The dome is practically finished! Just a few foot holds for kids to climb on the roof and soil to be filled in around the bottom so they don’t smash themselves when they tumble off the roof. We ended up bringing in sand for the final render as the landfill just wasn’t cutting it. The plaster already began to cobweb crack as we were finishing it off, but I really like that, I think it makes it the more beautiful. Nader developed the ‘reptiling’ because he had until that moment being working against the crack, trying to work against nature, but one day he sat up in the middle of the night and realised why not work with it, you can’t crack a reptile because it is one.

The whole course was peppered with poems and wisdom that Sheefteh remembered her father telling her as a little  girl, and this is one that resounded with the whole group.

No matter how hard you try you cannot wake someone who is pretending to sleep, but whilst in their faux slumber they will be listening and watching with half an ear and half an eye.

Do you remember pretending to sleep as a child?

Many of the people in the group were interested in green issues, many had studied permaculture and it has always been something that just leaves you feeling chilled when you speak to someone who just refuses to believe in something like climate change and what’s more belittles you for your ideals. I had a run in with a “green” developer recently who laughed uproariously at climate change and the suckers who would pay extra for a green building, practically rubbing his hands together. But as Rumi says, you can’t make someone who doesn’t want to know listen and it can just leave you feeling helpless. It is better to do what positive things you can with those who are interested and perhaps the sleepers will come around in the end. What a lovely thought. Can it be true?