What began as impromptu cooking sessions on Saturday and Sunday afternoons have turned into weekly classes. We kicked off the program with an introduction to kitchen hygiene and safe food handling and storage. Since everyone loves bread and sweets, we began with baking and introduced the terminology along with a demonstration on how to use various equipment & utensils. This knowledge was immediately put into practice by baking Honey Chocolate Oatmeal on a Saturday and Coconut Oatmeal Cookies on a Sunday – both happily devoured by all.

Now the children are studying Vedic principles of cooking which refers to practices such as vegetarianism, proper food combining and cleanliness and most importantly, the act of preparing all food as an offering to God, and then sharing the eatables with others as prasadam or divinely consecrated food.

The older girls have moved on to actual meal preparation starting with pasta dishes, fresh salads as well as traditional India fare. They're having a great time and everyone appreciates the results.
                                                                       ~ Laurie Perry, Puttaparthi
                                                            

Since Michael’s visit a few weeks ago, construction work on the new school building continues.  Last week sand had to be screened in preparation for it to be mixed with cement that will eventually be poured into the casting that will become our second floor.  When truckloads of sand are delivered to us, it contains rocks and pebbles that are not suitable for slab (floor) work because they may cause problems like cracking or crumbling in the future. Thus, hours of sifting (or screening) to remove these larger components, making the sand relatively fine, must be done to help maintain the integrity of the hardened cement.  Of course the remaining rocks and pebbles can be used for other cement work like walls or ground level floors. Because the staging area for the cement mixer will be located on the opposite side of the building, a dump truck was rented to shift the sand to the front near the cement mixer.

In the meantime, bar-bending (bending of rebar) and cutting for the skeletal framework, as part of the slab casting, continued last week as well as the arrival of additional steel (rebar) shipments. Rajesh, whom we rely upon so much, took the initiative to consult with one of his colleagues who is a well-known builder in the area. He suggested that we spot weld all of the rectangular pillars since these upper floors will be bearing so much weight from human occupancy and because we are in such a wet environment during many months of the year.  Since we had nothing but time because of a cement shortage (India’s building boom has caused a shortage of cement in Southern India, pushing prices to an all-time high), Rajesh immediately brought in a welding specialist to do the job. On top of that, over 20 loads of large gravel were delivered last week as well. Approximately 4000 square feet of cement will be poured very soon!

On another front, Rajesh arranged for the electrical work to be laid down before the slab work begins. A crew of 3 completed the job in just a few days. The slab will be poured after Rajesh’s final inspection for leveling and voids that need filling.
                                                                                                                     ~ Peter Cruz, Coorg

We have expanded from coffee to organic vanilla and cardamom, both of which thrive in the rainforests of Coorg. A special Nelyani variety of cardamom has just been planted. They will produce much more cardamom per plant than our old variety and we're are planting a few hundred this monsoon. See photos.

School is back in session and we will be in Puttaparthi until early 2011 while work continues on our new Coorg home.