I don't remember the start of this dream, and there are a lot of holes in the below... but I was in some sort of forced labour situation and had to get out. I was new and with many others. we worked for some organization that was spread out across a lot of otherwise empty territory. field and fields of some sort of grain separate these cylindical stone work towers inside which was apparently customer service call centers. each one was specilized. workers came and went in helicopters and jeeps under the watchful eyes of armed guards.

I decided to go talk to the guys in the field about stuff. one of them was louis. I decided that to get out I needed to make my way up to the main house. I ran over to the edge of a field where a woman and some others were planting ground cover. it was prickly, and I was barefoot. as I got there I stepped on it once, trying to jump across the ditch at the edge of the field, and it squished. and I decided I didn't want to wreck her efforts, so I walked on the edges. jumped, rather: I was bouncing like I was walking on the moon. the woman still didn't appreciate my squishing her plants.

they told me I was mad crazy for the risks, but I worked out how to get to the house by walking along the edges of the field and then working my way under these huge concrete slabs. I did that, bouncing on the prickly ground cover, and had to get up on this grate thing under the slabs and crawl for a while. I emerged at the foot of the wide concrete steps leading up to the house.

then - dreams do that sometime - I had to repeat that whole sequence. the crawling part was dumb and unnecessary, so I did the whole sequence again and left that out.

I got in the house and they had some sort of gathering. like a dinner party but it was afternoon. I felt like I stood out but after a while blended in. I was now I guess responsible - I have brought with me? - the woman with the plants. her girlfriend - a tall squarish asian woman - was at this party and they had been separated for years by this forced labour thing. the asian sat on the left edge of the porch (as one faces out) between the columns, the blonde crouched down in front of her, and looked at each other. I sat to the right of the asian woman and wondered at the tension.

someone came out from the party and said: look at you! separated for years and now you have this time together, what do you do? look at each other. you should do something! I'd be in a clinch... they clearly wanted to be. but the person from the party had come to retrieve us (the blonde woman and I) so it was too late.

we were taken to the basement where there was a yellowy lit kitchen with a large round table. a lot of women were at the table and they were apparently studing for some qualifying test that was in parts. we were told to join the women there and so we did. I guess everyone was studying fractions. I ended up helping a lot of people out, and together I and the blonde were apparently a force to be reckoned with.

the dream jumped forward a little. I guess it was next day. the same thing was happening, and we were again taken to the basement. this time I was detailed to teach fractions at one table and my blonde friend was at another table helping with something else. I guess we just traded one kind of forced labour for another and it was no big deal to come to the house instead of the field.

after some time - not clear on this - I came to know that really I was helping out an organization that tried to help people around the world who were disempowered by being imprisoned and deprived of education. the blonde woman turned out to be high up in this organization, and she needed to leave to go to another outpust or something. the person who was to guide/guard/transport her had balked, and she was talking to folks about who would go with her instead. I was one of them. we stood at the top of a platform that was like a very small (like 10 yards across?) mesa looming high over the surrounding landscape. a windsock was nearby.

I woke up before I found out whether I would actually go with her or not.