2009 08 22. Saturday.

My building is right close to the main Indian kitchen. At 5am there's some kind of banging there each morning. Today no exception. Then at 5:30am the neighbor Indian ladies wake up and start banging pots and chatting. And then this morning at 6am some German girl down the hall starts wailing and crying for about an hour. And remember there is zero sound insulation in this building. Jeez. This place has become some kind of hell realm when it comes to sleep. I keep trying to practice presence awareness in the midst of all the racket. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes not...

Peter and I were talking about compost plans near Swami Jnanamrita's room. Swami J came out and Peter went up and gave him a hug. It was very sweet to see. Being an Indian Swami, I think Swami J very very rarely gets hugged. Peter is a very warm hearted guy. Swami J is very happy with all the good work Peter has done and they talked for a few moments while I just stood nearby and watched. I tried to put myself in a calm, relaxed space while being close to Swami J. Swami J looked at me briefly a few times and it was totally wonderful to see his expression and especially his eyes; very deep, clear and joyful dark brown eyes. Wow. His presence is really beautiful.

I went to the Amma Biotech College across the backwaters to get some distilled water for some pH testing. The Indian lady who was helping me also said that at the college they're not sorting the trash and they're just burning it beside a road. Jeez. What a toxic mess. Many Indians have some kind of deep phobia about dealing with trash in a proper way. For most Indians, it seems the idea of sorting trash for proper recycling is an utterly foreign concept. She showed me the bins of trash waiting to be burned and basically asked me on the spot if I would take responsibility for sorting the daily trash of 9,000 students and staff. Jeez! I don't think so. We talked some more and I gave her some options. She had a worried expression on her face when I left.