We had a great time with a group of about a dozen ‘Mittapab’ volunteers – Lao young people committed to peace and conflict resolution in their local communities who get together to learn and train every month. It is one program that MCC Laos supports. We were honored to be part of their Friday and Saturday meetings, discussing our cultures and our identities, and seeing in each other a lot of commonalities about our desire for understanding and being understood. We also had two wonderful lunches together, visited a stupa where the bones of the original Buddha are believed to be buried, and spent a fun afternoon at ‘Buddha Park.’  This park, built in the 1950s but set to look like it is hundreds of years old, is an avant garde interpretation of Buddhism. Wild and crazy times in Lao.