2009 07 27. Monday.

2009 07 27. Monday.

Slept till 8am. Sweaty and feverish most of the night but started feeling a little better around dawn. Took a shower. Brrrr!! This little flu bug has put me in bit of a sour mood; I'm annoyed with whole ashram and all its little inconveniences.

I rested most of the day and felt good enough after lunch to go to the compost work. A few weeks ago as an experiment we built a compost pile on a chain link fence to see if that would make it easier to turn the pile. A few days ago I suggested to Mukhunda that when we turn the fence we get it videotaped so Peter Ash back in America can see it. So today Mukhunda brings the ropes and an Indian guy with a fancy video camera. They push me in front of the camera to explain the whole thing since it was my idea. The camera starts and I start explaining while occasionally coughing and hacking in the most horrible way. Jeez! I hope to god they can edit that stuff out. Pretty horrible. So I string 5 strong ropes through the fence and call over some of the Indians to pull. I get everyone lined up and, with the camera rolling I say "Pull!" Everyone pulls mightily and in about 45 seconds Voila! Its done! The fence rolls up and flips over the whole pile (about a ton), pretty as you please. Total success. Cool. I say a few final words for the camera and Cut! The other Indians and Mukhunda are very happy. Hopefully he's happy enough to get a lot more chain link fence so we don't have to do the backbreaking work of turning the piles by hand. The Indians are now doing all the work of turning the piles. Turning the piles in addition to managing their construction would be too much for me. My energy level is usually pretty good but not what it used to be.

I was still too tired to do the main compost work so I spent most of the time putting the earthworms back into their bin. For some reason a lot of them had crawled up into the burlap cover and I had to gently put them back. I'm now an expert worm handler! I have to trade some emails with Peter Ash to figure out why the worms are coming up. We made sure they had plenty of food and moist straw.

On the way to dinner I saw Amma for the first time since She came back. Jai Ma! She was in the big hall leading bhajans and I came just in time for the Amma Arati. Amma looked radiant as always in Her bright white sari surrounded by all the bhajan players and singers. The hall was packed! The big difference seemed to be that a lot of the male students were there. They never before came to the bhajans in the big hall while Amma was away. What a difference from a month ago when it was just a small group of guys for bhajans. Lots and lots of westerners and Indians now arriving at the ashram. Now I can really appreciate the luxury of having a room all to myself. A lot of the westerners will get packed in 3 or 4 to a room. The Indians will pack even more into a room but they're used to it. For most of them its totally not a problem.

I had a quick dinner and collapsed into bed. Feeling better but still a little weak and congested.