driving 14 hours from pacha mama

to the gathering

including challenging ride on dirt roads

and a two-hour walk

from the point that even 4x4 vehicle couldn't cross

one thousand beautiful brothers and sisters

have gathered from all over the world

to live together in nature for one month

without any electricity or cars

on a beautiful land with wild open meadows

mountains

river and jungle

everyone living in tents

many sleep in hammocks that hang from trees

that provide shade and shelter

kitchen was set up on top of one hill

one section for cooking

all on open fire

fed by wood gathered from the forest

central kitchen feeding one thousand people

with no electronic appliances

all done manually

cutting, chopping, grinding

another section of the kitchen

dedicated to raw food

preparing salads and live breads

live vegan pizzas, and raw deserts

using the sun for natural dehydration

adding flavor and energy to the food

rainbow gathering is free

from morning to night different classes,

workshops, and performances take place

yoga, reiki, african dance, raw food workshops,

thai massage, fire dancing, circus training,

live music, drumming circles

all for free

during mealtime

the magic hat goes around

singers, dancers, and musicians

going around playing music, dancing, and singing

collecting donations into the magic hat

with the money new food supplies

are purchased from local farmers

mostly fresh fruits and vegetables

thanks to the efficient running of the kitchen

and wise ordering of the food supply

the average weekly cost per person is $1

which provide abundance of delicious food

at meal times everyone gathers in gigantic circle

thousand people holding hands

singing songs

creating the sound of om

then sitting down

while the food servers go around the circle

serving food into everyone's plates

there is no official kitchen crew or shift plan

whoever feels like helping prepare a meal

stops at the kitchen and pitches in

one or more person usually takes on the role

of focalizing the meal

each breakfast is a feast of melons,

mangos, papayas, pineapples

everyone served half melon

which upon completion of eating the inside

becomes the bowl into which porridge is served

the porridge made from corn

it takes two hours for four people

to manually grind the corn for the porridge

in the usa people pay money for such activities

such as grinding corn

it's called gym membership

at rainbow people get to do this for free

turn the handles of corn grinders

building muscles

only in much nicer setup than a gym

out in nature overlooking the jungle and blue sky

one hour before meal is ready

kitchen crew shouts together "food circle"

