When I checked my email this morning there was an update from TED Talks. It so thrilled me.
Why, you may ask? In January 2012 I flew to Bali to do some research on Bamboo. I had a 20,000-word assignment for university (I was doing my Masters in Writing at Swinburne University) to complete by the end of the month.
I had initially intended to submit another piece of writing, about my life in China, but finding that a colleague was doing a similar project (We both taught English in China) I suddenly switched to a project on Bamboo, and after reading all the books I could lay my hands on at the time and visiting bamboo properties around Queensland, I felt compelled to seem information further afield. Bali it was!
In my online research, I found out as much as I could about Bali and bamboo, and it was then that I discovered The Green Village, just out of Ubud and I made contact with someone there and arranged to visit them.
I stayed in Legian the first couple of nights, and then on my way to Ubud for the last few nights, I asked my driver and tour guide about going to The Green Village. They did not know about it, but decided it was easy to get to. As it turns out it was not that easy, but we did eventually get there and they were both gobsmacked. So I asked if they took could tour with me, which happened especially as my tour guide had previously worked with the fellow that was to show us around! Sadly I was not permitted to take photos.
It was while I was at Ubud that I learned about TED Talks, from a man from Holland. Subsequently I became a great fan of TED Talks, and have even attended on of their events.
It was on the TED website that I learned about John Hardy and his Green School, which sadly I did not see as it was school holidays when I was in Bali.
As well as visiting The Green Village, I was taken to several bamboo factories and bamboo forests and on return to Australia completed and submitted my assignment. I am glad to report that it was well received and I did graduate!!
So what excited me this morning? In the email was a link to a recent TED Talk - Elora Hardy, daughter of John Hardy, was talking about bamboo and The Green Village. Oh, how I wish we could do something like this in Australia.
The Elora Hardy talk was done in May 2015, but the TED Talk with her father was done a few years ago.
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