Our first 48 hours at Dancing Rabbit.

Our journey has begun!
   We started off on Sunday morning on a Greyhound Bus in Mobile, AL with hearts filled with hope, minds filled with questions, and luggage filled with clothes, tents, and camping gear.  Unfortunately, Greyhound was only able to get our hearts and minds to the destination on time.  The luggage went on a bit longer of a trip apparently.   What could have been a really bad situation has turned into an excellent opportunity for the folks here at Dancing Rabbit to show us how a community comes together to help each other out.  Before we had even made it to the village from the bus station,  arrangements were made for us to stay in the home of a member who is away visiting family.   A family here who has a son close to Izzy's age came to the rescue with some pajamas for Izzy,  and another rabbit with the same shoe size as Jenny was able to lend her some boots.  As word of the visitors with lost luggage got around, we heard the question, "Is there anything you guys need" more times than I can count.   As total strangers, we've been instantly taken in and treated as family, and I have been floored with the outpouring of compassion that we have received from the community so far.
     During our first afternoon here we met dozens of people, both members of DR and fellow visitors like ourselves, and then shared our first community meal together.   Black bean burgers cooked on the grill, wheat buns, french fries, and a salad with carrots and kale.   Pretty far from the diet I'm used to,  but we got fed, and the dinner conversation more than made up for the lack of meat on the plate.   It was great hearing all of the different stories from visitors about their reasons for considering Dancing Rabbit as home,  and what they expected out of their visit.   Most have similar reasons to our own even though they come from different places and backgrounds.
   The home that we are staying in until our tent arrives is a beautiful cob home with a wooden stove for warmth.   After a quick tutorial on how to operate the stove, we had a fire and a roof over our heads and were then able to get some much needed sleep.
    Day two began with orientation and continued on with a full slate of activities including a tour of the village, a Dancing Rabbit history lesson, and a really fun meet and greet filled with some fun games to help learn names.  Day two also helped me to alleviate two of my biggest fears about being able to transisition to life at DR.  First off ,  I pooped in a bucket, and ya' know what? It's really not that different.  Kind of more of a thud than a plop,  but other than that,  not such a big deal.  My other big fear was that I wouldn't be able to deal with the vegetarian diet,  but after dinner tonight that fear is all but gone.  The Wabi Sabi food co-operative took their turn tonight cooking for the visitors and blew my taste buds away with some great rice and bean burritos.  I even had seconds.  Talking with members here it also seems that meat is more prevalent than I had originally thought.  There is a cafe within biking distance that serves burgers and the like,  and occasionally some meat is even served out of DR kitchens.    
     We have only been here for a couple of days, and so I don't really want to post here that we love it or hate it.  I don't think we've really had the time to make those kind of statements yet.  We have lots more questions to ask,  meals to eat, and work to do before we'll know if this is a place that we'd like to call home,  but already I think we've fallen in love with the people here.   People here have smiles that radiate and infect those around them, and although it's cold, wet, and we're still wearing the same clothes from our bus ride - I'm smiling.  :)