Now that's hot air!

Every few weeks the Green School principle invites parents to a morning meeting. It is an opportunity for the parents to learn about school initiatives and for general communication. (Apparently all young organizations, no matter how ideal, have growing pains!) The first meeting I went to reminded me too much of being at work so I shied away until today. And I'm so glad to have gone!

The school's operations manager is an Indian engineer named Arjay. His team keeps the buildings and grounds safe and he develoops green technologies. Today he unveiled a system that converts dung from the school's livestock into cooking gas for the school cafeteria. Arjay has been working on this system under the mentorship of a man who has built over 800 in India. Apparently there are large Indian office buildings harnessing methane from food waste.

There were about 40 people including visitors from other schools and a reporter who were taken to see two large yellow drums (see picture above) with a fuel hose running about 20 feet to a gas cooker. Arjay explained that when methane gas is burned it converts into carbon dioxide and water which is less toxic than methane itself. It can be used in the same way we would use propane or natural gas for cooking.

To capture methane one only needs a source of gas (food or dung) that is made into a "slurry" by mixing it with water. The slurry is fed into the large tank and then heat from the sun releases the methane which is caught by the smaller tank at the top and held until it is needed (for example, when the stove is turned on). The byproduct is fertilizer which comes out of a tube in the lower part of the system. And when the gas tank gets low, instead of a trip to the fuel station, look for the closest cow! Food waste or dung of any source will do.

As he was talking, Arjay asked one of his team to fetch some dung from one of the school cows. It was brought and Arjay poured some water into the bucket. One of the parents asked how they mix the slurry and Arjay said “by hand.” What I witnessed next was certainly a surprise because I wasn't prepared for how literal he was! Elbow deep in cow dung soup - there was Arjay stirring! He pulled out little bits of hay informing us that the hay should be removed as it clogs the system. Once the slurry was mixed to his satisfaction, in it went into the system ready to bubble into usable cooking fuel

What an amazing use of what is probably the epitome of garbage! It makes total sense to use the methane gas for cooking, particularly when you consider that many families in the developing world are unable to afford fuel for cooking and they rely on collecting little bits of wood for cooking fuel. But I have to admit, I stay on the side of theory here – I have no inclination to bury my arms in dung for any purpose. But there are an awful lot of cows around here (whose purpose I can't exactly figure out since Bali is overwhelmingly Hindu and they don't eat beef and they don't use them for milk) just doing their business and wasting hot air...

Riah

Surfs up!

Chloe and her friend, Elena, surfing (Chloe on the right)

Recently someone commented "you can't be in Bali and not surf." So when I heard another parent was taking her daughters to surf lessons on Saturday, I signed Chloe up at the Rip Curl Surf School.

The waves were great for beginners - small enough to be manageable and big enough to be fun. Each girl had a private teacher who acted like a sherpa. They pulled the kids into the surf, helped them chose a wave and give them a push. It was great to see the girls up on the board right away.

The beach had a great set up: show up with towels, sunscreen, and swim suits

and rent lounge chairs and umbrellas. We rented boogy boards and got a kite to fly as well. All in all, a really nice day at the beach...

Riah

Ava flying a kite...

Maia testing the water...

Boogie Boarding by Ava

Yesterday i went boogie-boarding at the beach. A big wave came and pulled me right under. But the rest just drove me to shore. A girl in my class named Judy was there. We went boogie-boarding together. A little later my mom asked me to bury a dead fish (which was lying in front of our beach chairs). So I asked Judy to help me bury it. We dug a hole and used shovels to push the fish into the hole then we covered it up with sand. After that we went back in the water. I love boogie-boarding!

Ava checking out the waves

Easy Rider (Alex as Peter Fonda)

There's a movie from way back called Easy Rider. It's about these guys who hit the road on their Harley's in the psychadelic 60s. Well 40 or so years later there is Easy Rider 2 ( or is it EASY RIDER RETURNS? SON OF EASY RIDER??).

Everyone in Bali drives a motorscooter or a motor bike. You see 7 year old kids whipping by you on the road on their motorscooters doubling their younger brother - with no helmet! Sometimes you see a whole family on a bike. No one needs an SUV here. It helps that body sizes are smaller.

Yesterday I joined the two wheeled scooter race with a decent yamaha rental bike. I think it's probably got at least 75CCs. It even came with a couple of helmets. Now there's no holding back on exploring this wonderful island.

It helps that it gives off a cooling breeze when you ride too!

Easy Rider is about freedom, about being born to be wild. No that we've got our two wheeled chariot for free wheeling down past the potholes of life we will never be the same.

My daily routine at school - by Chloe

Here's my routine for the people out there who were wondering about my school day in Bali.

My morning is getting up at 6:45, being lazy for 15 min, getting dressed, going to see the chicks, eating breakfast,being lazy going to lie down, brushing my teeth and hair, packing my school bag, getting my shoes on and heading out the door to meet our driver. I get into the car and listen to my iPod for the 20 minute to 30 minute drive to school. When I get to school i have 15min of home room and then my school day starts.

