In the spirit of being truly holistic, one of the components of a Holistic Expeditions retreat is a volunteer opportunity. For this retreat we teamed up with CREAR - a local non-profit - to put on a day of service in the local mountain top village of Santo Domingo. The students were picked up in the morning and taken, along with Thai mats, up to the village. We set up in the community center and slowly the locals trickled in. The students were able to use what they had learned in week one and offer Thai Yoga Massage to the villagers; hard-working people, many of whom had never experienced massage before.
At first the villagers were somewhat shy and reluctant to get on the mats. After their massages however, they quickly went to get their friend, their husband, their daughter to bring them in and share in the experience. We quickly had to limit the massages to 20 - 30 minutes due to the high volume of waiting "clients". I think the majority of the 100 person village ended up in the community center receiving a massage. Even the children eventually got into the experience.
After several hours and many, many, massages we shared our lunch with the people of Santo Domingo and they in turn taught us to make tamales. These tamales are sold at the soccer field and the money goes to the church. They were so pleased with their massages they insisted we sample them as well and the day ended in tamales and coffee and a tropical downpour.
As we headed home I think everyone was riding high on the day of communicating mostly through touch. It was one of those experiences that is way too hard to put into words. So I will just say, it was magical, and deeply moving and post many photos. click below to view more.
At first the villagers were somewhat shy and reluctant to get on the mats. After their massages however, they quickly went to get their friend, their husband, their daughter to bring them in and share in the experience. We quickly had to limit the massages to 20 - 30 minutes due to the high volume of waiting "clients". I think the majority of the 100 person village ended up in the community center receiving a massage. Even the children eventually got into the experience.
After several hours and many, many, massages we shared our lunch with the people of Santo Domingo and they in turn taught us to make tamales. These tamales are sold at the soccer field and the money goes to the church. They were so pleased with their massages they insisted we sample them as well and the day ended in tamales and coffee and a tropical downpour.
As we headed home I think everyone was riding high on the day of communicating mostly through touch. It was one of those experiences that is way too hard to put into words. So I will just say, it was magical, and deeply moving and post many photos. click below to view more.
