Bringing Shamanism to Auroville

Day 10 - February 7, 2009

Waking up wasted in the morning and almost late for work, I run into town and hitch a ride to Matrimandir to make it on time. The guys I do wood work with are warming up to me. After lunch at the Indian pavilion with Jonny, I meet up with Karl and Lucas at the solar kitchen, then chill at Kailash. Sean, Tina, Lucas, and Matthias roll to the beach. A native from Chennai sits down with us, I open him up to conversation, and he shares a story about how he works with EZ1Trade making 400 calls a day from a call center scamming people out of $240 dollars. There are over 200 people in his office, and they scam people all over the US and Germany, getting them to agree to a free calling card for three months and in a voice recording that speaks too fast to understand they end up agreeing to pay $240. We recorded an hour of our conversation with this guy. I feel like giving it to the US media :) I chilled at Sean's hut before heading to the Youth Center for pizza night, where there was a big kick it and plenty of incredible pizza. I played the cube with Tina, had a great talk with Hannes about philosophy, then went back to Sean's with Karl and Lucas for Harold & Kumar 2.



Day 11 - February 8, 2009 Sunday

I had dreams of surviving a tidal wave, accepting and coming to peace with my impending doom right before the wave hit. I was knocked back hard by the wave but I rose to my feet unscathed. Waking at Sean's and walking / hitching home, I did some laundry before heading back to the solar kitchen for lunch with Sean, Karl, Christian, and Jonny. I went to Kailash with Karl and chilled with the Kailash crew till Sean came, then we went to the beach. Tina met us there - we swam, talked, and had chicken fights. Karl left and the rest of us went for ice cream at Richie's. Sean and I went to the banyan tree for meditation then walked around Matrimandir before heading back to his place. We picked up some food along the way and cooked pasta in his community kitchen, where Karl and Tina met up ith us again. Afterwards we walked to Sean's hut and chilled and listened to music. I shared my New Brighton Beach camp rap with them, which is about 8 minutes long. Everyone but Sean and I left, so Sean and I had a graffiti writing contest before falling asleep.



Day 12 - February 9, 2009 Monday

In the morning I had dreams of some sort of academic competition, but I don't remember much about it. I walked and hitched to Matrimandir and used the internet before Jonny picked me up. We did wood work in the Light area, then I went to solar kitchen for lunch with Toby and Karl. Chilled briefly at Kailash with Karl, who drove me to the Visitor Center where I meet up with Tina and Sean and discuss beach plans. Sean takes me to the place he'll be moving into on Sunday, Discipline, where we sandpapered the floor for three hours to get all the white paint off that he and Karl spilled on the floor while painting the walls. If only they used newspaper to cover the floor... Afterwards Sean, Tina and I went to Repo beach. Sean's bike kept failing along the way so we got there late and the sun was near setting. The three of us had dinner by the beach, then rode off to Jan David's to pick up a drum for a spirit journey. When we got there, Oliver suggested we to the spirit journey at the beach and spend the night. We got some blankets and rolled out to some new beach I haven't been to yet, a little north of Repo. Under the FULL MOON I led a spirit journey for Sean, Tina, Oliver, Eva, and Joachim. We chilled for a bit afterwards, then Oliver, Eva, and Joachim left. Sean, Tina and I slept on the beach under the stars and full moon.



Day 13 - February 10, 2009 Tuesday

Waking up in time for the sun rise and truly uncomfortable from sleeping on a thin blanket in the sand, we chilled for a bit as Tamil guys walked past us staring. We drove to Repo beach for breakfast, then Sean dropped me off at Matrimandir. I read my book, waited for Jonny, and was privy to a native woman picking up cow dung with her hands and throwing it into a bush. I walked to the Stock Home and met up with Manimaran, who introduced me to the Tally accounting system. Soon I'll start working on the finances and accounting aspect of the wood cooperative rather than the physical labor. Walking up to Jonny at the solar kitchen, I greeted him. There were two other people at the table. He hushed me with his finger and pointed to a sign right by the table saying that we were in a silent area. Cool concept, but really embarrassing for me to walk in and talk. Jonny dropped me off at Matrimandir and I walk to Discipline. A short hitch along the way really helped as the sun scoured my skin. More scrubbing and cleaning at Discipline. Lukas came back from his one week trip to southern India with his mother and he met us there. After work we chilled at the bakery by Seans, then Karl dropped me at Sean and Lukas' hut, which they all call a "capsule." We walked to solar kitchen for dinner, I hitched my way to the banyan tree, meditated under another seemingly full moon, then walked home for the first time in three days.