Selamat Siang!

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  I do not have internet at the village I live in (Bedulu), so I have to make time to come to Ubud (touristy town adjacent to us).   I have realized that “village” is a pretty poor term to describe Bedulu.  Whenever I think of the word village, dusty dirt floors and thatch roofs come to mind, like what I experienced in Icandi, Panama.  Here I almost always have running water, electricity, and a western toilet (which is a big deal!)  I am fairly certain that there are more people in Bedulu than in my home town; it just lacks some of the characteristics of Kellyville, like a central governing body.  It is more like a collection of families and neighborhood organizations, complete with shops, small schools, and anything you may need.  Maybe not a motorbike dealership, but that is nothing too detrimental.

I did, in fact, get to go to the temple on Saturday for Kuningan.  I went with a few relatives of my host family who live in Denpasar.  It was really pretty convenient because the father of the family is a tour guide who speaks English, so he was able to guide me through ritual and explain what everything meant.  I wore my pakaian adat for the second time in Public, and my family really liked it.  My host brother owns a store that sells them, and I think they were all really pleased with my taste!  The ceremony was beautiful. The temple is separated into three parts, and this celebration occurred in the first courtyard area.  The individual buildings were more ornate than our houses, which is pretty hard to accomplish.  There were always waves of women being escorted up and down the steps carrying enormous offerings on their heads.  Balinese people are all about the aesthetics!  I was allowed to pray with my family along, with other students and Balinese in the courtyard.  We prayed five times, I to my own God and they to theirs, while they presented their offerings.  Afterwards we were all sprinkled with holy water. Then everyone was given some to drink (three times) and some to ceremonially cleanse themselves with.  It all reminded me of a sort of Communion.  It was a very cool experience.  That night I also had my first family dinner!  It was kind of funny because they kept apologizing that I had to eat with them, but I thought it was great. 

On Sunday we went to another beach.  This time it was black sand, which was pretty to look at (it was sparkly), but very hot to walk on.  It also wasn’t extremely well kept, so I will instead (finally) post a picture of the last one we visited:

Monday and Tuesday were very busy days for us.  We had Bahasa (language) class each morning, and then traveled to Denpasar.  On Monday we learned about dancing and theater, and their role in Balinese life.  We also got to try out a little bit of lelong dancing, and it is really fun!  Tuesday we learned about mask and wayang (shadow) puppet making.  It was really interesting. Because our program consists of only girls, we decided to do a secret Valentines activity here in Bali as well yesterday.  I got the coolest card! It made me feel a lot better about being away from all of my loved ones. I miss all of you!

For our program we have to do an art project, which consists of taking lessons from a local artisan and producing something.  For my projects I have chosen to do lelong dancing and wayang puppet making.  Today I have my first dance lesson and I am terribly excited!  I can’t wait to get those hips shakin’!  Just kidding (sort of.)

I think that’s a good note to leave on.

Sampai besok!