Friday Night

Today I did not wake up to a mouse skirting through my dishes. Lovely! Then while listening to OPB (it is fun even though the time difference puts me at All Things Considered instead of morning news), I saw Sophie (my niece) on Skype and called her. We had a quick chat, and it was great. I did wonder  why she was awake at 5:30am? But it was so nice to connect. I love Skype. Then off to work, crossing the bridge and up the hill to campus. Great commute.

We had a good albeit long day of staff training. I really do love the staff here at GS, and know we have a lot of work to do but we are all here to do our best. Now at Friday night, having just paid my online bills and drinking a little iced Kalua, I feel settled. It is hard to not go away this weekend to the beach, but with finances still thin and a lot of school work/classroom shopping to do, I think it is best to stay home. So we're having a little village community potluck and maybe head to Ubud for drinks later. The tomorrow I will ride my bike in to town and meet up with some co-workers to explore Ubud.  It is such a big place, I can't keep track of the streets yet. And the amount of tourists/people traffic is astounding. My motorbike comes Sunday, and then the real fun/nervousness begins. It will open some doors for me to get out of the jungle a little more and not be so dependent on sharing a car or driver.

As expected, I have hired a Pembantu and I love her! She comes about three days a week and cleans my place, takes my laundry out to be cleaned, picks up and refolds it, mops my stone-laid bathroom, makes my bed and basically makes my place shine! I feel spoiled and silly with a 800 sq ft house but I have come to realize that in the tropics, all hands on deck keeps the critters more at bay. She speaks a bit of English and is so sweet. I texted her tonight a thank you for the week and she just gushed back with appreciation. I think it is customary to help employ a local family when living in Bali, so I am just doing my part. She and her husband were both unemployed. But I love it. My little place seems bigger and so much brighter after she has been here. And I know with long school days, it will be lovely to have her here. She will even teach me a little Indonesian cooking.

I was actually looking at moving into the bigger one bedroom higher off the ground and closer to everyone else here in the village, and get out of the cremation smoke from the nearby temple but I think I will stay here for now. I think if a cremation happens I will be gone for most of the day or take off on a weekend. But that is really intense to have nearby. My bungalow is the first in line, downwind of the burning area. Yikes. There have been three so far since I arrived. But I know I will eventually move closer to town so it is all good. And I have heard that the process has a purification piece afterwards so all is calm in the spirit world. And I usually burn some incense afterwards as well. Also because I have a bathroom on dirt level, more options for snakes to come in but that is a few months down the road in the rainy season. One day at a time right now.

Bali is all about rituals, ceremony and religion. Incredible. I am not sure if I wrote this earlier but the statistic is that a woman here usually spends about 20% of her life preparing, participating and cleaning up from a ritual/ceremony. So we have a woman that comes by the Bamboo village every day and leaves an offering at all our doorsteps, with lit incense.

I am off to make a salad and eat dinner with the families. The sun is setting, the geckoes are chirping in the ceiling and the mossies (Aussie for mosquitos) are nibbling at my ankles. My ankles look like I have chicken pox. It really is the little gnat things that do the damage. I am still trying to build up my vitamin B levels for that reason but until then, it's time for bug spray.

I have pictures on Facebook but will try and post here too. Haven't quite figured that one out yet.