ur first weekend of Bouja was a smashing success!  After a quiet first hour and a half, Friday evening, I started saying to myself, well that’s it, the people have had enough of our shinanigans.  But then the Legion got very busy and when 8pm finally rolled around, we had to prep our first ever emergency “bumper” batch of bouja for Saturday so many people came.   Thanks to my aunt, Jai Meyer, for taking the above picture of her three sons in our service line Saturday evening, supervised by my brother Joe:)

< Some of my friends from St Ben’s Monastery next door came out for Bouja, Sister Ione and Sister Karen whom I know through volunteering on the Whitby Gallery Committee at the Monastery.

I had to smile when a card game was organized by a bunch of bouja volunteers during a lull in visitors.                            >

So many people are bringing their dearest friends with them to Bouja, or better yet, running into old friends they might never expect to, at the Bouja, that it really is turning into the community dinner I dreamed it could be.  After a hard year, feeling beat up by bureaucracy, the Bouja is replenishing my soul in a much needed way.