before the Dharma center….

When we arrived at the Dream Weaving for Peace foundation, we were greeted by several enthused youngins. Upon arriving, we were given the grand tour; what an amazing place. Almost all the plants on the property are used as food, they have large ponds for catfish, and they have frogs for food as well. They also have turtles, but they are just pets. We were all assigned by our leaders of the week to help cook every meal and to feed the fish and pigs.

Our first full day there is when the real work began. Up the hill they have this great little hut with an amazing view. They are renovating it and putting in a squatter. That’s where we came in. We were given the task to dig a hole that ended up being about five feet deep. It was nearly solid rock and the digging was very slow going. Sometimes the kids took over our digging because we were so slow. It felt so accomplising to finish.

We also had an amazing time playing Takraw, which is a cross between Volleyball and Soccer. It is played with this hard weaved plastic ball that really hurts . The kids were amazing at it, but us ferongs were able to defend America.

It was great having Mike with us for the first couple days. He helped translate and it was a great to spend time with him. Mike came with us when the kids and our group went down to the river to get sand. After working, we spent two hours swimming and playing 500. He has us beat on height and stole quite a few catches from the rest of us.

I think the rest of the group will agree with me that our favorite night was out early Halloween party. We brought a bunch of candy and went trick or treating. Greg and Bo did a great hob scaring the kids. Everyone had an amazing night and it was great to see all the kids smiling and laughing. We ended the night playing games involving baby powder. I’m pretty sure the kids cheated so they could blast us in the face with it. It was a riot.

– Collin C.

Shout out to The Hennings for buying our dinner to celebrate Blake’s birthday–Thank you so much!

Shout out to Tom Feldman and Jan Spitzer- Seth

Shout out to Mom Dad Margot and Lilly- Bo

Shout out to Jim Carla Oliver and Doug- Scott

Shout out to Cathleen- Collin