlement near Mysore.  It was an amazing opportunity to learn about and experience Tibetan Buddhism and the plight of Tibetan refugees in India.  The community had a similar feel to Dharamsala, where Monique and I spent a wonderful week about 12 years ago.  The girls enjoyed watching the monks chant and visiting with students at the community's school.  We even celebrated Passover while we were there.  It was interesting to note this similarities between the Jews exodus from Egypt and the Tibetans exodus from Tibet.

Our host, Tenzin's family (and our fellow faculty Larkspur and Ethan)












Tibetan Monks outlining a sand mandala

Pema showing off the Buddha in the Golden Temple.

Celebrating Passover!

Some random photos from India

 

Thali lunch at Solitude, Auroville

In front of ruin of Moghul Fort in Gingee

Shadows of students on top of Arunachula Mountain, Tiruvannamalai

Trying on a $500 Nehru Jacket in Bangalore

Simone helping to lash a floor onto a new capsule

Dressed up for final dinner in Auroville

Our "cohort" (co-heart) of eight students at our final dinner

Our typical mode of transportation around Auroville (we were "trend-setters" by actually wearing helmets).

Mysore Palace

When we visited the Mysore Palace, where the Maharajah used to live, we had the opportunity to ride a camel.  It was a fun, but bumpy ride.  I don't think I'd want to cross a desert on one of these.

Technical difficulties

Oy.  It's been almost a month since my last blog post.  My ambitions for regular entries was thwarted by two major technical difficulties: (1) my external hard drive, on which I was storing video, crapped out; and (2) we lost our video camera (a bizarre occurrence I still can't figure out).  We do have a digital camera, which takes (poor) video and I will try to post photos and some video to catch up on our travels.  We appreciate your patience and interest.

Shivanasamudra Waterfalls

On our recent travels, we were visiting a temple (Somnathpur) outside of Mysore, when our driver Kallai insisted we continue on to see the Shivanasamudra Waterfalls.  We had considered going as a group earlier, but decided not to when we learned we couldn't swim there (and really, in this heat, what is the point of looking at water you can't get into).

We went anyway (mostly to humor Kallai) and were beginning to have doubts after another hour on poor roads.  When we got there, we saw the waterfalls, took some photos and were about to head back when Kallai said "No! No. This way!" and led us to the top of a long stairway built into the hill that led down to the water.  Again, we were hesitant, but slowly we all trickled down the slope.

You'll see what we saw and did in the video.  It was one of the best surprises of the whole trip!

Basketball Finals

A basketball match isn't exactly something I expected to watch while in Auroville, but they take it pretty seriously here and since one of our students (Ben) and both our "Cohort Coordinators" (Boomi and Segar) were playing -- and actually made it to the finals ... well, I couldn't resist trying my hand at a little sports journalism.  Okay, Howard Cosell I'm not...

Climbing Arunachula

Okay, the story is that Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu (the three main Hindu Gods) were having an argument over who was the greatest.  As a test, Shiva turned himself into a pillar of fire and told Vishnu and Brahma, whoever first reaches one of the ends of the pillar was certainly the greatest.  Vishnu turned into a boar and began digging into the Earth and Brahma turned into a swan and flew high into the sky.  Of course, neither found the end so Shiva was proclaimed the greatest of all Gods.

Arunachula Mountain is considered to be the very body of Shiva and, once a year, they commemorate this story by lighting a HUGE bonfire on the top.  It is also a pilgrimage to walk to the top.  We started at 6am and it took two hours to climb the 2,688 feet!.  We took our shoes off at the very top, which was a bit sketchy as it was covered in black goo from all the burned ghee butter.  Anyway, we all had a short puja with a swami and were actually served tea in a small, ramshackle hut. We weren't exactly sure where the milk came from (monkeys?), but didn't ask.

It was a very special hike that I will always remember.

Weekend in Tiruvannamalai

A few weekends ago our "cohort" had the opportunity to travel to Tiruvannamalai, a temple town and pilgrimage site about three hours northwest from Auroville.  We stopped for breakfast at Gingee and viewed Moghul hill forts, which date back to the Chola dynasty in 9th century AD.  During our 2 1/2 days there, we ...

• Walked 13km around the sacred Arunachula Mountain, considered to be the body of Shiva;
• Visited Sri Ramanamaharshi's Ashram & walked to a cave where he meditated for 23(!) years;
• We also had lunch at the ashram and talked with Michael, a monk originally from Texas;
• That afternoon, we visited Arunachaleeswarar Temple, the largest Shiva temple in India;
• The next morning, the students and I climbed for 2 hours to the summit of Arunachula;
• We also ate in some amazing restaurants and had time to relax and walk around.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend.  I hope you enjoy the video.

Simone's tour of Deepanam School

At long last, here is a video Simone showing off Deepanam, the school she is attending while in Auroville.  It was difficult condensing it as the original footage is almost 20 minutes long!  Enjoy!

Litter Free Auroville

Here's a video of "Litter Free Auroville", a full day event organized by a group of only 5-6 people.  Amazing.  Over 1,800 people participated, including children from schools in and around Auroville.  In total, about 10 load carriers worth of litter (~250 bags of trash and 2 broken porcelain toilets) were collected.  Ah, the power of community.  Living Routes students volunteered to help things moving along.  The "Trashion Show" in the evening was also fun.  Everything was made out of trash and it ranged from the beautiful to the bizarre.

