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Hello, Ed here. I think is it about time i get back on the blog for Educate for Life, as I shall soon, in shallah, be back in India.

For these past few weeks I have been waiting for my Iran visa to be granted, and then I may leave for India. I’m traveling overland for a variety of reasons. Adventure? Indeed. Eco-conscientious? Certainly. The main reason though is time. Vehicles like aeroplanes may appear to save us time and make a trip easier, but only in the very short term. They also dissociate us from the act of traveling, and can take one on journeys that perhaps people shouldn’t be going on. A naive tourist flys to India, finds it daunting, and then proceeds to coat themselves on protective wrapping; familiar food in hotels that provide safe havens of Westernisms, only venturing out under the protection of a digital camera and guide book to predetermined tourist-safe locations.

Taking a trip through each country on the way allows us to acclimatise, physically as well as mentally, to our destination. The journeyer is presented with a dot-to-dot of cultures that change imperceptibly on a daily basis, but the picture they draw is the bigger picture, the connection between our home and our home from home. If the journeyer cannot continue with the journey, then perhaps they shouldn’t be in that far away place in the first place .Those that make it through will almost certainly be a lot more understanding of the new culture and will interact with it in a much more genuine fashion.

Traveling over-land will also helps to make better choices about time, travel and priorities. It discourages short trips, so I will engage more deeply with the other society than I might otherwise have been able to. It also removes the ease with which I can get home, so again it will help me to deepen my relationships with faces around me, and by not being able to chip off on a whim if the going gets too tough, i can focus more fully on my surrounds without that distraction. Traveling will become a clearer and more considered experience of connection.

Unfortunately if Iran don’t give me my visa, I’ll have to fly anyway, and that will be sad.

Villager were shivering from no rain or dry they were bit unhappy because the crop  which they grow it  was drying . they are very depended on their crops . because they save their grain for year .One side was lot of sadness of dry and one side so many disease  . they all were coming front of me and the community  . We were trying introduce new activity at the hunarghar .some how our energy were sucking . but I was pushing my self towards the happiness. After  a week rain came but late,  their crops were 50% dried  already But hopes never die ! Now condition  towards better condition . I think the energy lifting up and the thing which we are trying to do at hunarhghar that is also lifting up. people much more happy than before raining . they enjoying their work . I found  things were lifting up  because love spreading allover there . where is  so much love , love makes thing so much beautiful . love can resurrect  a died plant which I felt . when I was loving and touching a plant,  eventually many children starting coming to me and they were doing same thing which I was doing with a plant .Loving , and touching a plant,  helps to understand a plant requirement (water, soil, mulching )etc.Our idea is to generate lots of love with hunarghar, with animal, with nature and every single creature and of course   with human . Plantss are getting alive they growing small-small leafs . oh!!!!!!!! I am so exited to see when they will grow bigger soon. sunnygandharva

Hallo, Becka here, this is my first blog, sorry it has taken me so long to get round to it. Well, it has been about 7 weeks that I have been here and the time has flown by. First and foremost, I am completely in love with all of the children at Hunar Ghar and in the village of Bakhel, I get closer to them every day and I am realising that the quality of the relationships I build with the children and community are so much more important than the supposed ‘knowledge’ that I impart from an educational standpoint. During my first few weeks, Becky (a volunteer who came for 5 weeks) and I drew up a schedule for the younger children’s classes and spent a great deal of time and energy preparing resources and starting activities whilst trying to get the teachers involved and explaining the reasoning behind the activities. Nothing we had planned went to plan and the language barrier and a concept of time that differs greatly from our Western ‘go  go go’ attitude meant that Becky and I went through just about every possible emotion during this time. I feel that the most valuable experiences, both for ourselves and the children, came from after school time when we sat outside our hut and made handcrafts whilst any children that wanted to, came and joined in. One day some of the women and teenage girls came up to the hut and did some embroidery and this was a wonderful experience which, I feel, is a step in the right direction if the community is to take ownership of Hunar Ghar as a centre for everyone’s learning and sharing. I have come to feel that my most effective contribution to the school lies in craft skills and this is also something which, to an extent, transcends the language barrier as children are so good at imitating. It is really gratifying to see how interested and enthusiastic the children are about trying all these new things and I have discovered some amazing talents amongst them. I think that one of the biggest themes that has arisen for me is the quality of the communication and relationships at Hunar Ghar. I have encountered a great deal of physical disrespect amongst the children, teachers and parents. This confuses me because I have also experienced a lot of warmth and generosity from many villagers. Today, for example, I heard a young boy of about seven or eight weeping uncontrollably. I managed to ascertain that another child had thrown a large stone at his back and many of the children were laughing. Not one of the teachers was interested in dealing with the matter and I had to drag one of my colleagues away from showing visitors around the new toilet, to gather all the children and teachers in one hut to discuss the issue of violence at the school. Many of the children experience violence at home as it is seen as an effective form of discipline so the children cannot be blamed for their actions yet I feel we can try to make Hunar Ghar a violence free zone at least. I feel that respect for every living creature is such a fundamental thing to learn, and is relevant for any child, living in any culture. From this foundation, the children can learn to love themselves which helps them to have the right connection with the world around them. I feel that one of my main tasks here is to show love toward the children and the community and through this, show the teachers the difference between authority gained through fear and authority gained through love and trust.

 last week natural  soap making workshop was so exited for me at hunarghar. because i felt  that was a small spark of the local sustainability   . Community  and children were involved with  lot of enthusiasm  .

The soap was made with mostly  local things which include –allowvera, yellow clay (multani mitti), neem, kapoor, musterd oil, soapnut powder , amvala (salty and sour berry powder) cow dung .  Pure natural and eco- friendly.It was small comunity wrokshop to engage people and nature . there so many natural herbs  around the village .Actualy before their health were in their hands. but the bad things is they become more depended on allopathic and the hospital . and they getting forget the  ancient thing . for me is the challang as how much i know the home remedies or herbal medicine . i would like to share with villager and willing to search more ancient things and people.

sunny gandharva