Selamat Jalan Bali

I am now headed back for America. I left my home stay in Bali on May 14th at 3pm and drove 2 hours to the airport. I have another 32 hours of flying/layovers to go followed by a four hour drive home from Charlotte. I am ready to say the least.

I have loved Bali. I love the people, the character, and "most" of the food. I have been tested and challenged, but in the end I have made a few great friends. Today, was the best day I have had with my family. We hung out at the home stay, made paper origami, colored, and finished my packing. They even drove me to the airport although the program provided transportation.

To Bali  I say, we will meet again. To America I say, I am finally coming home!!!

Bali, you will be missed

The 13 things that I will miss the most? (in no specific order)

The Orphanage Kids

The Monkeys

The Balinese Holidays

Bu Ary's sneaky pics

The Sights

Our Teachers

My Village Family

My Java Family

My Bedulu Family

Random Street People

The Girls

The View

The Street Corn

13 Day countdown until America. 

Writing week

The past couple of weeks have been packed with interviews, orphanage visits, and writing! I now have 4 days to compile my observations into a 20-40 page research paper. I will then return to Bedulu to see my home stay family. We give presentations, take an oral Indonesian exam, and head off the island to take a snorkeling trip. The countdown has begun... I will be home on May 15th. Am I excited? yes. Sad? very. I have grown to love Bali... Especially Sanur where I have been living. It is the Murrells Inlet of Bali. It is a fishing town located on the ocean. Nights are full of live music, dancing, and gathering with locals, tourists, and regulars. Although I have been living alone I have met many people and I have made many friends.

Now, back to the orphanage visits.

I have visited three orphanages... One Christian, one Hindu, and one Muslim. Some interesting things I have discovered are none of the three orphanages allow adoptions. I have found adoptions are very difficult in Indonesia. By not allowing adoptions, the orphanages can ensure the children receive an education and that the children will not end up in the wrong hands. Also, education is the most important thing to all of the organizations. Most of the kids at all of the organizations have parents, but their families can not afford schooling or food. The children remain at the same orphanage until they graduate from senior high school.

I enjoyed my visits to all three orphanage, but I admit I enjoyed my time the most at Elisama. Elisama takes in children as young as two years old. These children were wild, hyper, and active. The other two orphanages only take in children at Elementary school age or about 6 or older.

I will try to write again in the next two weeks, but for now I must return to writing my ISP paper. I look forward to seeing everyone soon.

Happy Birthday Momma! Love You. 

Elisama Orphanage

Today was my first day visiting a Christian orphanage. I will remain for the remainder of the week and visit Hindu and Muslim orphanages next week. Below is a summary of only the first day!

I arrived at Elisama around 9:30 am. I walked in to children running out the gate and all around. I was greeted by a staff member who asked me where I was from, my age, and what I am studying. She invited me to play with the children and I did just that for the next 3 hours. At first I was slightly uncomfortable. The children were uncertain why I was there and they couldn't understand me. And to be honest, I wasn't sure why I was there. But after a few minutes, a jump rope was pulled out and the games began. Three girls aged 7, 8, and 9 took a special liking to me. They showed me around, brought me water, and taught me new games. I eventually pulled out my notebook and asked their names and ages. The three girls, Naomi (7), Ayumi (8), and Maria (9) brought every child to me and helped me spell their name. In the end I had met all 37 children. Some of the older boys also joined in the fun and chased down the younger children.

After a while the children asked about my family. They asked if I had parents and where they were. I knew they were orphans, but asked about their families also. Some of them have siblings, and some even have parents. Unfortunately they are uncertain of where these family members now live.

I learned about their school and that they only live and eat at Elisama. They go to school in their uniforms with the other children in the area. They also asked me about my religion and were very excited that I said I was a Christian like them! They are very smart and even knew the difference between Protestants and Catholics. The discussion of religion ended their, but I found some Bibles in Indonesian on the counters.

They pulled out a school book and we read the English words together. They are learning how to say school supplies in English in school.

They all joined together for lunch around noon and I sat outside with some of the younger children during this time. Angel, a 4 year old, used my notebook as a coloring book. I didn't mind since I have plenty of notebooks supplied by ISP.

I also noticed the staff and older children digging through the hair of the younger children. I didn't ask but I am assuming lice is an issue there. I have learned from SIT staff that lice is common in Bali, especially in schools and orphanages.

After lunch Ayumi came and sat with me until my ride arrived. She learned to spell my name and wrote Shelly loves Jesus in her notebook. She scratched out Shelly loves and wrote Jesus loves Shelly. She then rewrote the saying in the front cover of my notebook.

When I left the children looked sad. I assured them that I would be back the next day and that I too love Jesus.  

Living alone

On Day one of ISP, i was still scrambling to find a place to live for the month. With a 600 dollar allowance from SIT, I am working with a budget. I booked a hotel room at Dewi Dewi Villas for my first night. It was 15 dollars for a last minute booking. Surprisingly, I loved it. I spent the afternoon searching for a cheap accomadation including AC, Wifi, and a clean room. Everything was at least 400 dollars a month. I asked Dewi Dewi Villas about their monthly rate and it came out to 500 dollars a month. 

