This is fabric I had earlier purchased at the Barli Institute, made by the girls who are students there.  The white wand-like item near their teacher's right hand is actually a kind of pen they use, that holds dye used in the batik process.  I purchased the purple batik fabric on the table; it was intended to be cut out and fabricated into a dress.

New Hampshire continues to get lots of rain.  Vickie walked around the SNHU campus the other day and took these wonderful photographs.  I'm accompanying this set of photos with some poetic verses from the Writings of the Baha'i Faith. 
















"Within every blade of grass are enshrined the mysteries of an inscrutable Wisdom, and upon every rose-bush a myriad nightingales pour out, in blissful rapture, their melody." 









"Consider the flowers of a garden. Though differing in kind, color, form, and shape, yet, inasmuch as they are refreshed by the waters of one spring, revived by the breath of one wind, invigorated by the rays of one sun, this diversity increaseth their charm, and addeth unto their beauty. How unpleasing to the eye if all the flowers and plants, the leaves and blossoms, the fruits, the branches and the trees of that garden were all of the same shape and color! Diversity of hues, form and shape, enricheth and adorneth the garden, and heighteneth the effect thereof. In like manner, when diverse shades of thought, temperament and character, are brought together under the power and influence of one central agency, the beauty and glory of human perfection will be revealed and made manifest. Naught but the celestial potency of the Word of God, which ruleth and transcendeth the realities of all things, is capable of harmonizing the divergent thoughts, sentiments, ideas, and convictions of the children of men."




















"The word of God which the Supreme Pen hath recorded on the fifth leaf of the Most Exalted Paradise is this: Above all else, the greatest gift and the most wondrous blessing hath ever been and will continue to be Wisdom. It is man's unfailing Protector. It aideth him and strengtheneth him. Wisdom is God's Emissary and the Revealer of His Name the Omniscient. Through it the loftiness of man's station is made manifest and evident. It is all-knowing and the foremost Teacher in the school of existence. It is the Guide and is invested with high distinction. Thanks to its educating influence earthly beings have become imbued with a gem-like spirit which outshineth the heavens."










"If it be Thy pleasure, make me to grow as a tender herb in the meadows of Thy grace, that the gentle winds of Thy will may stir me up and bend me into conformity with Thy pleasure, in such wise that my movement and my stillness may be wholly directed by Thee."










 
"This period of time is the Promised Age . . .  Soon the whole world, as in springtime, will change its garb. The turning and falling of the autumn leaves is past; the bleakness of the winter time is over. The new year hath appeared and the spiritual springtime is at hand. The black earth is becoming a verdant garden; the deserts and mountains are teeming with red flowers; from the borders of the wilderness the tall grasses are standing like advance guards before the cypress and jessamine trees; while the birds are singing among the rose branches like the angels in the highest heavens, announcing the glad-tidings of the approach of that spiritual spring, and the sweet music of their voices is causing the real essence of all things to move and quiver."

These are two of the working buildings at the Barli Vocational Institute for Rural Women in central India.  On the left is the office building for the staff; on the right, classrooms and working area for the girls and women being trained.  You can read here about the training program. 

One of the staff members who lives on the property is running home for lunch, through the double row of mulberry trees and lemon trees.

The volunteers and students live in this building. Vickie will stay here when I'm not in India. The sloped roof on the right is for the solar reflectors, just off-camera to the right, on the roof.  The building was specially constructed for the solar kitchen on the roof.

There are generally several volunteers at any given time, and over the years about 150 people with various skills such as solar cooking, gardening, computers, development, grantwriting, and first aid -- Baha'is and friends of the Faith -- have volunteered for service.  bvirw@sancharnet.in is the institute's e-mail address.  It is funded by various agencies throughout the world, including the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of India www.bahaindia.org whose premises it uses.  You can read more about this aspect of Barli here: http://www.monafoundation.org/barli/background.htm

There are many wild peacocks who live on the Barli property; here a peacock and pea-hen are checking one another out through the branches of a banana tree.

Barli grows its own food -- the Indian versions of chickpeas, lentils, and maize, as well as eggplants, bananas, mangos, radishes, mint, green onions, and many kinds of herbs.



This field, generally filled with maize, is presently lying fallow due to the shortage of rainfall, and the drastically lowered water table.  These two portable solar reflectors are used to heat the irons for ironing the fabrics that some of the students make at Barli.. They are aimed away from the building and towards the field, so that no one mistakenly walks into the focal area of the reflectors and gets burned.

The institute curriculum, given on campus and sometimes in villages, includes organic gardening, solar cooking, sewing, batik and block printing for income generation, gender sensitization, the importance of educating the girl child, rural health, women's reproductive health, hygiene, and literacy.  The empowerment of tribal women through the development of leadership skills and an understanding of the vital role women play in society are integral to the Barli curriculum.  In recognition of its outstanding environmental achievement in helping to educate Guinea Worm from 302 villages it was selected for the "Global 500 Roll of Honour" of the United Nations Environmental Programme in 1992.  Since 1994 it has been listed in UNESCO's database as one of 81 successful basic education projects in developing countries.

Jimmy and Janak McGilligan operate the institute, under the direction of an appointed board.  Jimmy is from Northern Ireland; Janak is Indian (a typical Baha'i couple).  Janak holds Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees in areas as diverse as translation, English, Political Science, Music (sitar), and Development, and has been an invited speaker at women's development conferences at various international venues.  I don't know Jimmy's educational background, but he has knowledge in a broad array of areas, and he can build anything.  He applies all of the technology, and shows others how to use it.  He supervises the fabrication, solar work, gardening, water reclamation, and physical plant, and is a sought-after speaker at sustainable development conferences in India and elsewhere. He is always on the lookout for new ways to bring effective technology into Barli and, through the women he helps educate at Barli, into India's rural village life.





Here, Jimmy is standing next to a Scheffler reflector.  Wolfgang Scheffler http://www.solare-bruecke.org designed this solar cooker.  One remarkable feature is that the mirror is outside, and its rays are aimed so that the cooking can be done inside. More about Barli's solar program is found here.
 


This shows where the sun's rays are aimed by the reflector.  Note the slope of the roof, so that the sun's rays are unimpeded, and their full force can reach the reflector.



Just inside, at the other end of that box where the sun's rays are aimed, these women are using that heat to cook various Indian breads, one of which is similar to a tortilla.  Some are in the basket on the floor.

  

In the same room, this unique device stores solar heat; more details here.  It is made of 400 Kg. (about 900 pounds) of insulated solid steel on a rotatable frame, has its own mirror, and in this way, cooking can be easily done after dark on the hot plate on its top. 



Barli's solar mirrors are kept at the proper angle facing towards the sun, so that the sun's rays are kept concentrated on the various cookers, by means of very simple, and very effective technology using spare bicycle parts.  The energy to move these gears comes from a hunk of concrete attached to a rope (photo immediately below).




Here, one of the women is cooking lunch on an outdoor solar stove; the mirror is off-camera to the left.  Jimmy has just held a piece of newspaper briefly in front of the cooker -- it burst into flame in a second: