Give me the ball

Before starting om the wall we checked the dates with the calender for which date was good to start building the wall. The 14th of august it was!

According to balinese hinduism this date will bring good energy to the house and protected from the house from black magic.

Bruce explained to me that a person with bad energy will loose it as he comes in to the house.

His bad energy will stay outside the house and he will receive good energy instead.

I sat in the car as we drove up to the mountains and was wondering about the calender

-So, how do you find all this information? All is written in the calender?

(every balinese has a calender which hangs on the wall with all days, dates etc)

-No!, explained Bruce. You have to check the proper WARIGA book. In that book you will find all the information you need. The book will give you more exact details about what will happen that date & what you should do and do not. It is very complicated. The calender (on the wall) is just a short version. You know, alot of people even though they are not hindu still belive in the Wariga calender.

Today was also a good day to get married. Along the way we saw many houses that had decorated the entrances with beautiful offerings.

As we finished the ceremony the boys of Wana Giri started playing football. The ball flew in all directions and most of the time over the edge.

-Bisa ambil bola?

-Yes, in english you would say "give me the ball"

-GIVE ME THE BALL, the giggeling boys shouted and continued playing...

Holy CAT!

The roof is finally done!
Right now is just the beautiful borders that need to be painted.

"Toothless" Ketut, "Just married" Putu and "Paint all over my body" me was up on so called bamboo scaffoldins (balinese style) and painted the borders yellow, red & brown
Bruce started helping us but was soon kicked off as painting was not his strongest area.
Instead he happily entertained everybody with his laughter and stories.

On our way back home a cat ran in front of the car and Bruce screams:
-ooooo nooo I think we hit it!!We have to go back!!

Bruce turned the car and we slowly went back looking for a sick or dead cat.
At the same time he expalins
Pinglan, rememeber IF you hit a Cat or a Goose...YOU MUST barry it as it is a Holy animal.
Remember, You have to barry it, Say sorry to the cat or goose and ask it not to put bad karma to you.
-What if it is a cow, dog, chicken....
-No, Geese and Cats
- OK Bruce!

Luckely we did ot find a dead or sick cat so we did not have to barry a Holy Cat this day.

Putu & Ayu`s Wedding

Couple of days ago there were Putu and Ayu´s wedding. The whole Wana Giri came together to prepare all diffrent offerings for the wedding cermony.
The ladies kept on explaining to me the diffrent offerings,names & what they were for. It is so complicated & so much to learn. There experienced fingers quickly twisted and turned the palm leaves into beautiful ornaments that later became grand standing offerings. Then diffrents cake and colorful rice were put into the small cups.
When the Balinese women prepare offerings there seems to be always one of the elderly that in charge. It is fascinating to watch how she kind knows everything and teach the younger women how they should do it. That way the knowledge through generations are passed on.

Just like in the West there are two ways to get married. You can do it the expensive way, Mamadik or the cheap way, Nyogoting or Mamaling.
The cheap way means that you will kidnap your future wife from her parents.
In the old days the kidnapping was a way for the young madly in love couple to get married without their parents permission. In the old days it was also more common that your parents decided who you would get married to. So, the rebellion and the dared once ran away from the parents decision and got married to their true lover. Once they came back the parents had to accept the groome even though the village would be gossiping for a while about the outrages way to get married.
Today the cheap way is more accepted in the Banjar as many couples has no finance to get married the expensive way. So today the young couple will go away for a couple of days.
The father and mother will put on their acting skills and pretend to be very worried about the young girl. Once the couple gets back it will not take long before the grrom is accepted in the family.

The expensive and more respected way is the Mamadik. To start with, the boy`s family send a delegation with greetings from the Banajar (community) to the girls home. The elderly talk together and finally it get decided that a wedding will happen.
The date of wedding is set by the so called Pedanda, who is the priest from the highest cast.

The actual cermony is though held by a so called Pemangku, which can be a priest from any cast.

At the TOP

Slowly and Grudually the day to put on the Bedeg came.

Bedeg is a bamboo matt that you use to protect your roof.

A part from being stunning it also gives a surten life to the house.

For Wayan & me the Bedeg meant to scrub alot of Bamboo mats.

The time was really practical as we used the time to practice english and Bahasa Indonesia.

Couple of days later we found out that one of the men from Wana Giri has felt down from the roof and hit his head and injured his jaw.

Next day we picked up Putu and drove him, his younger sister & brother to hot Singaraja.

The Siblings proudly wore their university jackets with the huge emblee that proved that they were some of the few people in Wana Giri that had received a schoolorship to attend university.

As we drove down the slopes of Munduk the change in temperature was remarkable. Once we arrived to the hospital it felt like we were in a sauna.
Putu finally came out from the hospital. We all got relieved as we found at that it was "just" a light head concusion and nothing serious. Putu proudly showed us his massive scan that showed all diffrent angels of his skull.

The last thing Putu said with a smile before fallling a sleep in the car was-Pasti panas Singaraja, Pasti dingin Wana Giri, which is like saying- This place is for sure hot, Lets go to Wana giri where it is cooler.

When someone get sick or an accident happens you will normally in Bali found the answer in that the Gods are unhappy, Your own Karma, un paid karma from the Anchestors or Black magic.
The men from Wana Giri came to the conclusion that the reason why Putu fell of the house as because the Gods been unhappy. The reason was that he been peeing from the roof.

To say sorry to the Gods a small cermony had to be arranged. The priest came and the men from Wana Giri promised that no more peeing from the roof would happen...


go

Mother tempel Besakih

On saturday we took one of our guest to the mother tempel of Bali- Besakih.

Before going to the tempel Anna was dressed in a Kebaya, so she would feel as close as possible as a Balinese women.
The Kebayas are beautiful long sleeved shirts in colorful laces.Around her waist she got a sarong (generally in printed Batik) that falls to the ankles. To finish up, we tied a belt around her waist.
The belt is to seperate the pure (head) and unpure (unpure).The whole outfit is very colorful and always matches nicely.

When the balinese women for exampel get married or having their tooth filling they dress and groom diffrently.
One of the importancies is the hair. The hairstyle is usually the so called chignon, which reminds the balinese of the lovely princess Drupadi´s hair (the wife of one Pandawa brothers in the Mahabarata story). Women with short hair usually add fake locks in order to have Chignon hairstyle. After that they pin multitude of golden metal flowers in the hair. Around their bust they wear the so called Sabuk.Today you can see for exampel the women in traditional clothes when you attend a balinese dance performance.

We climbed all the stairs up to the main tempel. Anna knelt down next to us.
A small offering and a insence were put infront of her.
After that the small cermony started. Anna raised her hands. This time she did not have anything between her palms. Bruce explained to Anna that this is the first stage where you worship the god.
The following steps you put diffrent colors of flowers between your fingers. This is to worship to the Trinoty, Anchestors and Ida Sangyang Widi Wasa, who is the unseen spiritual entity that have a supernatural power.

Last the priest assistant poured holy water in Anna´s right hand that she ziped 3 times. This is to always have pure words to say the people around you.The forth time she placed the water on her head. This is to always have pure thoughts.

We ended the visit at Besakih at tempel for the Mengwi tempel. This is the tempel for the Kshatriyas cast.

As the sun slowly lowered behind the earth horizon we drove down the slopes of Mountain Gunung Agung to Amed where Anna would enjoy the colorful reefs and tropical fish.

1 Camera for 1000 Smiles (TM)

Anak Alam

Couple of days ago we packed the car to go to the area of Volcano Batur.
The area of Batur is just breathtaking! It has a surten magic with Lake Batur & Volcano Batur.Scenary from a fairy tale! Defiently a must if you ever planing to come to Bali!
One of the reason why we went to Belandingan was to visit the children of the project Anal Alam (Nature of the Children)
The project started by Putu Pande, who realized one day that the Joy was to Give and not Gain.
From there it has just gradually developed & more people got involved in the project.
The Anak Alam focus on educating & inspirering the children in the poor areas of Bali.
You can read more> http://www.anakalam.org/ (right now in Bahasa Indonesia but will be translated)
We reached Belandingan. Happy and excited children came jumping up from every corner of the village. After a walk in the village we gathered all the children in the hall and we started playing with them.
Pande turned to my Dad and said- We are going to do diffrent animal!What animal do you want to be?
I saw the fear in my dad´s eyes and he looke over to me and said:
- What am I doing?????
-I do not know, you doíng some kind of animal!
My dad is not famous for standing infront of people, so I honoustly did not think that my Dad would do any kind of animal..
Suddenly Pande shout at my dad and said
-OK!! You doing the Chicken dance !!!
My dad`s big confusing eyes turned to me and he said - How do I do the Chicken???
- I do know, you just move your arms and make some sounds, right?
Pande started by doing the monkey dance and the children bent their knees, scratched the armpits, did the monkey sounds and laughing so hard that I am sure someone were peeing their pants.
After that it was my Dad´s turn & Pande shouts to the children
-Ok children..lets do the Chicken-dance!

In my life I have never seen my 75 year old Dad jumping, flapping his arms and making the sound like a chicken. Out of the blue, Mr old man took of ! and he jumped around the hall with 25 excited kids after him.

After that the kids did all kinds of animals that was combined with movements and learning the animals names in english.

Galungan

On the 12th of May the so called cermony for Galungan started and which ends with Kuningan 10 days later. Galungan and Kuningan take place every 210 days according to the so called Pawukon calendender.

The legend says that ....Long time ago the horrible King Mayadenawa reigned over Bali. He was terrible, cruel and had forbidden the balinese to celebrate their gods and ancestors.

God Indra felt pity for the balinese and decided to go down to earth with his soldier and rescue them.

King Mayadenawa had great power and managed to poison the spring and there for many Balinese fell sick. Luckily Indra found out and was able to create a new spring which also had the power to cure the Balinese. It is said to be the Tampaksiring spring. Then, King Mayadenawa, hoping to evade Indra's troops, turned into a chicken (manuk), a vegetable (timbul), a palm leaf (busung), snail (susuh) and a angel (bidadari). Every single place on the island where he changed appearance kept the name of it > Desa Manuykya, Desa Timbal, Desa Blusung, Desa Penyusuhan...Having failed to fool them he finally turned into a stone.

Indra discovered him one more time and pierced the stone with magic arrow. He managed to kill King Mayadenawa, whose blood ran down the mountain and formed the river Pekerisan.

Indra cursed the river, predicting that if it was used the irrigate the rice, the grain would grow wonderfully but once cropped the rice would be covered with blood and have a smell.

Since that time, the Balinese invite the Gods and the ancestors to come dowm and celebrate Indra's victory with us every 210 days during Galungan and Kuningan.

For us we went to Negara to celebrate Galungan with Bruce family.We all got dressed and my Dad were dressed in a traditional outfit for the first time. He got especially excited when he got the so called Udeng on his head. The two petals infront representing the positive and negative. The right one, the positive, is slightly higher as it represent the positive.Then he got the first sarong, which he wraped around his hips. After that he got another shorter sarong, which is called saput. The Saput is always made of nicer fabric than the Sarong. At the times of the kings, the Balinese used it to cover the torso in front of important people.

We started with a cermony at the family tempel.

After that we went to the village temples. There are always 3 main temples in each village; Pura Desa, Pura Dalam and Pura Puseh.

My dad sat down next to Agung, which gave him the elbow every time he did something wrong.

After that the priest called my dad and told him to come and sit with him who became best buddies...

1965

Just read this one if you want to know a little bite of Indonesia..

Yesterday we went to Negara (West Bali) to cut more wood and check the fram work of the house.

When we arrived to Negara we stoped at the "Tempel by the bride".

This is what we do every time as far as I remember. I did it 11 years ago and I do it now, but I had no idé why we did it. I never asked why and I always assumed that we just stoped at a "normal" tempel and put some offerings.

Yesterday I asked " Why".

I found out that there had been alot of people who had died in this area after the Ku De Ta 1965. Because these people had not received the hindu cremation it was important that you paid respect and attention to these souls, so they did not cause any damage. Bruce explained that it was especially imortant if you were travelling with young children.

Bruce continued talking about the 1965 Ku De Ta and the years that followed and what was behind it.

This is what Bruce explained to me...
In 1945 Indonesia claimed independence after a few years of Japanese occupancy.

The Dutch did not accept the independence and tried to get back their control of their colony.

Sukarno (First president ) and the people behind independence fought for another 4 years.

The communist party in Indonesia played a major part in Indonesia´s independence.

Suharto (The bad man and president after Sukarno) fought under KNIL, which was the army under the Dutch and who fought for continuation of Dutch power.

In 1949 17 aug, Sukarno officially announced Indonesia (again) as a independent country.

This time the Dutch did not try to fight back.

Sukarno became the first president of Indonesia and Hatta the vice president.

Suharto was one of the top generals in the army.

During these years the Cold war went on between America and Soviet union.America was affraid that countries would turn against them and become communist.And...Soviet Union vice versa.

In 1965, 7 generals of the army was killed. Everything was blaimed on the communist party.

an insider....

Alot of people belive that it was actually Suharto that killed the 7 generals and blaimed it on the communist to cause chaos in the country. Alot of people also belive that Suharto had alot if support from the FBI to create a anti-communist goverment. The truth is hard to prove, because most documents have been burned by the pro- Suharto - goverment

So, after the 7 generals got killed...

Suharto went to the president Sukarno and said:

-Give me the power to control this situation

Suharto with the help of the army took control of the country and absolutly started a man slaught of the people. Suharto was so affraid of people that would stand up to hime, so he made sure anyone with education or successful business was killed.

Thousand and thousands of people were killed. Hard to estimate the number, but some of the people died around the area of the " temple by the bridge".
For me it was hard to understand how a army could just start killing people and noone would react or try to interfear.

So Bruce turned to me and said...

Imagine this ...and than he did the broadcast version of Suharto in aug 1965

- Laaadddiieesss and Geeeeeeentlemen, 7 general of the army were killed to day by the communist.

You have the support of the National party to kill all communist around you during one week.

-You see, says Bruce, People got brainwashed and started believing every word Suharto said. Based on fear, jealosy, suspiciouness, anger people started to kill other people. Whole families was killed because they were accused of being communist.

After 1965 Suharto and the army started the so called Liquidation.

Anyone who was a threat to Suharto and his people would be accused of being communist and got killed.

Sukarno ( the first president) was taken off all his power as a president.

Bruce told me that Sukarno was forced to stay in his house & his children was not aloud to attend high school or university. All this because Suharto was affraid for future revolutions against him.

Interesting that later on it would be Megawato (Sukarnos daughter ) that would stand up against the regime of Suharto.

Suharto got more and more power and in 1968 became the " assistant president". Him, his party (Golkar) and the army ruled Indonesia for the next 31 years.

Bruce explained that during these years people were so scared. You would not trust anyone.

he explained that you would not even have a conversation like this in fear that someone would inform the army.

So back to the tempel..

From now on I know that every time we pass and stop by the tempel we stop becasue we want to honor the people that died in the 1965 Ku De Ta in Negara.

After the tempel we went to check how the framing of the house was getting along.

Bruce started giving instructions and I got alot my usually questions from the frame builders.

-Married? No Husband???

- Children ?

- Alone?? Alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After that we went to Wayans house to cut the 3 extra trees that he had given us.

I have no idé how many pieces of wood we carried on our heads, left shoulder, right shoulder...

All I know is that when Ibu Wayan came with Te I was in heaven.

After 3 trees, Wayan tells us that we can have one more tree.

So this tree was cut, felt to the ground, cut in to big pieces, processed in to long perfect wood pieces and back on my head, left shoulder and right shoulder.

It kind of felt like I was doing Shirshasana (head stand) for 6 hours.

...All I remember when I came home is that I slowly moved my sore body to the bed and put my head on the pillow I was gone...

FULL MOON

Yesterday was the Full moon in Bali.

We went to Wana Giri to put offerings on the land.

When Full moon fall on a wednesday it is called Budha Kembang, which means flowers.
According to balinese belief>
This is the time when you should put seads in the ground and you will have beautiful flowers in your garden.
It is also the time when you should start a business and you will have great success.
The day is dedicated to Dewi RATH, which is in charge of the flowers.
They say she is beautiful and make sure humans are happy. She especially take care of women.

2 days ago we spent the whole day working on the land.

Agung (Bruce son) was probably the one working hardest.
He was promised a puppie if he was helping out. The boy would not stop.

Wayan (Bruce brother ) went around the foundation with pen and paper and made notes.
In the end of the day Wayan told us that he would cut tree of his Bayar trees to us. This we will use for the ceiling of the house.
You get very humble towards a man that hardly can pays his bills and are willing to give up an income just to see the project go on.

That day we managed to finish the foundation. In the end we were all standing looking over the jungel and just was listening to the peace and quiet of Wana Giri.

The men from Wana Giri will now have some days off and focus on the Odalan for Pura Desa (The village temple).

Odalan is the temple festival which is held once every Balinese year. (6 months)
Every tempel has their own Odalan.

I heard that one ma tried to count all the temple in Bali.
He stoped when he reached 11000.

So, MORE than 11 000 temple cermonies are held every balinese year.

Very hard to belive when a tourist say he missed a cermony during his stay in Bali.
You wonder if he actually has been in Bali.

TUMPEK Pengarah

Yesterday we had the Cermony for plantation

In Balinese we call it Tumpek Pengarah or Tumpek Bubuh.

It is a cermony when you just pay a little bite extra attention on the plants and flowers.

This day Wayan (Bruce wife) went to diffrent trees and plants and put a small offering to show gratefulness. (see picture)

Agung started playing with Komang and Ayu.

They decided to make a Ogoh Ogoh doll with wood and small pieces of bamboo. (see picture)

When they were done they ran around and made noices as you do during NYEPI (balinese new year).

The whole day we worked on the land.

The men from Wana Giri worked on the foundation.

and Bruce, Wayan and me were carrying rocks.

Once the first pile was done Bruce said...-ok, come here...just one more pile of rocks....

The typical comments from Bruce and which you hear about trimillion time a day are

-step by step and pelan pelan (slowly )

So that in mind, I tried not to see the big pile and just the "small" rock that JUST had to be thrown over the edge, 2 m above my head.

My hands were so sore and full with blisters. When I came home I was so tired, dirty and amazingly happy.

There is something magic with this land. You just spend a few hours and you become happy.

All your worries and stress are way gone.

little KAIKO PUTU

After spending the day in the mountains we decided to visit new born baby girl Kaiko Putu.

Laba laba (Spider) , one of my old local guide, just had his first baby.

To show respect and make him and his family happy we went to the hospital to see the little wonder.

There was this half Balinese -Japanese girl sleeping wraped in a sheet.

She was stunning!!

Unfortnately Laba Laba was not there. He was at the family house to barry the placenta.

According to Balinese belief you have to barry the Placenta infront of the house door to protect the baby from evil spirits.

If it is a girl, you put it on the right hand side. If it is a boy vice versa.

The placenta is put in a coco nut shell.

Inside you put 33 chinese coin (which symbolize the Trinoty), Flowers ( show gratefulness towards the Gods), Piece of pandanus ( which will with the sharpness protect the baby from evil spirits), skin of the bamboo tree, the balinese alphabet (dasa aksa) on palm leaf (lontar), Onk Kara (Symbol of god).

Some of the placenta is dried and kept in a small box, that you hang around the babies neck. (see picture of little boy)

Some of the placenta is kept for medical reason. You will dry it and once the baby is sick you mix it with water.

It might sound strange..............BUT who are we to judge

Kaiko has loads of cermonies infront of her..

On is when the belly buttom falls of.

After 42 days there is another cermony. This time is for Kaiko´s mother. She will now be able to go to the tempel.

After 105 days (3 months) Kaiko´s hair will be cut and put on the soil infront of the tempel.

After 210 days (6 months) you will have a cermony to protect Kaiko from the 6 evil temtations

I don´t know all 6, but they are inline with laziness, anger, jealousy, drunkness, materialistic jealousy...

Dog soap Opera

This is my morning..

I wake up with a Asha pushing my feet and making the strangest sounds..

Not sure what she i saying, but something in line with - Get up!!! NOOOOWWWW!!!!

After opening the gate Asha runs out to her friends. Then the soap opera for dogs starts.

There is drama every morning!

Wise Bob (my neighbours dog) is the leader. Trying despertely have control of the street and the other dogs. No other dog is aloud on his territory.

Little Goldie (the naughty ) is Bob's pain in the ass. Usually gets beaten up atleast once a day by Bob. Has no id'e where his territory is. Crazzy in love with Asha. Will do anything to sniff the Asha smell. Unfortnately is Goldie not that strong and usually gets beaten by Asha aswell. Girl power!

Blackie with the hazel eyes. She always stands on the same spot. She does not bark. She only wiggle her tail and watch over the tinny ones as they run in front of her. It looks like she has this grand-mother smile and just enjoy her view.

Big Goldie (Goldie's dad) and the most handsome Golden you ever seen. Such a nice dog. Unfortnately more interested in food that in bitches.

Before we had Ying- Yang. He was a mix of a sausage-dog and Dalmatine. He had red eyes and half of his body was white and black. Unfortnately Ying Yang disapeared.

His buddy is the evil dog. He has absolutly black eye and stare at you like a Zombie.

His companionship is this little small annoying barking Bali dog, who is affraid of everything and everybody.

And than we have Asha...
Has no id'e that she is a lady. Has been brought up with Goldie that quite early showed what a man-dog does. Probably one of the few bitches that hump your leg.


We used to have more dogs on the streets, but they were killed by the " killing -dog -people " in Bali.
In Bali, If a dog has no collar or owner there are men who come and kill these dogs.

On of them was Chubby. He was just the most kind dog you ever met. All he wanted was a little bite affection och love. Asha used to jump on his back, bit his ears, pull his tail and Chubby just looked at her with these big brown eyes.

The other one was the Clown. His body was way to small for his skin. When he ran his whole body was wobbeling.

There are organizations in Bali that doing such a great to stop this cruelty. One of them is BAWA.
They trying there best with not much money to find owners for the streetdogs and especially steralize the dogs.

Contrast

After returning another of my neighbours newly chewed shoe from Asha to my quite upet neighbour.

I closed the door and sat on the edge of my balcony and watch the beautiful evening with the sounds from the "animal kingdom" in my garden.



In the Banjar " community" there was a cermony. Not sure what it was for, but the Legian was decorated with colorful entrances to the Banjar hall and beautiful offerings.



From far away you could hear an old lady chanting. Her chanting was so powerful.

Hard to put words on it.



After a while the rest of the crowd started chanting with her.



even more powerful!



Suddenly the old lady's beautiful voice full of vibrating energy & transforming vibes changed to a band that were playing HARD ROCK from the 80's.



And to tip it up...they started playing EUROPE and the "Final count down"

I thought Europe nicely was packed in a musicbox, sealed, wrapped up, packed in an even bigger box and stamped with "Do not open".

The memories of Europa are a bunch of young boys with teased hair in Mullet-style.
How could they?
and more important
How could WE?

The Final count down defently brougt back memories with me in teased hair, scary make up and doing the moves on the dance floor.

Kebaya

Last night I drove to Bruce and his families house.

I love coming there. It is such a relaxed vibes.

Normally...
Agung sits down with me and we practice a few words and numbers. He proudly counts to 10 and after that it gets a little bite complicated.
Made runs around and screams- Leeeetttsss gooooo, which he picked up somewhere

After dinner we sat down the whole family. I had brought some fabrics that I got from Lisa. I planned to make some tunikas at the balinese tailor (cheap!!)

I told Wayan (Bruce wife) and Kadek( Bruce niece) that they should pick one material and make a Kebaya.

You should see Kadek's eye. Suddenly her eyes were shining, pulled out the fabric, wrapped them around her and started making design for her new Kebaya.

(Kebaya is the blouse you were during cermony)

You see...these kebaya are not just a cloth to were during the cermony. This is a highly important fashion thing for the young balinese girls.
Just like fashion in the west, Kebaya designers design new Kebaya with the right color, cut & pattern of the season.

As a balinese, you spend alot of time at the cermony.
It is there fore important to look good as you might catch a glimp of your future boyfriend and husband.

