My first Rainbow Gathering ever, and this video gives you a brief idea of what I had experienced in those 10 days living in a huge tribe:

WELCOME HOME!
I felt so touching when a total stranger shouted at me once I arrived the gathering site of Rainbow family with two Italian girls Francesca and Iris and one Romanian girl Carmen who picked me up from Budapest airport. Francesca drove the whole night until we reached the border between Italy and Slovenia where he rainbow family finally settled here after being kicked out by Austrian police several times over the last couple of days. We missed that part fortunately.

You can see how the Austrian police reacted to us one week before I arrived:

“We are no different from refugees, only have we carried European passports!”
An elderly pointed out the truth frankly….
What is Rainbow Gathering?
It is a community build up to share love and knowledge, food and shelter, and everything you have to create an atmosphere which includes everyone as family. All the works are voluntary, if you see a job that you can handle, that is yours. Daily works such as chopping woods, building up meeting areas, preparing food for hundreds of people, serving food and fetching water are shared among the family. If you have special gifts to share, for example organizing workshops, healing or playing music, you have plenty of chances to contribute your skills.

Observation Period
For all the first-timers of attending Rainbow Gathering, you should not expect much apart from sharing food and some dancing around a camp fire. There are not many rules here apart from no pictures or video recordings (actually you can still find a lot of videos online, so apparently it is not a strict rule) and things work out quite randomly and unorganized here, do not be surprised.
Spending a day or two observing the people and activities happening here helped me to be adapted to this huge family. Everyone are kind and friendly here, so do not be scared to reach out and start a conversation. If you come by yourself, it is advised to bond with a rainbow buddy or two, in case you get really sick or disappear for a couple of days. Having someone to look after for you is therefore highly recommended.

Giving
I started to provide my healing service under a tree from the 3rd day. This gathering lacks an accessible healing center, so I just treat clients in an open area, although I still prefer to do it inside their tents to have more privacy. It is still humbling and I am happy to help at least a few people each day with their pain, or just a general detoxification remedy.
My clients were mostly nice, they appreciated what I did, and returned me back good energy. I learned a lot from each of them as well, specially how their underlying emotions resulted in those physical symptoms. This experience opened up a new door for me to dive in and learn more about emotional and spiritual health, I am sure this insight will lead me to the right path!

Receiving
I learnt from an interesting Dutch old man who drinks his urine everyday to heal himself, and uses urine to wash his body, brush his teeth, put in wounds…and he suggested me to sniff in my nose to cure my nasal congestion!! There is a lot of scientific research about how a wonderful medicine our urine is, it is just the taboo deep in our mind hindering us from trying it.

There are plenty of workshops organized by any talented brothers and sisters everyday. I attended two contact improvising dance workshops, very interesting! To learn how to communicate with your partner with your body language, and rely 100% on each other to create some elegant and active movements! It is quite physical but in a joyful way that we all exercise and sweat without being stressed!
Some clients exchanged their healing skills with my treatments, I received Thai massage, Maori massage and Reiki session which are all great! It matches my ideal world that everyone intentionally share what they know, and purely give without any expected return. Thank you for all the amazing souls that reinforced the possibility of utopia happening in the world!

Then of course we received such a generous amount of food twice a day! I have to express my gratitude towards all the volunteers in the kitchen, it is not easy to prepare food for 500 people! After each food circle, we have a “Magic head” round to collect donation for buying food for the next few days. This also reveals the reality that richer people who can afford the food, contribute their money to help the poorer brothers and sisters. A simple act of generosity!

Stories in the Rainbow
One day when the pouring rain stopped, I went for a walk in the muddy area. Suddenly an Italian guy shouted for help from his tent when I passed by, he was suffering from diarrhea and stomachache. He said he saw me treating patients under a tree so maybe I could help him. It was my pleasure to gave him an acupuncture treatment to relieve his pain. I enjoy more treating patient in their tents so that they have more privacy, and I have more time to chat with them. Federico started having pain after he drank the soup last night, and I knew a few others had the same problem. He is studying physiotherapy in Northern Italy and is interested in acupuncture and massage. We had great time exchanging stories, and will definitely keep in touch.

I knew my rainbow buddy Pablo was sick yesterday, as I didn’t see him in both food circles. So I walked by Pablo’s tent, called him to see if he needed help. He was in a bad shape, kept having diarrhea and fever, and he couldn’t sleep because his tent is right next to a chai place where people are drumming all night long. I suggested I could put some needles to make him feel better. He agreed. Since he was too weak to go to the shitpit to release his diarrhea, a few times he couldn’t hold, that’s why his tent was filled with an unbearable smell. Poor Pablo. How could he recover when he stayed inside such smelly tent trapping all the bacteria inside? I invited him to move to my huge tent to get some proper rest. He agreed. I told him to fast that night to give his stomach a rest. I washed his pants in the river, and told him to take a pill and sleep while I went to the food circle.

After a long sleep, the next morning Pablo already looked much better, at least his fever was gone and regained some energy. He washed most of his stuff and started eating something light.

The whole experience reminded me when an American guy Greg took care of me when I was terribly sick in my 27th birthday in Kolkata. To be humble to be a Samaritan is not easy, you just simply help with everything you have without any expectation. I am happy to see Pablo’s smiling face and have a healthy body again!

Two days later I had a lift to leave the gathering to Vienna, so I needed to put down my tent (the tent is not mine, two Italian sisters let me sleep inside even after they left!). Pablo decided to leave the same day, and Federico has an extra space in his car to bring him on this way to France.

This lesson told me the universe pans out the way it should be. Sometimes we humans have no idea of how the plans work out, so why not just give out all we have, then sit back and see. When our actions are filled with positive intentions, we do not have to worry about the outcomes, as your mind will tune anything into a beautiful experience.

Love everyone like your brothers and sisters!
BE the change you want to see in the world!

You can learn more about Rainbow Gathering, and maybe we will see each other next time!! Welcome Home!!!