Hei semua,

Guess what is red and white, and black all over?  My nearly completed wayang puppet! Yay!

Actually it has quite a bit of color now, but I've been waiting all day to make that joke ;)

Sunday was an interesting day, to say the least.  Melissa and I, after a little searching, made it to the church we planned on going to in Denpasar.  I was so happy to be there when we arrived, but it was certainly a different kind of church than both of us were used to, but it made me so thankful for the church family I have to go home to :)  Later on we went to a shopping center to eat lunch (McDonalds!) and guess who we saw? Mirah, our the program director assistant!!  It had been a pretty stressful morning and I was so happy to see a familiar face, especially of someone I like so much!  Melissa and I then had lunch with Mirah and her best friend (who didn't speak English), which was really nice.  Later on the two of us met up with one of our local friends and his little brothers so that Melissa and he could camera shop.  Afterwards we went to a beach in Sanur and played around in the water.  We found a star fish, which was pretty cool because I've never touched one that was alive before.  Here's a picture of our santai (chill) spot, taken by Melissa:

After that, we filled up on some Indo food and headed home.  It ended up being a really nice day!

Since then, not much has happened around in the village.  We start our independent study projects (ISPs) in about a week and a half, so everyone has spent time preparing for that, as well as finishing art projects.  My week has been consumed with wayang, ISP, language, and some pretty sweet weather.  Hopefully I can add dancing to that list tonight, because we haven't had a lesson in about two weeks, and I am getting rusty :)

      This afternoon I heard a rumor of a grocery store near my town (I haven't been to one in about a month!) so I am headed out to explore.

Sampai jumpa!

Selamat Hari Raya Nyepi!

       It has been a pretty interesting week.  Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful.  For the most part it was spent in Bedulu at school or hanging out, but I did get pretty far on one of my art projects!  Here is the work I've done so far on my wayang puppet!

      I chiseled him out of pure cow hide!  Now all I have to do is finish his arms, paint him, and assemble him, then I'm done! 

     On Wednesday we did a ceremonial purification.   Bu Ari suggested it because we have been having pretty bad luck in terms of weather and things this semester, and this was her remedy for it.  So, after lunch on Wednesday we (who belum datang bulan) got dressed up in our pakaian adat and headed for the temple.  The way you become purified is by washing yourself, fully clothed, in a pool with a series of spouts.  If you are Hindu you say a short prayer at each one and then dunk your head under the stream (which is pretty strong most of the time) 3 times.  There were 15 spouts, so it took us a while to get everyone through.  It was pretty fun and refreshing, but it was pretty hard to walk afterwards.  We have to wear wrap skirts called serangs, which is usually fairly restrictive, but even more so when they are wet! 

     On Thursday we only had school for a little bit because Friday was Nyepi!  Nyepi, a Balinese holiday (there are a lot if you've noticed!) is the Silent Day.  Separate banjars (comparable to neighborhood governments)  spend all month making ogoh-ogoh, which are giant bamboo and paper statues.  They are made into demonic figures that are representative of evil spirits.  The day before Nyepi they parade them around and have a mock battle in the town square to attract the spirits.  

     On the actual day of Nyepi, Bali is completely silent (no eating, exerting energy, or using electronics, especially lights) to give the appearance of a deserted island so that the spirits pass over it for another year.  The ogoh-ogoh festivities lasted from around 5 to nearly midnight, just in time for everyone to get home and prepare for the next day.  On Nyepi you aren't allowed to leave your compound (house), so I hung out with my family quite a bit.  It was really fun.  I played tops with my brother (technically host-nephew, but he's more like a brother because he's 3), and that was really exciting because it's the first time we've interacted for more than five minutes (he used to be scared of me, haha.)  I cheated a bit because I ate lunch and dinner since my Ibu did, and I watched a movie in the afternoon.  Bu Ari said that realistically Balinese usually use Nyepi as an indulgence holiday because they eat and watch television quite a bit, but you still aren't allowed to go outside.  It is meant for meditating and reflecting, because Nyepi also marks the last day of the Balinese year.  The next day (today) is spent doing rituals and asking for forgiveness, but many people use it for vacation time :) That is really all that has happened this week.  It's been very relaxed, which has been a blessing.

Sampai Jumpa!

We're back from the village!

