What a fun-filled October it has been! October started off with a visit from the travelling Korean school, Habana, that we have been blessed to get to know over the years from their visits to Auroville (a place almost like a second home to Raja). Habana is an unusual, creative school, based in South Korea. The whole ethos of the school is to learn not only the curriculum, but also to value the creative and expressionist features of life. They emphasise practical approaches to learning, through a variety of experiences, even in different cultural settings. Each year, the oldest group of students get the opportunity to spend the summer travelling the world, performing and learning along the way. Performances can change depending on the group’s interests at the time, but often the talents shared with the world are drumming, body percussion, dance and singing.
Performance in the village by Habana travelling school:
The values of the school, combined with the genuine curiosity of both students and staff members, means that the atmosphere, when gifted with their visits, is always bustling with questions and enthusiasm for the new activities underway. Rammed mud building, Electric Unicycle learning, cooking new cuisines and simply enjoying the regular farming duties is all met with a joy to learn and an eagerness to understand and internalise the knowledge being shared.
In the video above, you can see the long process of ramming the mud and creating the smooth surface required for plastering. Quite of a lot of progress has actually been made on the farmhouse over this month. We not only had help from Habana, we also regularly had students from Snenagram co-learning at Aranya, helping with odd jobs through the day. The current developments have mostly been the left wall and patio seating area, under the Tamarind tree. We hope to create a tiled seating area for breaks out of the sun, tables for the weekend cafe and almost an extension to the farmhouse kitchen.
The rest of October has been much the norm – growing crops, caring for the plants and animals, farmers markets, networking and making new friends, teaching Electric Unicycle to eager learners and promoting nutrition, organic alternatives to rural dietary requirements. Here’s the month in pictures:
Have a Nourishing November!
Aranya Eco Village 