The World Retreat programme makes it easy to get new friends and contacts from different parts of the world, as well as spending time with the people you already know.
Participants from the same country often stay in the same hotel, where there will be house gatherings some of the evenings. Other evenings provide opportunities for dynamic interaction across nationalities, languages and age groups, including basic dreiva (a form of dance developed in Acem) and other ways of communicating beyond the use of language.
The small guidance groups meet every day, speak the same language, provide opportunities for sharing feelings and experiences, and typically create strong bonds with each other. Many of the workshops also build on social interaction in small groups.
The meals are great occasions for informal social interaction with whoever you’d like to talk to.
After long meditations, few things can beat a leisurely walk with fellow meditators in the forests, grasslands and mountains nearby. Such conversations may linger in your memeory for years.