January 18
The first day or two at the gathering I was sort of hermitish.  I set up my hammock and spent a lot of time there.  I needed a lot of naps to recover.  This was a very new gathering for me.  My first international gathering and the first gathering I didn’t know anyone.  Once rested, I met a lot of people and jumped into helping in the kitchen. 
The first dinner was the Italians turn to cook.  Great I like pasta!  When they came around for seconds I asked for a little.  Ha ha.  He looked at me as he was holding a big scoop of pasta and put the ladle back in the pot.  Then he scooped out the biggest scoop he could and plopped it on my plate.  “No you need to eat more so you get nice and fat”  Oh right, at the international gathering “Italian night” means actual Italians.  Fun times.
Some local villagers wanted to have a party for us and it was announce at circle.  4:00 at Ao Chak beach (two beaches over).  I arrived at 5 and discovered the great misunderstanding.  It was supposed to  be at 10 am to 4 pm.  With some quick maneuvering and calls a few locals came back and we had dinner of pad thai they made for us.  Then we started the fire show as entertainment for them.  After about an hour it was entertainment for us because many locals left.  I hope there were no hard feelings from either side.