This past week has been awesome.  The big event before we left for the village was the Full Moon festival which happens about once a month.  Each time a group of villages come together for the celebration.  They don't celebrate it at the same temple every time; it is cycled through the group of villages.  It started on Wednesday evening, and I didn't really know what to expect except that we were supposed to wear pakaian adat because we were going to temple.  My family didn't go that day because my host-sister-in-law was sick, so my friend Melissa (whose family also wasn't going) decided we would show up by ourselves and wing it, thinking it would be similar to Kuningan.  Oh were we wrong!  We showed up at the center of Bedulu, next to our program center, and there were heards of men in white clothing and women in their nicest traditional clothing.  There were way more people there than lived in Bedulu, which was initially a little confunsing (we didn't know anything about the festial except that it was for the full moon at the time.)  In addition, no one was going to temple; they were just waiting on the side of the road for ... something.  So, Melissa and I being the the go-getters that we are, decided to walk past the crowds to temple by ourselves.  About halfway there we saw a large  procession of people, being led by men carrying large golden chairs, umbrellas, and an array of other traditional aesthetics.  As they passed the crowds, people joined in the parade.   We didn't know where they were walking to, so after a slight hestation we excitedly jumped in, just in front of the band.  There had to be at least a thousand people walking with us, and it was so fun!  Along the way we ran into some of our mahasiswa friends who invited us to join their families, which was really nice.  After about half an hour of slow walking, we finally reached the temple, which was in the villlage just north of us.  The whole walk was sort of eerie because of the music and the fact that it was at night, but it was really fun because you just chatted with whoever was walking next to you, whether they were American or Balinese.  Just outside of the temple, everyone suddenly sat down on the ground as the band continued to play.  Women near the front gate, all uniformly dressed, performed a choreographed dance, and as we watched Melissa and I had a man explain to us the details of the celebration. Each night the procession grows until the final walk back to Bedulu on Saturday afternoon.  After the dance ceased, we made our way into the temple.  It was extremely ornate with piles and piles of offerings in each of the temple's pavilions.  We followed another friend, Eliza's, family and watched as they prayed.  After the ceremony was over we stayed for a few minutes to take pictures, but in the midst of it it started to rain, which happens pretty often here.   Melissa and I just waited it out at a warung, or little shop, and walked back once it cleared up.  

The next two night I wasn't able to go because I recently started Balinese dance lessons, yeah!!  I am doing it with my friends Alex, Melanie, and Misra.  We have only had two lessons so far, but we've already run through the whole dance.  There are a few parts that are pretty hard to memorize, especially the hand movements, but it seems to be coming together faster than I imagined.  Balinese dance is a lot more fast-paced than what we did in Java, so our dance is considerably shorter (it was 15 minutes in Java!)  The whole thing is pretty funny, and just goes to show how much we still have to learn about Balinese culture.  Balinese dancers are known especially for their facial expressions, particularly their eyes.  At certain points in the dance we dart our eyes to the side and then give a piercing (and perhaps a little creepy) stare towards the audience.   Our teacher, who is around our age (and just gorgeous!) was explaining this to us, and that after that we were supposed to give a smile to the audience for a couple of counts.  Another piece of information we didn't know, or at least I didn't, is that Balinese dancers never smile with their mouth open, so when she asked us to do this I, being a goofball, flashed her the biggest smile I could do.  She laughed so hard she cried.  Whoops! It was really funny though, and she still chuckles everytime we get to that part.  

Saturday my family also wasn't able to go to temple, so I decided to grab my camera and walk by myself.  Sara and I are both doing wayang puppet making, but hadn't been able to go but once because she was sick, so I originally was going to go just for a few minutes and then walk back to change and go to our lessons.  I ended up staying for a little over and hour thinking that the parade would start at any time, which ended up not happening, but I did get to see a lot of Balinese dance, which I just loved!  I also finally got to see a gegong dance, which is a large Chinese-style dragon costume that is worn by two people.  After that I hurriedly walked back to Bedulu to meet up with Sara, but by the time I got back it was too hard to find a ride to the lesson, so we jalan-jalaned, or went for a walk.  We didn't really know where to go, but ended up in a rice field.  There I tried to pet a cow and failed, watched some ducks, and walked barefoot through the muddy field, which all made for a really good time.  Incidentally, this rice field was right by the road that parade was marching on, so when we finished we jumped in.  It was a little hilarious because there Sara and I were, barefoot, muddy, and in our regular clothes, in the middle of nicely dressed Balinese parade.  Hehehe.  We got a few chuckles and questions, but it's really no more attention than we get for just being white/Hispanic/psuedo-Indian, just a different kind of attention.  