Luckily, the owner just opened up another hotel down the street and she offered to show me. It doesn't have a pool but they said I can use the pool at Dewi Dewi Villas. I visited and it has, hot water, AC, a TV and a clean room. No Wifi, and no refrigerator. But Guess What. They were planning on putting both in eventually and agreed to add wifi the next day and bring me a refrigerator. And the price you may be asking... 250 for a month. It is not on the beach, but is about a 15 minute walk. Besides, who needs to pay extra for a beach when I can go home to a pool in my backyard, and the Atlantic ocean 3 minutes down the road. 

My room companion...

I left the rats, chickens, birds, and lizards at my last homestay, but don't worry I won't be bored. There is a neighborhood dog that has already made himself at home on my front porch! He is as cute as can be. I give him water, but I don't have anything to feed him. 

ISP Problems:

Well I haven't actually begun my research for several reasons. 

1. I was searching for a room

2. The water isn't coming out of the shower for some reason,  sooo I haven't showered in a couple days

3. I have to buy a new camera since mine has decided not to work anymore and I want to document every moment with the children

4. I still have an awful cough and I am trying to get rested and a little healthier before spending a lot of time around children. 

However, the refrigerator and a water dispenser have been installed and wifi will be installed tomorrow.

A couple pictures of my new home taken by my computer. 

bench in the downstairs

bathroom, closet, and stairs leading upstairs

Not in photo: (to the left of the stairs is a sink, refrigerator, counter, and water dispenser)

huge closet

Not in photo: upstairs is a big bed and TV 

the end of class

Class time is coming to an end. We have one week left in which we will turn in a paper, present our art projects (which we still have to finish), take an oral Bahasa Indonesian Exam, and our final exam on our seminars. On top of this busy week we are translating our Independent Study Project Questions, finding a place to live, setting up interviews, packing up our rooms, and preparing to live alone for the next month.

For my month of research, I am currently planning on renting a room in Sanur (a beach town close to the capital) and traveling around Denpasar to various orphanages. I am planning on comparing the religious aspect of four orphanages, one Hindu, one Christian, one Muslim, and one non-religious. As I begin to do research I have found numerous sources describing the corruption in the orphanages and a disturbing news report revealing the corruption on a majority of the 80 orphanages in Bali. For my safety, I have been instructed to avoid reporting on the corruption. I have a feeling the corruption will be only the first of many issues that I will encounter during my month of independent study.

My family is sad that I am leaving so soon, but I will live with them for a couple days again in May. Since I am finally getting my health under control, it may be better to find my own food for a while.

I will miss my little sisters, the rats, the birds, and the dog barking all night. 

my ring

little sisters

got to get back to studying for finals!

Shelly

The Village

Monday: We left Bedulu around 9 am and headed for a village 2 hours away. However instead of driving all of the way, the drivers dropped us off and we walked for a little over an hour through the rice fields. When we arrived, we met our families and had an afternoon lecture followed by a gamelan lesson. My ibu is named Bu Agung. I never met anyone else in my family, but my house had two other bedrooms. The village is in the middle of rice fields and is made up of one dirt road and about 20 complexes. The complexes have a stone wall surrounding them, between 5 and 10 small buildings and between 3 and 5 families inside them. Each complex shares a bathroom, meals, animals, and responsibilities. I found out very quickly how difficult it is to take a shower when I wanted to with only one bathroom in the entire complex. (Shower= a basin and bucket... No shower heads in the village) 

On Tuesday we decided we would begin showering in the river. It is a 5 minute hike down a steep hill with cold water. They use the river to clean clothes and bathe. I used my natural soap in the water, but others used regular soap. At 7:30 am we met at a neighbors house for a ritual ceremony. It was a 3-month celebration which honors a baby when he is 3 months old. Up until this point the baby has never touched the ground. Hindus believe the child will be sucked into the earth if they touch the ground before this ceremony.The entire village was in attendance. The celebration included a gamelan, lots of food, and lots of offerings. It lasted all day and into the night. We stayed only part of the day and then had a lecture followed by a trip to the rice fields. We were given a hoe and a rice hat and were asked to hoe the muddy ground. For some of us, work quickly turned into play. We rolled, raced, and dove across the mud. We also had coconut milk at the rice fields. The rice fields reminded me a little of home and playing in the mud bowl. 

Wednesday:

We started the day with a lecture on Balian healers. We then took a hike through the woods and across the rice fields to find plants that we could use to make traditional healing remedies. I broke both of my sandals pulling my feet out from the mud. Luckily, it was easier without shoes to conquer the rice fields. We then headed back to the village and made sambal, a sauce put on rice, ginger tea, and another remedy used when someone is sick. After lunch we had free time and a bath in the river. We then gathered and cup open coconuts, shredded, and milked the coconut in order to make coconut oil. That night we took a trip to a Balian healer because our Academic Director had a sore leg. It looked like a painful massage but she claims her leg is better. She also purchased the female puppy from the healer because his wife was going to kill her. They said they drown all female puppies because Bali has  too many dogs. Wednesday night we returned to the gamelan lessons. 

We had Thursday morning off to conduct our village interviews. Mine is on the animals in the homes. I asked who takes care of them, their use, and their profit. Thursday night was our last night in the village. At 4 pm a big truck pulled through on the one road in the village and stopped. We all climbed in with several of the village children and rode for over an hour to a temple called Tanah Lot. It is located on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean.  Here we watched the sunset. It was a lot of fun to ride through the villages, and town in the back of a big truck. On the ride back we sat down and looked up at the stars. 

On Friday morning we packed up and headed out of the village for the north side of Bali. 

Sampai Nante,

Kak Shelly