Update!!!! 12.19.09

Ok... quick I have 15min to update. Internet at our hostile is scarce. I'll fill in details later.
Last I spoke I was talking about the stuff we were planning on doing when we got to India ... but that all changed when we got here. But let me start in the Beginining of the trip...

Our flight was delayed in Newark... so were stranded in New York for a awhile. But then we got a plane to London where we spent the day. Then we got a plane on Kingfisher, a 5 star, airlines to mumbai. We had all of one day in Mumbai where we saw Gateway to India, and had sooo many crazy trips in a taxi. Then we got to Ahmedabad and drove to the the village Chosala, just outside of Dahod where the Sadguru compound is located here. The place is awesome. I quick weird comment... no showers... your whole entire bathroom is a shower. So we visited three villages over the last 3 days, my village was Ranapur (but I got to see them all). I can't wait to show you all the pictures. Yesterday the elite of the city through us a party with lots of dancing. It was awesome! And i probably embarrassed myself more than i should have. EVERYWHERE THE FOOD IS AMAZING.

alright out of time.... today we are visiting a farm

First Post - Hectic Schedule

Hello! I guess first, I'll introduce myself. My name is Nathan. I've decided to create this blog to document my experience with my Environmental Sustainability Class trip to India. Specifically we are working with the NGO, Sadguru, in rural villages near Dahod India.

What's it about??? -

Well we decided to concentrate on Agriculture and especially irrigation. India has one dry season and one monsoon season. Before the green revolution Currently in India, there was large food shortages. One of the solutions to this problem was to use flood irrigation methods to water their fields, effectively creating two growing seasons: Monsoon & Irrigation (during the dry season). To flood irrigate they have created large check damns to capture more water during the monsoon season. They then pump water out of the aquifer during the dry season. The problem is this is causing metals, usually trapped under the ground to be brought up disolved in the water from the aquifer and spread upon the surface by the flood irrigation. This can cause problems such as flourosis. They have also found that the aquifer isn't being replenished quite as fast as it's being taken. So, we've broken up into teams with a few solutions/research interests in mind pertaining to agriculture.

What Group Am I??? -

I'm in the design group!!! So far we've build a drip irrigation system in my back yard. It worked but it was a bit finicky. Another member took it home this turkey weekend to calibrate it. But my biggest hair pulling thing right now is we are also try to my a pot for pot irrigation. I'll post some descriptions of the systems later.

Best
Nathan