More Sight Seeing

This weeks course at the Earth Unit has quite a bit of stuff I'm either not interested in or feel is just review. As a result, I decided to skip a few days of class and take the Three Day Introduction to Auroville workshop. I'm glad I did. Until this point, I knew that I hadn't seen much of Auroville. But I had no idea how little I'd seen. Even though most of the today seemed to be filled with exposition regarding Sri Aurobindos "Integral Yoga" and other stuff I don't really care about, once the site seeing portion of the tour started I got to see way more than I expected. One place that I didn't even know existed was the American Pavilion. It's a nice eco-conscience office/dorm with rain water harvesting, photo-voltaic (solar) electric generation and composting toilets. The buildings are made of rammed earth with compressed block in-fill.

We also saw Baraht Nivas, which was once a restaurant, but it now an art gallery. The building is pretty neat. I didn't get too many photos but you should get a good impression of what it looks like from this photo.

Crazy rainbow cloud:

Spirulina. It tastes as bad as it looks.

Ayyappam shows us how to use a water level:

Practicing bond patterns in masonry.

A few days ago I burned myself pretty badly on the tailpipe of my motorcycle. I'm pretty sure this one is going to leave a scar. My souvenir from India:

Over the last several weeks I've taken a few lunches at The Solar Kitchen.
Solar Lunch:
While in an outdoor restaurant a goose walked though the dining area, took a nice fat dump on the floor and then wandered around for a while.

Making Bricks

We completed site management and production know-how this week. The system that Satprem has created focuses on the use of compressed earth blocks. As the blocks are meant to be used mostly in developing countries the machine is totally manual. It requires a crew of seven to run the machine at full speed. ( 2 people for mixing earth and 5 to operate the machine) It might seem a little crazy at first. But when you take into account the actual situation in many developing and the cost of labor in those countries, the numbers work out. The machine can make about 1000 bricks in one day when running non-stop. Check out the video:

http://www.mediamax.com/lordtangent/Hosted/auram.MP4

The process can be automated for use in industrialized countries. But that isn't the focus of the work being done at the Earth Institute.

We also spent one day doing a rammed earth wall.

Completed rammed earth wall.



In the first video Omar is horsing around and breaking one of the unstabilized, incorrectly produced, inferior quality bricks we made in the first section of this weeks course. Ayapam then fetches him another brick to break. ( It's one of the REAL bricks ) Check out the second movie to get an idea of just how strong "mud bricks" can be. Please observe that there is a 4:1 lever applying the pressure to the top of the brick being tested. ( Omar decided not to test a real brick with his fist, BTW )

http://www.mediamax.com/lordtangent/Hosted/brick_break.MP4

Testing the brick (Skip to the end if you want to see it actually break)
http://www.mediamax.com/lordtangent/Hosted/brick_test.MP4

After class we've taken the opportunity to poke around Auroville and look at some of the buildings. People have done some very creative stuff:

Auto-rickshaws and their drivers at the Pondicherry central bus station.


Class will be over this week and I'm finalising my travel plans for after the workshop. I'm using a travel agency to help me book everything. So far my plan is to only travel for about 16 days to leave a buffer for staying in places I find interesting for a little longer.

India, the movie

INT- AUROVILLE EARTH UNIT OFFICE - MORNING

Slow day. Almost dreamlike. A man in his mid thirties walks into the office and speaks to the receptionist.

AARON
May I use the phone?

SUTA
Local?

AARON
Yes. I may need some help.
I still don't know the phone
system here.

He shows her the number. She dials it and hands the phone over to him. He listens to the phone.

AARON
Is it ringing? I don't know this sound.

Hands phone back.

SUTA
Engaged. Maybe you try later?

AARON
Sure. May I just wait here?

SUTA shakes her head side to side (yes). AARON moves to the reading/waiting area. A butterfly flys into though the open window then flys around the room and then back out the window again as AARON watches on.

...

INDIA - INT - GIFT SHOP SHOW ROOM

SALES MAN
How are you enjoying India so far?

AARON
Oh, it's just fine

SALES MAN
You obviously haven't seen too much of it yet.

Accident

I have a ton of photos and not a lot of time to caption them just yet. I Figured I'd pop them up now and fill in the captions later. Stay tuned!

As a test, I decided to try and post a video for everyone. This is a movie of some of the guys destroying one of the vaults we built. Please tell me if it works for you. It's Quicktime mp4 format: http://www.mediamax.com/lordtangent/Hosted/vault_destruction.MP4

If this works OK I may post more videos in the future.

Here is some news for you. Some time mid-week (I loose track of the days here) I crashed head-on into a lady on a scooter. Everyone was ok. I'm ok. Even the bikes were OK. It was a very slow collision. The scooter did sustain a little damage... one of the lights got broken. I offered to help pay for it but the husband preferred to just scold me and then let me off the hook "The money is not the issue. What if my wives arm had been broken" I didn't know what to tell him. I mean, either one of us could have gotten hurt or killed. When he was done ranting it was all over. I was free to leave.

The only reason I mention any of this is that I've been beating myself up over it since it happened. You see, the accident was clearly my fault. I ran to the right rather than the left when the bikes got too close which only made things worse. BUT... The lady DID cut me off. As I've mentioned, people here drive nearly suicidally. They assume that everyone else is looking out for them and will do the correct thing. Well, I didn't. Old habits die hard. It's tough to suppress 20 years of driving instinct. She had no way of knowing that of course. I went right when I should have gone left.

