A Visit to a Village

Friday, Lindsay, a couple that Lindsay works with, and me headed out to a village past Tabanan to visit a friend of theirs. It was about a two hour drive. Their friend, 'Pak', grew up in this village, and has an amazing story:

Pak's older brother had gone to school on Sumatra, another Indonesian island, and hadd become a Chr'stian there. When he came back he shared about his beliefs to his family, and his brothers also became C's. (I guess to understand this story you have to know that cnverting like that is a really big deal, especially in a village. The other families believe that it will displease the gods and that bad things will happen from the village, and other things like that, so its not exactly an accepted change.) This was about the time of the attempted Communist coup in Indonesia, and anyone who was suspected of being a Communist was killed. Apparently about 100,000 people on Bali were killed. Some leaders in Pak's village (Pak was away at school) used this as an opportunity to get rid of Pak's two C brothers, and they were murdered.

Pak went to school in New Zealand after High School, and did some other things, lived in other places in Indonesia, and then got a job with World Vision because he has incredibly innovative ways of pumping water to remote villages and stuff like that.

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Eventually, with full knowledge of who murdered his brothers and what was awaiting him, Pak returned to his village, and was told that if there was an opportunity, he would also be killed. But, Pak stayed and has transformed this village- paved roads, helped give opportunities to the kids, built water pumps and invented easier ways to thresh rice and other things like those that have greatly aided this and surrounding villages. Now, after maybe 10-15 years Pak is a respected member of the community. He travels all over the world (has been to Winnipeg and he couldn't believe how cold it was there) and aids alot of villages in getting access to clean water. Its such a beautiful story of forgiveness and mercy, and I feel privelged for being able to meet him.

We spent the night there, and got the chance to eat some amazing village food, meet some beautiful people (who work harder than I ever will for $4 a day- seriously, women carrying buckets of dirt and also rocks on their heads) and look around at the absolutely stunning landscape. My pictures do not do justice to this place and the things I saw there.



The afternoon we got there, there was a flash flood in the river:




This is the next morning, after the flood was done:

A Day In Ubud

On Saturday the 20th me and Lindsay decided to go to Ubud for a day trip. It was about a 45 minute Taksi ride. When we first got there we went to the Monkey Forest. There are gajillions of monkeys there and they are wild! You can get really close to them, and buy bananas to feed them, even though this is not recommended.

You can soon see why feeding the monkeys is not recommended- they can smell them on you and will climb all over and basically attack you if you don't give the food to them! We almost had as much fun watching the ridiculous tourists as we did watching monkeys!



We rented a motorbike too. Lindsay drove, and I was on the look out for any obstacles. It was alot of fun to be able to get around on our own, and we didn't die! We went to the Ubud Pasar (Market), which is crazy packed and like a maze. Also, we explored around Ubud a little, taking some dirt roads and meeting some local rice farmers. We went to a huge, old, Pura (Temple) as well. Ubud is the art center of Bali, and there is alot of historical preservation there.


One other funny thing we saw was a flock of ducks thinking they were a car and causing a traffic jam! We were on the bike, wondering why traffic was so backed up, but then we saw a bunch of ducks and ducklings waddling along in the middle of the road- not even caring about all the honking or anything. It was a fun trip!


Below are some baby grasshoppers I saw in the middle of a flower,
and a giant one on the leg of my table!



I also got a package from home this week, from my mom (Love you mom!). Inside were magazines, gum, chocolate bars and my one true vice- Lay's Salt and Vinegar chips!!! This is what they looked like after their trek all the way from Canada:

Sudah Dua Bulan

I have been here for 2 months now. Hard to believe.

Things are good, really enjoying it here. It's starting to get hotter which sucks, but the bright side of that is... ummm... well at least I have AC. That's a positive thing.

The kid's stuff is going pretty good, its sometimes frustrating because there are huge differences in the amount of kid's that come from week to week. Sunday before last we did a 'camp day' which was alot of fun, and 28 kids came out! We roasted marshmallows over votive candles on sate sticks! I would like to point out that in the picture below about 7 nationalities (American, Indonesian, British, Indian, and Australian) are represented.


I still enjoy going to the beach, generally on Saturday's if I don't have anything else planned I go to the beach and read and enjoy the sun and waves. It's fun to go to the non-touristy side of the beach and watch the local kids play in the sun, and sit next to the really, colorful neat fishing boats.



I love the architecture here. It's weird that its September but its still green!


So far here I've seen 5 or 6 parades, depending on when you count one ending and one beginning. They love parades here... especially the kids!

One day as I went to wash out my coffee pot, I discovered a gecko in the pot!