Muddy Sunday

When was the last time you stood barefoot in mud? Or get in touch with mother earth?

We messed around with sticky mud, dry sand and piles and piles of coconut husks, and muddy water yesterday. Dirty and fun it may seem, we are actually doing it for a beautiful purpose. These bricks will be used to build a mud hut for Bhante Mahinda during rain retreat later this year. There are spacious rooms made of concrete and cement, glass and steel but he wished to go back to the nature using the most natural materials.

The hut is built in the most conventional way. Mud, sand, coconut husks and water are mixed and molded into rectangular bricks. These bricks will then be used to build a spherical hut in which inside is cool during hot day and warm during rainy season. 

Well maybe the bricks are not so perfect, obviously they don't, but they are made with gratitude and joy. It might be a little tiring but interesting and enjoyable. 

I didn't know we could build something out of these simple things. Even my dad who has been working in the construction filed didn't expect we could do it this way. That is a big awareness that I couldn't really describe. I was more than amazed. Then, we realized that the connection between human and nature has been separated by so many other things. Going eco-friendly and loving the mother nature aren't only for the activists or experts. It's also for laymen like us who are willing to do our little parts.

Keeping things simple is beautiful.

 

 

Building the mud hut is only part of the project because near the hut there'll be vegetables and fruits. And I have not planted a single vege besides that reckless science project we did when we were young which was to plant a green bean in wet cotton. And it didn't grow.  ==

This time we have an expert, Brother Ivan to teach us how to plant vege and fruits in the most natural way, without synthetic or chemical fertilizer. Yesterday we learned about making 100% organic fertilizer. Quite ashamed to say I thought we would use animal poop or pee but luckily NO! 

Some of the materials used were brown sugar,  unwanted cooked rice, mud, coconut husks, salt water, kitchen wastes, grass, flowers etc. What he did was to leave the culture as it is for 7 days. The culture will naturally ferment and tadaa... become composite material for organic fertilizer. And we thought it's going to smell bad, it doesn't.

Honestly I have no idea what we are expecting but I'm very sure it's going to be perfectly useful. All I know is cancer cell culture. This kind of culture I don't know. == 

We need more than 4000 mud bricks by July, but the truth is now we have only 200 bricks. That means we only achieved 5% of the expected progress.

So, if you are free and feel like doing something different for ANY weekend, come over to Samadhi Vihara Temple to learn how to build a mud hut and many other environmental-friendly way of living. 

It means way more than a shopping spree. It's about taking and giving back to the nature.

Samadhi Vihara Temple

1B, Jalan Serai Wangi U12/8 Section U 12, 

Bukit Raja Industrial Zone 40170 Shah Alam Selangor.