-was a thrill the whole way through with lots of fun challenges, including practicing consensus decision making many times daily with a brand new group of people, cooking big meals for the group on camping stoves, rehearsing, memorizing, and staging a play in less than a week
-some highlights were: experiencing the generosity of people in communities along the way who welcomed us with open arms and gave us so much love and support, plus often also food, showers, laundry; connecting with youth who were inspired by the play or workshops to do an Otesha tour when they're a little bit older and at the very least start changing certain habits
-some challenges were: having to move locations almost everyday which involved cleaning up, packing everything up, and hitting the road again, even if you were pretty exhausted from the day before; long daily meetings to make group decisions - both of these became amazing learning points that fueled a lifetime of growth
What would you improve about this program?
-group sizes not larger than 13
-doing only workshops but not a play for the shorter tours
-extensive sensitivity training including, anti-oppression training and awareness of identity politics, as this will help bring awareness to what it means to be visiting communities with different socioeconomic, religious, cultural, etc. backgrounds than those on people on tour