The next day we left for Bu Ari's village!  This was definitely the highlight of my week.  It was quite different from Bedulu because in that it is extremely rural, and it reminded me of an interesting mix of Bedulu, Icandi (a Kuna village in Panama), and Kellyville.  Most of the people who lived there were rice farmers, and it was small enough that everyone knew everyone else.  (Bu Ari said that there were about 80 families living there.)  We didn't have many activies, and most of the activities that were planned were optional.  It was especially fun because we had local students from Udayana University and Warmadewa University in Denpasar (as well as one more graduated volunteer), and they were all really fun to be around.  With the acception of the only girl student, Anita, I didn't get to know them very well until the last night, which I kind of regret, but I suppose these things happen.   During the few days we tried out a lot of the local cultural activities.  We played gamelan the first two nights, which Bu Ari admittedly said we weren't very good at (and then immediately apologized, haha.)   We also made coconut bowls... it was surprising how much work they required!  The first full day we were there we helped Bu Ari's mom collect items from around for making traditional medicine, which we helped make as well.  I don't remember what all of it was for, but there was something I ate that was very spicy and made my nose run a lot!   I think I may be building up a tolerance for spicy foods (finally!) but it's been a somewhat painful process.  The second full day we worked in a rice field in the morning; we cleared a patch of land so that it could be prepared for the next round of rice, which they plant 2-3 times a year.  It was immediately followed by a mud fight, coconut drinks, and a river mandi (bath!!)    River mandis were always really fun, just as they were in Icandi, and I know I'll miss getting to do it now that we're back in Bedulu.  One of the more interesting points of the excursion was the Balinese flirtation dance.  They invited professional traditional Balinese dancers to the village for it, and it was pretty surprising.  I expected it to be pretty low key, but we were required to wear pakaian adat, and they invited all of us, one at a time, to join the dancer on stage!  I was really embarrrassed at the time, and some of the dances were kind of awkward, but it was a lot of fun.  At the end the gamelan band played and everyone got up on the little stage to dance, which I liked the best.  One day (I don't remember which) we walked about 20 minutes to Pak Yudi's village to a balian, or traditional healers.  They are very mystic in nature, and he explained how he became a balian, as well as some of his methods for treatment.  It was very interesting.  After that we walked a little further to see Pak Yudi's new baby!  She is a little over a month old and she is sooo cute!

Isn't she precious?  I got to hold her, and everyone nicknamed me Malia "Baby Magic" Castillo because she was wailing when I got her, but was able to make her stop.  I guess that is what happens when you work in a daycare and have two baby brothers ;)  It did make me miss Jackson and Jaythan a lot though, but a couple of days later I got to Skype and see them, as well as the rest of my family, which made me super happy!  

The last night of the village was pretty bittersweet, only because it was super fun and we knew we had to leave in the morning.  We all had a big sleepover at Bu Ari's house (local students included), where we stayed up and played games, watches movies, and got to know each other a lot better.  In the morning we got up really early to catch the sunrise, but it was cloudy.  That was actually the third time I had gotten up at 5:30 to see it (hard to believe from me, I know) but wasn't able to because of the clouds.  I guess it just wasn't meant to be... :(  Then we left the village for a town called Lovina in north Bali, which was sad for me .  I was a little apprehensive when we first arrived because it was so without modern luxury, which I was accostomed to because of the Kuna village, but once I jumped into the culture it was great!  To give you and idea of how rural this place is, they didn't get electricity until the early nineties!  Even with the lack of the usual commodities, like western toilets (and toilet paper for that matter ;) ) it was a blast, and gave me an even greater appreciation for Balinese culture.  

The drive to Lovina was about 2 hours.  There we stayed at a hotel instead of a homestay (which we had done in the villlage like in Bedulu and Yogyakarta.)  In Lovina we did several fun activites.  One was attending a lecture at a local university where we discussed religious relations in northern Bali, which was really interesting.  We also prayed at a Chinese temple, explored the area, and saw a Buddhist temple. We saw a lot of diversity!   At night we got to eat American delicacies, like pizza (!) and see live music, both of which I love!  After two nights we traveled another couple of hours into the mountains to a small fishing village.  We arrived there yesterday afternoon and planned on climbing Mt. Batur pagi-pagi, very early this morning, but the weather wasn't too friendly so we were forced to reschedule.  We ended up leaving just before lunch, and have been hanging out in Ubud/Bedulu since we got back. I have a great week, but I am excited to get back into the swing of things tomorrow.  I apologize for the lack of pictures in this update, but it's rather long and my internet is pretty slow. Maaf! I'm also sorry if there are misspellings because I didn't proofread :)

Sampai nanti!

