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.