Mamallapuram to Pondicherry, India

Mamallapuram is known for its artisans that carve marble, so we were able to get some things made from designs that we created. Through this, we became friends with the artist, Pasipatti (the one working in the picture), and all his friends.

While we were there, a classical Indian dance festival was being held. The dancers were very impressive, and, as an added bonus, we met a Tamil (South-East Indian province) guy there, named Moorti. The next day, he took us to visit a famous temple in the area which was on the top of a hill, giving an impressive view of the surrounding area.
Along with the dance festival, the Pongal festival (harvest celebration) was still in full swing. Between the two, Mama- llapuram was a busy town...but the beach was absolute craziness (note the picture!).

We are now in Auroville at Sadhana Forest. Auroville is an "experiment in international living." The town was started in the mid 1960's. It is similar to the ashrams (kind of like communes, but they have spiritual leaders) here, but this is actually a whole town based on the teachings of "the Mother" and Sri Aurobindo. It is an interesting place focused on sustainability, and cooperation. They are involved with many interesting projects including compressed bricks (similar to adobe in that they are not fired, but the compressed bricks are much stronger), organic farming, spirulina harvesting, and biological waste water treatment (using plants to clean waste water). We are staying here for 2 weeks to help out in whatever way we can. We chose Sadhana forest because it deals with reforestation and when we emailed them, they welcomed us openly.

The farm is vegan and meals can be a bit redundant, but last night we had a fantastic Mediterranean meal accompanied by accordion and Hebrew songs courtesy of our Israeli hosts. Unfortunately, Chris' stomach is tied in knots, and Dana definitely has some stomach bug but we are treating both with homeopathic Neem leaf powder that is supposed to be good for all stomach worms and bugs and comes highly recommended. The forest is not exactly what we expected, but we are utilizing our time by designing a biological waste filtration system for the farm, which currently has nothing in place in the way of a septic system. We are being helped immensely by several local experts. We are learning many things, and it is good to use our brains again. It takes almost all our free time, but we are finding it's worth it.