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In the morning, most of us were “rudely” awakened at 6 a.m. we had morning mediation and then, we went directly to practice for the program for a children elementary school close to the ashram. We sang, we practiced the skit, and the Finnish folk dance. Everyone was focused and we really got it working.

We left for the elementary school at 11:30. There, we had a few rehearsals and a meditation. There were about forty kids and they were all very sweet. They were between the ages of five and twelve and even some staff members watched.

We started off the program by introducing ourselves and where we were from to give the kids a feel of the cultural diversity of our group. After that, Jason, Ruthvick, and Chris did a rather longish, but very calming, exercise with Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni Sa to give the kids realization. Next we had a show of hands and everyone raised their hand in response to whether they had felt a breeze. We were happily surprised to see that many of the kids felt the cool breeze.

Next our dear Anjana taught the kids how to give bandans, cleverly disguised in a happy “Bandan Song”. It was very nice and simple. Then a bunch of us Yuvas performed our “interpretive dance” about how little, everyday quarrels can lead to big fights and how one thing, meditation, can save the world! Amazingly it only took us one evening to come up with the dance and practice it. By the next morning everyone knew the dance and it worked out great no matter how worried we were the day before. By the time this dance was done the kids were ready for Sophie and Anajana’s song. They took Jackie’s song “We Are the Children” and learned it in one evening as well and the children loved it! Everyone was clapping along. Most of the Yuvas learned the chorus and sang along with Sophie and Anjana.

After this it was Maria’s turn to teach the children her Finnish dance. It was very easy and excited the children a lot. Everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves while dancing along.

Following the Finnish dance we sang some bhajans, Jog.Wa, Jay Ganesh, and Mahamaya Mahakali. We would have sung more if not for the time crunch. At the very end we let the children experiment with the different instruments. It was a lot of fun for them. In the end when they were leaving, we even got hugs from some of them!!!

After finishing packing up, we split into two groups—the people who were tired and needed to rest, and the people who were up to going to give realization at the Farmer’s Market.

When we reached the Farmer’s Market, we further separated into three groups. One group went shopping, one group called people for realization and did some advertisements, and the third group played instruments or sang bhajans. We gave realization to a lot of people and they seemed very interested. There were a lot of seekers there. Most of the seekers seemed very interested, but they literally said that they would rather go and shop than get their realization at the spot.

After an hour or two we took a vote and set off for a very nice, big, lake. We foot soaked in the water of the lake for awhile. The water was really warm, but at some places, our feet could just barely touch the water. We then walked towards the cars and the guys decided to play some football (soccer). We all played for a while and then set out back home.