Camping, Eating and Sweating

Time has been flying the past few weeks! I just spent the past week camping with my Grade 8 students in West Bali National Park on a remote island, for a coral reef survey. The Green Studies theme for this group is conservation, so we worked with an organization, the Odyssey Institute, and spent the days learning how to do a scientific study looking at reef indicator species: fish, echinoderms and the substrate. Our classroom was in the ocean: snorkeling and counting species. The kids did great although just imagine camping with 14 mostly immature boys where hormones and bathroom humor go a long long way. Needless to say I loved it all: the group of adults was refreshing, the kids were entertaining and the water was bathtub warm and beautiful. The weather was a mixed bag of extreme heat, and rain sprinkled with lightening and wind. But to sit around a camp fire and watch the stars and embers was something I didn't realize I missed so much. (Pictures coming soon) And to be able to swim in the water every day was so lovely. I brought a frisbee and the kids really took to playing 500 in the shallow water to cool down. That, charades and a cribbage board completed the entertainment factor. Oh and the fruit bats that flew overhead at night were the biggest I have seen so far. Outrageous!


A few hours after we got back form camping, it was time for Thanksgiving dinner. I was graciously invited to a student's house, his parents hosting a sit down meal of 70 people or so. I had no expectations other than I heard the food would be excellent. I went with my co-workers, catching a ride on a motor bike, as it was in the neighborhood. The house was Bali divine and absolutely spectacular, with a view that was surreal. The company was great, food absolutely wonderful (full turkey dinner with pumpkin pie) and the house...well just check it out:

http://enzodalverme.photoshelter.com/gallery/G0000t9Wz6FClepQ

We just stayed up on the main floor, as all the rooms and private quarters were off limits. But you get the idea. I just walked around sipping these fabulous icy grapefruit cocktails the host kept feeding his guests, with my mouth gaping open and telling everyone that I really could live here. But in reality, it is a little big for my taste. :)

I did make a few calls home at school yesterday in this tiny window I had between teaching. It was so great to talk. I realize that I need to call home more often. It is just such a weird feeling. It makes me excited but homesick at the same time. I am happy in the moment then a bit sad afterwards. But then I look around, take a deep breath, drink in the humidity, find someone to play with and all is better.

The weather really is hot now. I had no idea what this could feel like. Like the cold-sideways Portland rain, the humidity and warmth just slowly sneaks under your skin and settles. Of course unlike P-town weather, this heat appears in the form of heat rashes, flushed skin and a permanent facial shine. A teacher yesterday said, "I feel like I am the only one who sweats this much." We all laughed at her silliness. Everyone has a glow. And if you walk anywhere, which all of us do all the time, you are just hot. There is no humility in the sweat that pours through your clothing. I spent most of the day yesterday with our middle school kids and visiting Indonesian middle school kids playing field games. It was so hot, with the sun just beating down, I had to pull them off the field every 10 minutes or so and make them drink water. One student was so hot even after drinking a bottle of water and sitting in the shade for 20 minutes, I bought him a green coconut from our little Warung (outdoor cafe) on campus to drink and he was better in a few minutes. The green coconuts replace electrolytes like nothing else. I try to drink one a day at school. But I need to figure out how to open them on my own and buy them near my house and store them in the fridge.

So now post T-Day, I am just gearing up for the next few weeks of school. My new landlord says I work too hard as he watching me return late every day. And since I leave before most are up and return almost at dark, it is true. But then again, I am the only one in my little complex that has a day job. And as most teachers know, the work begins after the kids leave the classroom. Which usually happens before school, after school, at lunch, on the weekends or during any possible break. Although my new motto is to not go in on the weekends now. Bali or not, teaching is time consuming. So until I switch careers, I am in the mix of working hard.

I have decided that I need a mosquito net in my new house. Screens or not, those little buggers find their way in and I have new bites in random places that the sheets can't hide. A friend had some camphor clear lotion the other day that takes the itch out of the bites and I just bathed in it. She ended up giving it to me. With the heat rashes and bites, it can be a mix of itching and squirming throughout the day. But it's really not that bad. A seriously hot shower (sounds counterintuitive but it works) will take the itch out of any rash or bite. And our little pool is almost finished where I live and that will be great! A day or two away...can't wait!

Off to do some errands now on this sunny Saturday: find a dry bag for my computer, buy a  mosquito coil metal tin, exercise and swim in someone's pool. Ahhhh, the weekends are nice.  More later!