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