Festas Felizes

I see more sea

Sadly, I see waste. This is not a nice treasure to find.
I see a woman talking with other women, but you don't see those.
I see a duck grazing, looking for yummy treasures among the seaweeds.
I see floating boats in the bay.
I see the sun setting but not in the sea like at home.
I see a man and a woman preparing some fish that we could have eaten. Instead we ate barracuda and mahi.
I see a beach, pantai in Indonesian.
I see a quiet blue sea and a white sand beach.
I see the way home. It rains. It's the rainy season.

Selamat jalan!

By the sea I see...

Eyes that guide fishermen.
Fishermen helping each other. When one arrives to shore, others are waiting to help bringing the boat out of the sea reach.
A fisherman calling it a day.
Someone having a rest. What a nice lullaby is the sound of the sea.
Like everywhere else, I see a shrine.
I see women selling fish.
Here I see people fishing stones.
The sea rolls and polishes vulcanic stones and men and women catches them.
They separate them by sizes.
They dance with the waves that bring them and then take away what they're looking for.
The waves are strong... I wonder if I dared to go there.
I see the sea.
I see a man selling knifes. She wants to buy for Rp. 20,000- he wants Rp. 40,000, there's no deal. For us touris harga, Rp. 100,000 was asked but Pak Edu bargained.
I see smiles. I liked this one in particular. One thing I'll miss from Indonesia is people's smile. It's part of their wealth.
I see more coulourful fishing boats.
I see Li looking for treasures.
I see Lu finding one.
I see someone gazing into the horizon, maybe looking for a treasure there.
 I see baskets with feathered treasures inside. They're meant to fight.
I see two fishermen fishing side by side.

Fixed!

The "Monkey Dance" post pics are fixed you can watch them alright, now.

Here's another set of the second part of that evening show, the 'trance dance':

Wishes and postcards

Monkey dance

On friday evening we all went for a traditional dance show in the Pura Dalem Ubud. It is called the "Kecak Ramayana and the fire dance". Kecak is a form of Balinese dance and music drama  accompanied by a male chorus. The play depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. It ended with a trance dance, where a a man on a horse kicked fire in all directions. We liked it very much. 


Here you can hear what it sounded like:

Lord Viswakarma day

Today is the day of Lord Vishwakarma, the god of the machines. As a mark of reverence, he is still worshiped by the engineering community, industrial houses, artists, craftsmen, and weavers. He is regarded as the supreme worker, the very essence of excellence and quality in craftsmanship (source). 

So today in the sewing workshop of our landlady all the sewing machines were being adorned with offerings and special offerings were made to the God of the machines. Our car was also blessed with such offerings and so, we jumped in and rode like nothings could mess with our mighty blessed super car. Notwithstanding all the blessings, holy water and offerings Pak Edu's door at a certain point didn't open, he locked and unlocked it, pushing and pulling that little black thingy until it was pulled all the way out. Well, Ketut, the driver/gardener says that it isn't a very nice car, it has banyak banyak tahun. It seems that the power of Gods does little compared to the power of aging, the Lord of Time.

Still we should not underestimate all the powers at play, we had a safe trip from and back home. Selemat jalan everyone!

I'll post the photos in a while ;)

day: 28 November 2011

Six months ago we're stuffing the last things into a room in our place. Calling a taxi to take us to Schiphol Airport. Opening the door to our house Guardian. Saying see you later to Amsterdam.

To celebrate our 6 months here, I decided to share some pictures I took to a sculpture in Singapore Airport, that portraits 'home' in a broader sense.

Selamat siang!

Home is whenever I'm with you

Odalan, a temple's birthday

"The Balinese call their island Pulau Dewata, the Islands of the Gods. Throughout Bali there are thousands of temples (pura), large and small, dedicated to the Hindu-Balinese religion, the religion of most of Bali's 4.5 million people. Each village has at least 3 temples: the temple of death (pura dalem), the temple of origin (pura puseh), and the temple for the gods' council (pura desa or pura bale agung). Also, every family has its own temple within the house yard (sanggah or mrajan), and a family-origin temple for the family clan (pura dadia). 

An odalan is the anniversary or birthday of Hindu-Balinese temple. It is a festival that signifies the day the temple was initially completed and the day the gods, the sanghyang widhi wasa, were first invited to attend. An odalan celebration is held every 210 days, which is a year in the Balinese calendar. As there are so many temples in Bali, several odalan are celebrated on almost any day.

There are different kinds of odalan... (source)"   

I've witnessed an odalan. In the beginning of November, I saw Ketut the driver/gardener preparing the shrines of our landlady's place. With my little knowledge of Indonesian, I could understand that an odalan (which at that time I knew nothing about) was to happen that day and that it was a family ceremony. Li and me went after Ketut and took some pictures of him adorning the shrines. Only later did I understood a bit better what it was. That evening a priest would go to the family-origin temple (which is in another place) and celebrate a ceremony and when the time came our landlady would go to certain spots of her place (since it belongs to the family clan) and made the offerings. When I saw her preparing herself for it, I asked if it was OK for me to join her. She explained me a bit about the ritual and her relation with it, which is one of respect. In very little words, all the spirits, positive and negative, are made offerings to keep the balance of the universe and hence protect the family. 

What I see

I see flowers everyday and everywhere,
not as often, I see people holding hands, which is lovely.
I see this flower open in the morning. It stands by our doorstep saying: 'Selamat Pagi!!'.
I see Teddy on our doorstep keeping us company and in the background our clothes hanging.
I step down the two steps by our front door, walk down the little path and I see children playing and laughing. I so love listening to them laughing.
I see my children growing and enjoying our after dinner ritual: sitting by our doorstep we watch the white birds flying back home and I try to answer a million questions of a curious mind.
Sometimes I see a butterfly taking refuge inside while the sun dries the outside.
I see funny things like Teddy jumping to the chair where I was sitting breastfeeding Lu.
I see the rain falling on the lotus leaves.
I see dragonflies and I inevitably think of two friends of mine that call themselves "libelulas", which means dragonflies in Portuguese.
From my doorstep I can see the door to the sewing workshop of Nancy, our dear landlady. By the door I see one of her paintings, she is an artist.
I see more flowers. These are Plumeria, frangipani is the common name. We see men and women with bits of this flower over the hear, usually after prayers. Kemboja in bahasa Indonesia.
I see Ibu, Nancy's cat, taking a nap by our bathroom. Ibu means mother and it's the name you call a lady in sign of respect.
I see Li and Lu playing before going to bed. We do want to use up the energy and then go to sleep quietly.
I see a little shrine where we can make offerings to the spirits, to all of them. We want them all satisfied.
I see the roof of my landlady's house from our veranda... the sun is setting and the night is settling in bringing with it all the night bugs noises.

Selamat tidur!