My friend Kesuma is the expert in Kebaya. She has two huge closets full with Kebayas and know exactly what the latest kebaya fashion is.

This is usually the welcome greeting when I come to Kesumas house and we go for a cermony

-Pinglan....yooouuuu laaa...(Shake her head because I do not wear the right latest fashion shoes for the outfit, which she later complains that she get sore feet of.)

Than she points to the perfect folded Kebaya, sarong, hair accessories, make up...

When it is a important cermony there will sometimes be a make up artist, who fix your make up and hair.
In the begining I looked like a ghost!
You see, for the balinese it is fashion to have white skin.
You do everything to make sure that the sun-rays do not reach your skin.
Most balinese people look at you very strangely when you say that you love to have there brown golden skin.
So when the make up artist prepare you make -up, she will also make sure that the already white person becomes even whiter.

One day after a cermony Kesuma and I went to Tierra Grosir (like a supermarket).
As we walked in Kesuma says to me
-The people might stare at you
I said to her- That it is ok! (usually some suprized balinese who is looking as a "bule" wear a Kebaya)

We walk through the supermarket and this time it felt totally diffrent. People would seriously stare and I kept on hearing how people were talking and whispering. When I looked back, they would given me this cheeky smiles.

I went to Kesuma and I said - You were right, they are actually really staring.

Where Kesuma turns to me and says:
-They are not staring at you! They staring at your Kebaya. You wearing the latest fashion in Kebaya.

at Earth cafe.............

I have a half day off and I went straight to earth café to enjoy there amazing food.

In the middle of the soup two ladies come in ....and there is a lot complaining, whining about how inefficient the balinese are.

One lady orders a juice.
The Apel-Carrot juice arrives....and the women says- But how can you not make it right !! I told you Ginger and apel

The waiter bow and appologice

Comes back with a Ginger -Apel juice

The women makes another freaky noice and says- You are absolutly something...I told you Apel, Carrot with Ginger

So the waiter says
-So why did you not tell me before and I would just have added Ginger...

Where the women says
-But I wanted you to add extra Ginger

Seriously...I am sitting 3 m from them and do not understand a word what this women is going on about.

All praise to the waiters at Earth café.....

Excuse me...

I am just sitting at the ISLAND and waiting for my next class.

The cafe is full of people eating breakfast, preparing for the daily activities, looking at maps, giving eachother hints and suggestion, waiting for guides to pick them up, organizing motor cycles, checking internet, reading books...

Really good vibes!!


Suddenly I watch this englishmen with a upright spine and proper english accent calling Dina (Island-staff)

- Excuse me, Sorry, I beg you pardon, Could I possible bother you by asking for another pot of Te, please....Thank you very much!


I mean ...how many words do you need for asking for a pot of te?

I love Dina's answer
-Sure...(easy and short)...and than she walks of with her high heals, short skirt and sexy catwalk-walk.




Next secong Sri and the team walks in (Island-staff)

-PAGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!! (God morning)

Clone Shashi husband

Three days ago Bollywood dancer Shashi and Alexandra came to the Island.
We went home and after that I totally crashed.
Shashi and Alex decided to go and have a bite.

At midnight a paniking and upset Shashi runs in to my room
-They stole my purse !!

Shashi had been robbed by a motor bike guy. This guy had driven on a bike and roughed the small bag of Shashi shoulder.

This stuff is so sad and gives Bali a really bad reputation which generally speaking is a very safe place.

The next moment 3 womenn tried desperatelly to contact Shashi husband, so he could cancel her documents and cards.

We sat on the floor, in the middle of the night, with a dog trying to chear up Shashi, 6 phones & good knows how many SIM card.

Unbeliveable..when you really need to make that call your
-credit is out
-battery is low
-you can not opem the case to change the SIM card
-No coverage
-Wrong network


Finally after changing phones and Sim card God knows how many times...we got hold of Shashi husband

What a MAN !!!!What a GEM!Where do you find these men ??
He was so calm and just reassured her
-Do not worry! I fix that !! ohh that is ok !! Do not worry ! Everything will be ok! as long as you are ok !! I take care of that ..

The next morning I finally had to wake up Cinderellas so we could go to the police.
First we came to the Tourist police in Kuta where they said
-Maaaddddaaaammmm....we can make a report but it will say that you lost your bag
We looked at them and said- But it was not lost , it was stolen !

-So then you have to go to the Police office where they will do a investigation

So we went to the " Police investigation office "

So again we sat down in front of mr police who said
--Maaaddddaaaammmm....we can make a report but it will say that you lost it
We looked at them and said- But it was not lost , it was stolen !

-Maaaaddaaaammmmm in my country we have a model A & B. You choose model B (investigateion ) it will be very complicated. When we catch the man who did it you will have to come back and it will very complicated, and you have only 10 days....so lets go for model A

And than he gave us a cheaky smile, claped his big stomach and looked at Alex.
-So you have a boyfriend?