Now, today, on the way to the net cafe I crossed the same intersection. And what happened? Someone else came out of the intersection nearly the exact way as the woman I hit! Hurrah! My chance for redemption! "Keep to the left... keep to the left" I kept repeating to myself... only this time, the other guy decided to go to his right (my left... the WRONG way) Luckily for me, he choose his line early, and committed to it. It wasn't as close a call as the last time. But what made this guy decide to go to the right? (He was Indian)

The moral to the story? I don't know what it is. The two experiences only just confirm to me that there are no rules to driving in India except for: Don't hit anything.



A huge millipede. Eating these must be how the scorpions get so big (it's about 6 inches long):


Testing our arches vaults and domes. People told me I would loose weight in India, but as far as I can tell I'm either getting fatter or staying the same weight. (Eating so much chapati and rice will do that to you) I did not build this dome.


I did build this dome

More weekend tourism. This time to a site called Mahabalipuram (sp?) The temples are carved from solid rock. Most of them are not hollow on the inside, though some of them are somewhat hollowed out on the inside. Something I didn't get a photo of was the locally produced stone statues. Amazing work. I really wish I could get one to take home but shipping would be a hassle.


The view from the Beach Cafe. Dinesh with the Beach Temple in the background.

The monkey stole a partially full soda bottle from one of the kids, ran away, and then proceeded to open and drink it. Cheeky Temple monkeys! You really need to be careful around them or they will steal your camera and other stuff. (If they mistake it for food)



One thing I really can't figure out is why people stop me and ask me to take their photos. It happens at least once every time I go out. Today it happened three times. I'm posting the nicest pic. (They guy wanted me to take a photo of the kids) I usually try to get contact info from them so I can later send them the shot, but they aren't interested. They don't really want a copy. They just want me to take the photo. Dinesh, the Tamil guy I was traveling with on this trip, confirmed it. The people really didn't want a copy. I still don't get it. (Dinesh says I never will)
As part of our practical training we've been doing visits to active building sites. This first site is a little cathedral/shrine for a local Catholic charity.






The women in India work as hard or harder than the men. The main difference is that they do in it full Saris. (The men usually work in western cloths and sometimes a lungi) This lady seems to be wearing a pretty sensible cotton sari, but I often see women working in much fancier looking polyester saris.


The second site is the Shiva temple I mentioned in an earlier post. In these shots you can see that they are beginning to add the cladding to the exterior. The cladding is made from compressed earth blocks.

A Little Tourism

In spite of the crazy schedule at CSR I'm still managing to squeeze in a bit of tourism on my one day a week of free time. Sunday before last we went to Pondicherry to look around a bit. Pondicherry is a former French colony. I didn't actually get to see much beyond the market (Amazing textiles / Saris in the nicer shops) and this: An old colonial era church. Amazing masonry. As I was with some of the other students from the Arches Vaults and Domes class. No-one could resist talking about what an engineering accomplishment the church is. The church was realized in brick and stone with pure compression architecture. No steel or concrete. (It didn't exist when the church was built!) Very impressive.



This week we are studying the actual manufacture of earth blocks. As part of the process, we will be learning how to analyze soil and tweak/stabilize it as required. Part of the class was a fantastic slide show on earth archetecture around the world. I'd seen some of the images before but it was much better with Satprem narrating. He has an amazing about of knowledge in the area of earth architecture. I wish I could share some of the images. I'm going to find out if he's got a CD I can take home with me.

I'm starting to accumulate photos faster than I can post them. Next post I should have to good stuff for ya though. Stay Tuned!

End of Practical Masonry

Completed domes. I didn't work on any of these. But I think they look cool.

This morning over breakfast Manuel and Siddharth regaled me with a story of a 8" scorpion they'd spotted the night before. " The rain makes them come out", said Sid.

Tonight, we caught one. This bug is as big as your hand. I'm not joking. For scale, consider the size of the fork.


One thing I've been dying to get a picture of is the common Indian practice of piling up a scooter or motor bike with anything that will fit: Full milk cans, giant bundles of sticks, large containers of diesel or gasoline, people... you name it. I routinely see motor bikes with Dad, the wife, and two kids. The best snap I've been able to manage so far is this picture of Dad, Wife and Kid.


The wife/sister/mom/etc. usually rides side saddle. The bikes are specially modified with a foot rest and often a larger, squared off seat facilitating the practice. If the bike has "saddle bags", it usually only has one on the right, so that the passenger can ride side saddle with their feet hanging off the left side.

We played hookie and went to see the Matrimandir today, but weren't allowed inside.

Afterward, we went to see Aureka, the "Unit" here in Auroville that actually fabricates the brick making machine used to make compressed earth bricks.
The first thing that I noticed was how NOT up to OSHA standards the shop was. First of all, people were working in flip-flops. Metal working in flip-flops. Another common practice was to not wear any kind of eye protection.


The next thing I noticed was the seeming preference for working on the floor as opposed to a work bench. This seems like a common thing in this part of India. This shot is the final assembly area for the Auram brick press.


Just as I was about to leave a couple of friendly fellows asked me to take their picture. I didn't get their names.