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Published: December 10th 2007
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Well.. so much has happened since I last wrote, I don't know where to start. You may have to come back and read this in a few installments. OR maybe I’ll split it up for yA. Some of this is gonna be re-hashed from some of my personal emails that I’ve sent, so apologies if it comes across as dis-jointed or in the wrong tense. Anyway.. it’s from the heart. Here goes..
~
As you know, I moved into EverGreen on the 1st of December to start work on ‘the project’. All was starting to fall into place, and I was beginning to feel like I had made the right choice to leave sunny England behind ;c)
Dave (the project manager) took me for a walk around their site and through the forest, and.. it was amazing! They have 40 acres of woodland, a wind powered water pump, a tree nursery, a shit load of solar panels, and their houses are beautidul.. they're called 'capsules'. The plan is to document as much as I can so that ideas and designs can be adjusted for a projects back home. Obviously some things won't work so well (if at all!)
in certain climates ;c) I started to think that I was going to learn from this community, but also contribute a lot too.. which was exactly what I'd hoped for. A mutal exchange.
From the outside, it’s really rather beautiful here, in more than just the eye candy way.. I mean the way of life. It's so simple, and everyone appears to be so in tune with their surrounding environment. There's still a long way to go though, as Auroville is an experiment after all!
I started to feel that 3 weeks wasn’t going to be enough, but thought to myself that I just have to accept that’s all the time I have here, so use it wisely. Of course it would be great to be involved in the project from start to finish, but thinking about it.. I'd rather be putting that time and energy into a sustainable project of my own back home. But.. I think there is much knowledge and inspiration to be gained here :c)
THE PROJECT: The project is to bring environmental leaders/experts from all over the world to exchange valuable knowledge, and to work on sustainability solutions. The plan is to
invite people internationally, nationally, and locally.. 16 people altogether. The project initial part of the project involves building some more living quarters, compost loos, creative/workshop spaces, an area for kids, and food growing areas etc. Basically re-designing their community space to accommodate the project.
There are 4 meetings per week.. Management, Curriculum, Marketing, & Site Design. I definitely feel I have knowledge/skills to offer in the areas of Curriculum (not only through my teaching experience, but also through being involved with Naturewise - www.naturewise.org.uk), Marketing (my graphic/multi-media experience), & obviously Site Design.
In the second Site Design meeting I presented them with a design tool called ‘SADIM’ (Survey, Assess, Design, Implement, and Maintain). I also explained a bit about the design tools Random Assembly's, Multiple Functions, and Zones & Sectors. I said I would be happy to go through them properly over the next few Site Design meetings.
I was then asked to present my ideas for a ‘Permaculture Module’ for the course curriculum at the next Curriculum meeting, which I agreed to do. I also decided to hand out ‘refresher (for some)’ information on the ethics of Permaculture, the principles, and some other useful stuff like
ecology of the self. All was gratefully received, and I felt that my efforts had gone down well. I then decided that I needed to share a concern I had..
The first three nights here at Auroville were pretty strange, as EverGreen didn’t have room for me, so they had arranged for me to stay down the road. As it turned out, the woman who ran the other place took 460 rupee’s per night from my Auroville account without asking me! (You have to set up and account here at Auroville if you plan to stay here for more than one week, more on that later probably). I was deeply shocked by this, and felt that I had been shafted, especially as the accommodation had been extremely basic (no shower etc.) and the woman ‘Clementine’ had been quite un-helpful and slightly un-welcoming.
Anyway.. I then went on to say that I felt that we needed to discuss what was being exchanged between ‘us’, in terms of my energy/knowledge/skills etc. as it hadn’t really been discussed, and I was a tad concerned about getting a huge EverGreen bill for 400 per night at the end of the month! (Especially
as Tamar had been so interested in how much Clementine had charged me.. Hmmm?..) I explained that my intentions had always been to have a mutual exchange of energy, skills etc. and also work the land, BUT if they were expecting money from me also, then I just needed to know how much, so that I could make a decision on whether I could afford to stay or not. They said that of course I would be paying for the accommodation, and that there wasn’t anywhere in Auroville that exchanged work for board. Both Natasha and Tamar didn’t correspond on how much they usually charged for the ‘horse capsule’ (Natasha saying 300rs, and Tamar correcting her at 250rs). I replied that I was quite shocked at the pricing system here in Auroville, and that even 250 per night was not really within my budget. I then said to discuss it amongst themselves and get back to me 2morro.
I spent the next morning looking into options of where I could go for 2 weeks if they decided that they were't able to accommodate me.. for whatever reason. I found some interesting places in and around Chennai, and even got quite excited about moving on for a mo, but then felt a bit sad about the thought of leaving the project.
The next day I was told that they had mentioned that I would be renting in a previous email, and thought it was strange that I hadn’t enquired about the price (a fair point.. and I realise I have a terrible habit of assuming things, which I need to work on!). But also that they should have been up front about the pricing, so that I could have decided on whether to come or not. They had come to the decision to take the Auroville approach, and said it was up to me to donate what I thought I could afford. (Which is also a Permaculture approach ;c).
I didn’t notice at first, but sadly from the day on, their attitude towards me changed slightly.
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