So I told the cheaky police office
-Hey...so wait a second. You want Shashi to sign a form that says that she lost her purse. Do not the police have any ínterest to make a the right report.

He tried again with......Maaaddammmm...in my country

So finally we said...but in our countries we go to the police and if we got a purse stolen we make a " stolen -report " at the police

He did not look to happy until he started talking Bolly wood dance with Shashi and did all the moves and started singing.

So finally a man started writing the report.

After another hour we got in to bald mister investigation officer.
He looked like a brown hulken ...

The police knew no english, so it was just nicely trying to work as a translater for Shashi.
I never understand the Indonesians. i always feel like my Bahasa indinesia is crap, but they always seems to understand what I am trying to say. Maybe it is the big circles with my arms or my face expessions.

In this room the TV was on and showed Tommy and Jerry.
Havn´t seen this guys for a long time. They are hilarious!!
So while Jerry smacked Tom with a pot, one million birds circuling around Tom´s head, Alex and Shashi fell asleep and I tried to understand what brown hulken was saying...

After 3 hours ...we walked out with big smiles.

It was entertaining...



The afternoon Shashi got readdy for the Bollywood dance class and I started thinking about mr Khan and me under the raincirculing around the tree and do all the proper moves ....:)

The class was so much fun !
Of course the dance was about love and how beautiful the man thought the women was....
The end of the dance we came to the signature move!!!
So suddenly we stamped, moved the armes, twisted the legs, walked forward backwards, circles.........

the SAKA calender

Today we went up to the mountains.

It is such a relief to come up there when you live and work at the coast.

The air is fresh and you just relaxe when you get up there.

Found out today that this month is the absolutly best month to build a house according to balinese calender.

Right now we have the month called Kedasa-October.

The last month we had the " Nyepie" , which is called the Balinese new year. Most people would think that after Nyepi you start from scratch with month nr 1, but it is actually month nr 9 (getting complicated??)

The reason why you celebrate Nyepi and in the 9 th month is because 9 is the highest holiest number and there fore one of the biggest cermony during the year of SAKA.

According to balinese belief the uneven number are the holy ones.

That is why when you see a balinese tempel and the so called " merus" (roofs-tops) they always have a uneven number.(see picture of Ulun Danu tempel)

According to Balinese calender we are actually in september month and the year is 1932.

The Saka calender has 12 months, but is has not 365 days, but works according to the moon.

Month nr 1

Kasa

Month nr 2

Karo

Month nr 3

Ketiga

Month nr 4

Kapat

Month nr 5

Kelima

Month nr 6

Keenem

Month nr 7

Kepitu

Month nr 8

Keulu

Month nr 9

Kesangah

Month nr 10

Kedasa

Month nr 11

Jiesta

Month nr 12

Sadeh

Yoga

Today I had a class with this beautiful young girl with a amazing personality.
Being with her during the class and speaking to her after the class also saw alot of conflict with her own body and had developed eating disorder.

I realized she was just not happy with herself. It was like she wanted to be someone else and did all treatments, surgery and diets to become something she was not.

It just made me realized how hard it must be to a young girl and boy today.(as well adults)
To constantly be faced with marketing adds that show the happy, perfect wife & husband, perfect lover, perfect body, face, profession, car and etc.

Imagine if we just could teach everyone to just like yourself and stop comparing yourself to people around you.
Happiness will never come in your body, status or your material items, but just by accepting yourself and loving who you are.

Imagine if we could teach the young kids the true Yoga and teach them not to fall for the traps and temptations that are out there.

It would defently be a better place...

Jack fruit tree

Today we went to the mountains.

The first house at the Yoga center is just coming up so fast.

It is amazing to see all these workers that build a house as far away from the typical " western way".

They do the Bali way...

On the way we stoped to see a Balinese door / window that Bruce had seen and really like to have for the house.

He kept on telling me how amazing cheap it was...

Later on we found out why it was so cheap.
It was made by Jack fruit- tree -wood.
According to balinese believes Jackfruit is the wood for the kings and can not be in the bottom of a house and there for not a door.
It can be used for ceilings but not for itenary under your waist.

Bruce explained that if we would have put a Jack-fruit -wood- door in the house we would have got disharmony in the house.

So we just had to drop the Jack fruit and go to the carving man and order a new one.

These carving man are just amazing.
THey sit with there tools and carve this most amazing ornaments and pictures usually from Ramayana or Bhagavagita.

The people from the area of Ubud are especially famous for being the best carving men.
Actually the are more artists than only carving men.
These men have received there knowledge from there father and from there father....and it gets past on.

Yesterday I saw this young man who was sitting with the adults and proudly was carving on a piece of wood.

Probably one day he will be as good as his father and uncles...


When we arrived to the land we gave the men some Durian cookies that I got in KL.
Not sure if you know what Durian is , but it is this most awful smelly fruit that most asian are absolut crazzy for.

