Location: Dharamsala

Volunteer’s log: Stardate 7232015.6: (7/23/2015, 6th post)

Waking up 800 hours (8:00), the crew and I once again beamed down to the planet Dharamshala, at Common Ground, the building that the natives and we had agreed to become a makeshift embassy, and met up with our general guide, Rhabsehl (Rabsel). Eating breakfast with the natives for the sixth time so far, we had what had become the usual for us on this strange planet, flat cakes of natural grains (pancakes), exotic fruit (bananas) and poached & minced grubs (scrambled eggs). Afterward, each crew member, including myself, went out with one of the natives (our mutual learning partners) to keep learning more of their culture while we taught them how to speak our language. Unluckily, my native had gotten sick the previous day, so I was assigned to a different native, which was slightly inconvenient because as such, I had to re-teach him everything from the previous few days (I had to get used to my new partner’s English level). Throughout the few hours I had with my new partner, we talked about how ideology played a role in our respective cultures (we talked about religion). Then returning to Common Ground, and rejoining with the crew, we ate lunch, chopped meat and handmade noodle-lookalike stew (hand-pulled noodle soup in mutton broth). After the meal, we went to our respective positions to learn more about their civilization (our volunteer services). I went to and recorded a native sermon to send back to the ship to analyze (I transcripted part of a recording of a conference of Buddha’s teachings). Regrouping with the crew once again, we went off to a class to learn a native dance style (Bollywood dancing). Once we finished, some of us somewhat embarrassed, because some the moves were quite unusual, we beamed back up to the ship to have a more traditional supper (western food, like pizza, lasagna, etc.). Once we were all done, we went to the holochamber, and loaded up a traditional 21st-Century casino scene, and played a round of cards together (we played a round of poker in the forum hall (we didn’t bet money though)). Finally, at the end of the day, all of us were fairly tired, so we went back to our chamber to have a well-earned rest, to be ready for the next day.   //End Log