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The sound of water
When you live near water, hearing its sound becomes part of your life. A fisherman living in a coastal village will hear the tides of the ocean like his own breath. Someone living along the banks of the Ganga will hear its never-ending flow like their own heartbeat. These sounds are usually a constant and
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Hole in the road
Lest we forget how fragile the transportation is in the flood areas of Uttarakhand, this hole has opened in the main highway just 100 yards from our ashram. Within the past 24 hours, with no rainfall, the last foot of pavement has fallen away. The road is so narrow that the rear wheels of every
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Preparing for the Japanese students
Preparing for the Japanese students, we are all doing extra tasks. I got to do my first full day of real construction work. Even though I made many mistakes, it felt so good to be actually building someones home. This is called the market site as it is just behind the main business area of
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Lone Survivor
Every year the Japanese students come, it is always essential that we find them accommodation close to the building site. Usually when an area is affected by a natural disaster, options can be limited. This year, there was only one option. Last summer as you left Chandrapuri you would only have to drive a few
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A moving ashram of 700
As we started doing registrations for the present 2-week tour, we expected the number of registrants to be similar to the recent tours. But with the crowd of westerners in Amritapuri not having reduced much since the New Year (coming down just from 1600 to 1200), we suspected that we could be facing a new
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Preparing the path where there is no road….
After major flash flooding devastated many of the himalayan valleys in Uttarakhand, Amma pledged to rebuild 500 homes in the area. The first phase of that work is going on in and around the village of Chandrapuri in the district of Rudraprayag, on the way up to Kedarnath. A week from now 73 Japanese university
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The Japanese students are coming
The word Japan was heard in all the shops of Chandrapuri after our banner went up this morning over the main highway. 76 Japanese students from International Volunteer University Students Association will arrive next week to help with construction. IVUSA groups have helped with Amma’s housing projects annually for more than 15 years so we
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Climbing up
As the full moon approaches, the air is crisp and clear. We had frost last night, then a bright, sunny day. I decided to climb the steep trail behind our building sites for a new view of the mountains. In the valley picture, our village of Batwadi rims the green fields in the foreground. All
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The floor plan
Shanti Devi moved into a tent to be near her house when we first started to build. She has helped at every step, carrying water, rocks, timbers, and brick. Today she even tried her hand at filling in the cracks with mortar. Finally, she can see what her new home will be like. This is
