NESEA Building Energy 09 / Three Cups of Tea

I just arrived back in Andover after spending 3 nights in South Boston and 1 in Randolph. The NESEA conference had some great speakers about many different "green" technologies and energy conservation techniques. I volunteered for about 15 hours during those three days.. I think it was well worth it. It was a little disorganized for us volunteers, and some of the information was geared toward architects / engineers, making it very hard to understand at times. But I always do a lot of thinking at these types of events and occasionally come to major realizations.

For those of you who have not yet read the book "Three Cups of Tea", I urge you to go out and buy it or borrow it from your local library. Hands down it is the most inspiring book that I have ever come across. Greg Mortensen is one of the purist people I've ever met. I like that I can say that now...he spoke in Chelmsford, MA in February and I waited outside with tea / fruit for 3 hours with some 900 other people.

Some people drove all the way from Maine, some probably from further, just to hear him speak. These people obviously "get it"...they get what Greg is doing and what his life purpose is all about. Most of the people who will read this blog also "get it", and this is why I'm highly recommending this book.

My good friend Brian is boiling some water on his gas stove for the cold people in line.

Here's a link to the article about Greg's speach in February - I was interviewed by the journalist because of the table stand we set up.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/chelmsford/archive/x682884961/Building-schools-and-hope

This is me meeting Greg and getting my book signed after he was done speaking.

I asked Greg a question up at the mic regarding the bombings of schools in Afghanistan / Pakistan. Apparently 470 of them have been bombed over the last decade (but only 1 of his organization's 78) because terrorist organizations are highly against the education of women. In Greg's speech he said a very meaningful quote: "Educate a boy and you educate an individual. Educate a girl and you educate a community." This is due to many of the boys going to the city for high paying jobs whereas an educated woman less often leaves her community and instead improves upon what is already there.

The message behind this post is searching for your dream. I've been searching for mine for years.. getting involved in a wide range of subjects matters in order to find something that "clicks." I've had many wonderful experiences and learned quite a bit during this journey.. now I'm looking to put it all together to do something big. Something that Greg would smile about. This is what I thought about the past 4 or so days in Boston. Going overseas and making the world a better place, one community at a time. The permaculture course that I am taking this summer will give me the knowledge I need to jump-start this vision.