A little bit about MUD WRESTLING

Some of you may have seen that mud wrestling was on the docket for our Green Camp experience. You probably wondered WHY?  Well, we learned a bunch about how the different cultures on the various islands in Indonesia use dance and chanting as part of sacred ritual. Mud wrestling is actually an extension of that! Our cultural gurus were patient but rigorous with us as they taught is how to move our bodies and engage with the beat, the music and the earth. We were dressed in traditional clothes and felt honored to be brought into a space that centered community, call and response and a sense of vital energy. What began on the first evening as a drum circle became more of a dance class the following afternoon as the group prepared to go the Green School's mud wrestling pit. The water was refreshing and the sense of competition was definitely in the air as students (and Mr. Madden!) took on our gurus one by one, learning how to do flips and use the dance steps and the drumming to battle each other. It reminded many of us of different martial art forms but this was high on JOY.  Check out some of our videos and you will see what we mean!  More coming about the rest of the Green Camp experience. There is so much to report. The group has built bamboo rafts and raced them, planted mangroves and gone sea kayaking, met Green School students and crafted beautiful canang sari offerings from fruit and banana leaves. We have had NO DOWN TIME! It is very humid here, and definitely buggy down by the river, but spirits are high because look at all the once in a lifetime things we are getting to do!  We will be sad to leave Green Camp later today, but we are already excited to move into the city. The next few days we will take language lessons and visit several local sites including rice terraces, water temples, monkey forests and waterfalls. We miss you all at home and we send you lots of love!

Try these links to see what we have been doing!