Heres my daily schedule:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
drama	PE	Indonesian studies	PE	math
music	Global awareness	Spanish	Music	English
break	break	break	break	break
English	English	English	English	art
math	math	math	math	art
lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch
Global awareness	Green studies	library	science	assembly
Indonesian studies	Green studies	Green studies	science	Community service

On Tuesday after school I have an after school activity that is called Creative Arts with Pak (Mr.) Sussiawan and Ibu (Ms.) Susan. I am about to start Capioera next week on Thursdays (Caprioera is a Brazilian martial art that includes dance, music, and fighting). On Fridays I swim with the school swim team for the first two periods.

I love drama on Monday mornings. This is the perk of my day. In drama we sing, we dance, and we act. We also get to play music. Today we did a dragon dance for the Chinese New Year. I was one of the drummers and so was Elana, one of my friends (she's from Seattle in the US). I also love green studies because we get to go on hikes, we get to garden and dig in cow poo and horse poo (manure!!!!!!). I love to get dirty. At the end of the day my mom says to have a bath but I never do. Instead I go in the pool downstairs and swim with Ava and Maia. Also in green studies we're planting corn, peanuts, watermelon, okra, cucumbers and some herbs and spices in our classes' little garden. In the school garden there is a lot of stuff. Everything we have at the Warung (school cafe) and in school lunches comes from the school gardens.

At school they only use bread that they make and everything is homemade. They're building a lunch hall that's shaped like a dragon and it's made out of flattened oil drums. There has been a competition in art class to design the head of dragon fo rthe lunch hall. I did the Canadian Dragon. It has horns that make it look like a maple leaf. I looked it up on the internet. It' doesn't look ferocious, it looks friendly but it can still take another dragon that is trying to kill it down.

At the end of the week we do some community work and start to slow ourselves down. Our community work is on the Merangie Foundation. It's a foundation that grows bamboo for farmers that don't get that much money. The Merangie foundation will give them some bamboo and then the farmers can keep it growing over years because if you chop a piced of bamboo it will grow back. They get a pot of bamboo and it grows then the farmers can sell pieces of it or make thing sout of it to sell. We count all the bamboo around the school that is still living and we GPS them onto Google Earth. I don't know why we do this.

The assemblies on Fridays help slow things down a bit with the principle and everyone all you have to do is sit back and listen and keep your eyes and ears open but maybe shut your brain down.

At the end of my school day I go to the Warung and wait for my driver and look around for my sisters. I talk to my friends while waiting. I finally get into the car and go home. That's the end of my school day.

When I get home I have an after school snack and then Nuadi and Neoman make us supper.

Goodnight...

CHICK-CHICK-CHICKENS

In the space of three days our chicken population went from four to eight to six.

It turns out that the fuzzy colourful chicks don't last long. I wonder if they're intended as toys rather than proper chickens. For reasons unknown, the yellow one went from healthy Saturday evening to dead by Sunday morning. The pink one was next – she was resting by herself in the cage on Sunday and then died with no identifiable cause. As of today we have neon green Fifi and bright orange Jenga (named after an orange flower). A few tears were shed and Alex dealt with the remains.

Unknown to me, Chloe had continued negotiations with Nuadi to find a mother hen with baby chicks even after we got the kooky four. He asked around and found his neighbour was willing to part with a hen and her three chicks. Chloe paid him $12 from her allowance and Nuadi brought them over on Saturday (the pinnacle of our chicken population).

The “Bali Chickens,” a robust black hen and her three scrappy chicks are like a different species of animal from the little chicks. Neoman and Nuadi tell us that Bali chickens are much more strong than the other ones and will survive a long time. For now it's a rather ridiculous scene in the yard; two bird cages one holding the teeny tiny comical chicks and the other with an indignant hen and her serious looking chicks. During the day all five chicks run around the yard and mother hen stays in the cage (otherwise she'll run off with chicks in tow) and scolds us and her chicks all day.

The interesting thing is just how into the chickens the girls are. Chloe wants to start a veggie patch at home and has arranged for some space to do this. So far we haven't been able to figure out where to purchase seeds from so nothing's in the ground yet. But even if we don't get to that in time, the girls are planting peanuts and corn in the rice field at school and okra, herbs, spices, cucumbers and watermelons outside their classrooms so the farmer instinct them should be satisfied.

Chinese New Year

Just went to a great assembly at the school. Here's a little video of the kids doing a dragon dance. I loving the sharing of culture here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiWoIEqe2yk&sns=em

You may see Chloe in the back playing the Djembe drum (not Chinese)



- Posted using BlogPress from my Commodore 64 using dial up ;)

Location:Jalan Darma Saba Permai,Abiansemal,Indonesia