letting people know to slowly begin heading

towards the food circle for the meal

as people hear the "food circle" call

they pass it on from one hill to another

making sure that everyone on the huge piece of land

hears the message

on friday the israelis took over the kitchen

preparing israeli dinner to honor the sabath

even though the kitchen has no electricity

and all cooking is done on open wood fire

the israelis decided to go for

the real middle eastern israeli dinner

including humus, tahini, israeli salad, and falafel

we were core team of six israelis

preparing from scratch dinner for thousand people

scratch meaning that the tahini had to be made

not from tahini paste but rather from whole sesame seeds

using the manual grinders

some to make the tahini

some to make the humus

tons of chick peas

were boiled on the wood fire

then manually grinded

some for the humus some for the falafel

two big pots were filled up with oil

and team of hands began making small balls

from the chick peas paste

and began frying 3,000 falafel balls

throughout the day many people stopped by the kitchen

some were cutting veggies for the salad

some to help grinding sesame seeds or chick peas

the bakery also worked full time

preparing 1,000 freshly baked pita breads

and by dinner time

the rainbow family gathered in the big circle

the sun has already set

sabath candles were placed all around the circle

to enjoy israeli middle eastern feast

followed by kabalat shabat - greeting of the holy sabath

with lots of music, singing, and drumming

being in nature without any electricity

or appliances

is no excuse for the rainbow to not have

pita bread for the humus and falafel meal

or cookies and pizza for the night parties

bakery was set up

with two big ovens built from mud

each oven piece of art in shape of mayan god

burning wood constantly placed underneath the ovens

at nights the bakery turns into the local bar

hundreds of people gather

spending hours making pizzas or cookies

while different bands play music

all unplugged and no amplification

when such abundance of food enters the body

there must be lots of body elimination

bringing us to the topic of

how 1,000 people can keep it sanitary

clean and hygienic

ensuring no disease spreads out

it takes several motivated people

to walk around with shovels and other digging tools

and recruit teams for digging shit holes

this project involves so much more

than just digging

there are clear specification for creating

fully functional, well operated shit hole

i was fortunate to be on one of the digging teams

shit hole needs to be deep enough to last longer

five feet deep is good standard

typical length of each ditch is around ten feet

width of one and a half foot is ideal

for the user to enjoy comfortable squatting experience

during the moment of truth

digging took few hours under strong sun

soil was hard and sometimes full with rocks

every half hour young woman shows up

with some cut melon or papaya or pineapple

to rejuvenate us diggers

man with guitar shows up

to sing us some songs

while we keep digging and joining in with singing

every now and then different brothers and sisters

show up with some other incentives for the diggers

man shows up and tells us that

we shouldn't leave the soil we dug out

too close to the ditch

since people will then use too much soil

after their toilet action

and the ditch will be covered up too fast

requiring us to dig new one in few days

while moving all the soil several feet away

from the toilet ditch

had insight that for lack of better words

defined as 'the psychology of shitting'

the reason that public toilets

whether western toilets or shitting holes

are usually nasty, smelly, and dirty

are not necessarily that people don't care

the root of the problem is shame

people are so full of shame during what should have been

natural process of elimination

so much shame that they simply want it to be over

as quickly and as less noticeably as possible

resulting in urine and toilet paper on the floor

as well as other less than delighting sights

consciousness doesn't play any role here

since at that moment awareness has evaporated

when the soil is too close to the shitting ditch

people cover their "shame"

with two or even more feet of soil

burying the shame deep down

never thought there was so much to learn

from digging a ditch

upon completion of our new dignified shit hole

we decorated it with paths marked with rocks

and proudly waited to see who will be the first customer

to launch the new shrine

chai shop was set up on one of the river beaches

underneath huge tree

gigantic kettle hanging above small fire

full with water from the river and spices

people gather around to drink, have conversations,

give or receive massages,

or read from a book they borrowed from

the nearby library - an open tent

with improvised shelves full with books

for everyone to enjoy

trading market set up every afternoon

many vendors offering jewelry, art, clothing,

snacks, batteries

nothing for sale

everything for trade

nine-months pregnant woman made the full journey

to get to the gathering and give birth

special teepee was set up for her

no doctors or nurses not even midwife

just mattresses and two supportive friends

who also gave birth on their own

healthy new baby arrived to the world at 9 pm

and shouts of happiness echoed from one mountain

to another

announcing "we have a new rainbow in the family"

at the bottom of the valley

river flowing inside lush jungle

some parts very dense with trees and other vegetation

some parts along open areas

creating little beaches

japanese women created sculpture garden

in the middle of the river

placing different rocks on top of each other

surprisingly managing to place bigger rocks

on top of the smaller ones

in one spot waterfall drops the water

into small pool surrounded by rocks

creating natural powerful jacuzzi

that without holding on to the rocks

the water carries the bathers away

the river banks

contain healing mud with different colors

red, yellow, blue

brothers and sisters cover themselves with mud

either the entire body

or painting beautiful tribal designs on the exposed skin

brothers with beards and dreadlocks

covered with mud from head to toe

blue people and red people and yellow people

walking around naked

or lying in the sun

covered myself with the blue mud

didn't leave an inch uncovered

including head, beard, eyebrows, genitals

sat on rock in the sun

feeling the blue mud drying up

turning my skin into a rock

seeing woman swimming in the river

heading towards me

sticking her head out of the water

looking at the blue sculpture

that used to be my body

and tells me "you give whole new meaning

to the term blue balls"

© 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Alok, Costa Rica, March 2004