We had the official Opening Ceremony on the evening of the 5th. Those of us volunteering were able to quit early and find seats in the beautiful Town Hall Auditorium. The Ceremony opened with Maori challenge from their chief to our "chief." A warrior did a traditional haka, one of those very intimidating dances where he stomped his feet and stuck his tongue out and was overall very scary. Luckily, our chief accepted their challenge, so we didn't have to go to war! YAY! Then the traditional Maori group did several different songs/performances. They were fantastic, and I was reminded of how many ceremonies in BC include the First Nations. Besides the Maori presentation, my favorite part of the Opening Ceremony was at the end when a list of all the nations with representatives at Congress was read. WOW! There are people here from ALL over the world. Sometimes just one or two people stood up from a country, and sometimes there were MANY. It made me teary-eyed!
Last night was Ibu Rahayu's first talk. It was quite interesting for me, but I wish I was taking notes. That's the scientist in me! I know people say that you don't have to "think" about those talks, you just need to absorb it and your soul will take care of the rest, but I'm still spiritually "young" so I like thinking about these things. I feel like I learned things that I can incorporate into my latihan.
Otherwise, it's been Congress...testing, latihan, meetings and lots of socializing. I took some pictures of the Opening Ceremony, but I don't think I'll be able to upload them. I'll see what I can do.
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