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!

Matahari = Sun

 
 

Hujan = Rain

Air = Water

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Indonesia on the news

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived on Indonesia’s Bali island on Thursday for a summit where a regional maritime dispute with China is expected to top the agenda.

President Barack Obama arrived on the Indonesian island of Bali early Thursday morning to start economic talks with Asian leaders, whose countries account for more than half of the world's GDP.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono used his opening speech at the Asean Summit in Bali on Friday to urge nuclear-weapon states the United States, France, China, Russian and the United Kingdom to immediately ratify the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone treaty.

Indonesia has emerged as one of the leading Asian countries for economic growth post-global financial crisis and looks set to lead the Southeast Asian growth story for the next decade, according to a new Rabobank report.

Indonesian has the potential to become an international language, more so than many European languages, the Indonesian Commission for UNESCO says.

BOGOR PLANS ‘COW HOTEL’

DENPASAR The Bali authorities have ordered a clampdown on beggars in the run-up to the ASEAN Summit and US President Barack Obama’s visit. The Denpasar and Badung authorities have been conducting sweeps of local streets since the weekend, focussing on intersections with traffic lights, popular spots for beggars and itinerant hawkers to target motorists.

A bit from Singapore

I've been organising some of my pictures and decided to share some oldies. These are from when we went to Singapore in July.
Enjoy and selemat malam everyone!