When they eat this it looks like they are in heaven.
Personally I pinch my nose not to die of the smell.

black Kebaya

Today our men from Wana Giri were off.

The reason was that one of the workers mum had just died.
To show the respect to the family and the person who just past away it is normal that you go and visit the house and pay respect.

and so did we...

I put on the black Kebaya (looks like a blouse) & black flowerly Sarong.

To keep the sarong in place you have to have this corchette on (good for the posture, but gets really hot sometimes )

We brought a envelope with some money & a bag with sugar & rice.

When we came in to the house there was probably about 100 people in the house.

All these people were there to say good bye and to show respect to the family.


For 5 days people from near & far away will come to the house.


Korea (the son), can not work during this period.
The closets family will also watch over the body and soul until you have a cermony and barry the body in the ground.
You have probably heard about cremation, but most people can not afford a cremation right away and have to wait until you collectively do a cremation to share the cost of the cremation.



When we came to the house there were alot of
suprized looks and whispering.

It is not that commen that a "Buleh" (white person) come with a Balinese in Kebaya.

Bruce went and sat with the men.

I saw one of the young girls that earlier had approach me couple of days agos. That day she was practising her english with me. Today when I saw her, she looked a little bite more shy as the whole family was staring at her.

One of the farmers approach me. His english was actually really good. He told me that he had picked up words just by talking to tourists.
He told me that he so much wanted to learn more and were hoping to sit down with more tourists and learn more new words.


Finally it was time to go. ...

We went to Puri Lumbung were we picked up Lisa & Christian.
Christian had just the previous day felt down on one knee infront of the Waterfall and proposed to Lisa.
She said YES!!




So in a small jeep the drove down the mountains and to the coastline of Pemuteran.

We left Lisa & Christian in the hands of the friendly staff of Taman Sari.

On the way back we stoped in Negara to pay for the already Palm tree that we had ordered.

You see...there is the easy and expensive way or the cheap and a little bite more complicated.
We picked the last one.

We are buying trees from the authorities.
We ordered 9 palm trees, but we finally just got 8.
The reason was that one had fallen down. According to Bruce it would give bad auro for the house if we used that wood.

This process is just a story by itself.
You have to go there in a surten time, pick the trees that you want, cut them, make wooden-pieces & finally transport them to the mountains.

Luckely we have time...and no rush


On the way back I told Bruce that my friend Roland had just past away.

Roland was a legend in Bali.
He lived more or less the last 35 years in Bali.
Who ever met him know what I talk about.
He was the funniest man you ever met and had the naughtiest sex-stories you ever heard.

Roland used to be with us when we had our tour leader -gatherings.
I still remember how Roland jumps in a red sarong, around a christmas tree and do the " Frog - dance " (See picture)

Roland boyfriend got burned during the 2002 bomb in Bali. During this period Roland was activally involved to make sure not only his boyfriends but also the rest of the victoms got the right treatment.


I had dinner with Roland one week before he past away.
He was just like he used to be.

One week later Roland got feber, started vomiting and did not survive the ambulance ride.

I got a message that it was ok to pay respect at the military hospital in Denpasar the next day at 10 am.

Bruce looked at me and say that we could try to get in tonight.
I had the black Kebaya on, so groming wise I was proper.

At 8 pm we finally reach the hospital.
We went to the part where they prepare the bodies before they get a christian funeral & get sent back home.

I do not why, but I just got blank when I got inside.
I just did not know what to say.

That moment Bruce totally took over
he spoke with a high a clear voice
-HI MR ROLAND!!! THIS IS BRICE AND INGELA. WE JUST WAS TO SAY HELLO....GOOD BYE...HAVE A NICE TIME IN PARADICE...SEE YOU SOON

Then the door closed and we walked out.

Afterwards it maid me think how we western people are scared of death and dead people and how balinese people just live with it and do not make it so complicated.

In the car Bruce looked at me and said

-I do not understand you western people! How can you leave a dead man like that.
His soul is alone. There should always be someone there with him. In Bali that would be unaccepted and if a family treated a body/soul like that he would get a very bad reputation.

Did not know what to say...



Afterwards I looked over to Bruce & said


-I want my ash to be spread in Bali.

Cermony for Kris

Today we had the cermoney for metal.
It is called TUMPAK LANDEK

Everywhere you see the cars and motorbikes beautiful decorated with offerings.
The priests are busy to sprinkel holy water to protect the drivers from any accidents.

According to Bruce is
the true reason behind TAMPAK LANDEK not to have a cermony for metal, but the kris.

Kris looks kind of like a knife.

For a balines the kris is holy and you usually see the men with a kris during the cermonies.

The kris enchance the caracter of the owner, stop black magic & has mystical power and represent the interaction between micro and macro cosmo.

It is said that some of the most powerful krises were given from the gods to the humans through meditation.

Most krises are though made by men from a special cast.
It is said that these men fast up to three days before making a kris.


When you start building the tempel it is very important that you have a kris as the first "cope " has to be with a kris.