Electric Rickshaw

A few years ago, Living Routes helped fund the development of two electric rickshaws in Auroville as part of our Carbon Mitigation Strategy and to support more ecological transport there.

For months before we came to Auroville, I dreamed of using one of these electric rickshaws as our family vehicle.  Here's a video of both the dream and reality of driving one.  In the end, we decided it was too difficult and uncomfortable, so now we have three vehicles: Monique drives a moped and I drive a motocycle (here known as a "bike") because each of these vehicles can hold one of us and both girls (I chose a bikr over a moped as it is more fuel efficient, but Monique feels it is too big for her).  We also have an electric "cycle" (bicycle), which can hold two people, that I typically ride when I'm going around with the students (who all have cycles).

Weekend in Mamallapuram

On the weekend of January 23, we went to Mamallapuram to pick up the 17 Living Routes' students.  Mamallapuram is a coastal town between Auroville and Chennai and is known for its stone carvings.  Stone carvers have been practicing their craft there for hundreds of years.  Here's a short video of some of the things we did there.

Solar Eclipse

We were lucky on Friday to witness an annular eclipse of the sun.  Evidently, the total eclipse was only viewable within a narrow stretch 190 mi wide.  This is a photo taken around 1:10pm through some welding glass.  Looking normally you could barely tell an eclipse was happening at all, but the shadows through the trees were all crescent shaped (like a thousand pinhole cameras), which was pretty cool!  If you're interested, you can learn more about the eclipse at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_January_15,_2010

Happy Pongal!

Yesterday was the harvest celebration of Pongal.  We walked through Kuilyapaliam, the village near where we are staying and joined the parade just as it was starting to move.  This was fun, except when the firecrackers started going off everywhere and bananas started flying.  I think bananas are thrown and meant to be caught, but some (adolescent boys I suspect) get a bit overenthusiastic, so you do have to watch out.  Simone was bonked on the head once, but seems to have come through okay.  Also, we left before the "running of the bulls", which I think was a good thing.  Happy Pongal everyone!

Mini-marathoners

Simone was upset most of the day because yesterday she was told her class would run a 2km race at a big track and field event for kids and their families this afternoon and Simone did NOT want to run.  We picked her up from school before her class went to sports, but still all went to the event, which was at a big sports field that I had never been to before.  Amazingly, after about 20 minutes there, Simone decided she would run after all (thank God we brought her running shoes "just in case") - as long as I would run with her.

So, we DID IT!   We held hands most of the time and it was kind of fun running on paths through the woods.  And yes, we both sweat - a lot - even though it was actually only a little over a mile!  Good thing the event took place in January when the temp was around 85, rather than in April when it will likely be over 100.

Simone is very proud of this accomplishment and, on the way home, was even talking about running in a 3km or 5km race later in our time here.  And I even came in first among parents running the 2k (well, okay, I also came in last - i.e. I was the only parent to run with the kids - even though everyone was encouraged to do so).  Woo hoo!

Pema's First Day at Nandanam Kindergarten

Pema was excited to start kindergarten on Monday at Nandanam.  It was a wonderful first day with children making kolams in the courtyard and a puja (blessing ceremony) for the school.  I'm getting a bit more comfortable with iMovie, so I hope you enjoy the video!

Losing Simone

We had a bit of a scare yesterday.  It was Simone's first "long" day at school, which means she went to do sports after regular classes.  She was meant to come home on the bus, but when the bus arrived at 5:30 ... no Simone!  A friend, Boomi, and I tore off on our motorbikes to the sports field, to Simone's school and a few other places trying to find her.  While we were looking, Simone showed up on the back of a motorbike driven by one of her friend's mother.

Turns out, she couldn't remember the name of the community (Aspiration) where we are living and so got off with her friend and then directed her mom to drive her to our place.

The sad thing is that Monique and I made little laminated cards for Simone and Pema with all our contact information and ... of course ... we never actually gave them to the girls once arriving.  And we call ourselves travel group leaders!

Anyway, better that it happened now, in a controlled and safe environment, so we can get our systems in order (God forbid this ever happen again).

This girls are in school now and Monique and I are off to a full day of faculty meetings in preparation for the students arriving on the 23rd.  Fun!

In community,
 - Daniel

First Visit to Pondicherry

We had our first family outing to Pondicherry yesterday.  I was a bit concerned how the girls would react as "city life" (hustle and bustle, beggars, invalids...) can be a bit intense, but they did great - even in the old market, which is pretty smelly (at least the fishy part).  It has been raining lately, which is VERY unusual in January, so we've gotten a glimpse of what life is like during the monsoons.

We went in with two friends from New York (Astrid and Elisha) and Larkspur (faculty) and Davis (Amherst staff) and met up with an old professor friend (Tim Miller) and his family, so we were 9 for lunch and 15(!) for dinner.

Next time we go, we will check out the temple (and hopefully see an elephant), the boardwalk, and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.  Maybe the girls can even show the Living Routes students around Pondy a bit (they arrive on the 23rd).

Enjoy the video (sorry, the video was not good at the Honey Dew).

Tour of our home space

Here's Simone and Pema showing us around our new home space.  Watch out for Romeo!

Puja (blessing ceremony) for new kitchen

We're staying at a friend Selvaraj's house and when we arrived, he was just finishing construction on a new kitchen for us and other guests.  On New Year's day, we did a puja (blessing ceremony) for this new space.