Hello!

                I’m sorry for the lack of updates lately.  I had internet access very sporadically in Java, and only once since I’ve been back, so the blog writing suffered a little.  Maaf!  I will try to be more diligent in the future J  Anyhow, since there is quite a bit of ground to cover, I am only going to touch on the highlights of the past couple of weeks. 

                There were a few particularly exciting things that went on in Java since I updated last.  Possibly my favorite part of the whole trip was the Ramayana Ballet.  It was SO cool!  If you hadn’t been introduced to a little bit of Indonesian culture beforehand you may have looked at it and thought, “Hm, this is pretty odd,” but as I mentioned earlier we have been learning a Javanese dance similar to what was presented in the ballet.  Also, gamelan music is pretty weird when you first hear it.  It’s a large collection of metal xylophone-style instruments with wooden flutes and leather drums.  Sometimes they are accompanied by singers, both male and female, the woman usually sounding like those crazy Chinese opera singers (if you’ve ever heard one, you’ll know what I’m talking about.)  The first time I heard gamelan I was not at all a fan (it sounded like a bunch of discordant notes) but now I love it!  Maybe because I’ve learned to dance to it, so that’s all I want to do when I hear it now.  Anyway, it all came together very beautifully.  The dancers were very impressive as well.  It’s not a ballet as you would traditionally think of it.  The dancers have extremely elaborate make-up, hair, and costumes, and move with more precision than anything I can think of.  I have never seen (or danced) anything that makes you so body-conscious.  Everything is precise, down to the angles of their fingers and toes.

                 Just look at that crazy make-up!  Also, it’s important to mention that we saw this at night at the Prambanan temple.  Usually it is done outside under the moon, but it was raining when we arrived so we had to see it inside.

                Another fun thing that we did while in Java was actually done separately for each village.  Last Sunday we woke up early with our host family and walked with almost everyone in the village around Godean (where we were staying.)  We walked through the whole town by houses, through rice paddies, and even past a wedding!  It was awesome.  Next we jazzercised it up with all of the women.  The five mahasiswa were asked to pick the top five people, so we did that and then presented them with mystery prizes in a diplomatic fashion, with the hand shake and everything!  After a short istirihat (break) we returned to judge a cooking contest between the men.  They all did variations of fried rice.  Here is who came in second place (but still my favorite!)

Enak, ya? That title reads "Friday Night"

Later that week we had an interfaith discussion, also one of the highlights of the trip.  There were representatives from Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, and Catholicism.  My friend Carolyn and I were the United States representatives, and it was a lot of fun!  We were told kind of late notice, and had to prepare a power point in about 10 minutes to cover religion in the US (which is a lot!), but I think we did just fine.  It was cool getting connected with all of them, and I think I made some good contacts for my Independent Study Project (ISP) in April, because I’ve just decided that I will do it in Yogyakarta! 

At the end of the week we had a going away party that the families in all of the villages hosting mahasiswa attended.  We also had an a cappella group from the hosting university sing to us.  After that our villages dancing group (Mirah, Aries, Olivia, and me) performed the dance we had been working on, in full garb and makeup! Here is our beautiful dancing group!

The whole party was a lot of fun, but I was very sad to say goodbye to my family.   They were so great, but I was really excited to get back to my family in Bedulu as well.  Since we have been back to Bali we’ve been so busy.  On Monday I started another art project, making wayang kulit puppets.  It is a slow process, but I really like it.  I got to use a lot of tools which made me feel very skillful even though I didn’t know what I was doing.  Today I start another one, which is learning Balinese dance.  I will be so cultured by the time I get back!  Right now I think I am most looking forward to another excursion we are taking on Sunday.  We will be gone for a week traveling around Bali, including Bu Ari’s home village!  The best part about it is that we will have students from two local universities in Denpasar accompanying us for a few days of the trip.  It is going to be very interesting though… Yesterday we took a day trip to Denpasar to meet some of the students, some of whom are boys, and some of those boys are already interests for some of the girls in the program.  We’ve been surrounded by only girls our age for almost the whole trip (except Dede who doesn’t count because he’s our teacher), so it will be interesting to see what happens! 

There is a lot more I could say but I have to go to dance lessons now.  I guess you will just have to talk to me to find out the rest J  Sampai nanti!