BUILDING A HOME

July-August 2008

See on below photos how we’ve made a little, but sweet home in Bali recently. It worth mention that this hut took not much money to build, because our main building material was bamboo. Last was broken (in our land) by our neighbors - few months before we arrived to this place. (The bamboo was not rotting however, because we had such very dry period here: virtually no any rain for about 4 months). We used alang-alang grass for roofing. This grass forms a beautiful meadow in a middle of our place. Herons and other wild birds hiding in it: we can see them time after time. When prolonged drought came, the grass turned all brown, so that formal owner of this “wasteland” (pak Gande) was about to burn it off, but we stopped him, explaining that we need grass for roof. (But even after we took enough for roof, a lot of grass still remained untouched, thus providing shelter for our dear guests: wild birds and other animals).

As for our apparently traditional hut, we use it as resting place (tempat tidur) in our ashram. And, as for the ashram itself, last is a place where, besides learning holy scriptures (Upanishads, Sathya Sai Baba teachings etc.), we also nurse Balinese native trees, rehabilitate Balinese native birds, and, of course, sharing our knowledge and happiness with all sincere and friendly people.