Indo English

   English is cool in Indonesia.  People use it, peppering it into conversations, even if it's not too clear what is being expressed. 
   I was driving a friend to the hospital recently, and I came across this sign.  I have no idea what it is supposed to mean??  Does corruption kill you?  Should you kill yourself if you have been involved in corruption? 
   You might be wondering why there is a corruption sign at a hospital... well, in Indo, corruption is rife, even at the hospital. 

Let's Build a Kitchen

    I was sitting with my friends at their house, and he randomly said, "Let's build the kitchen."  He had laid the foundation a few weeks earlier and had been gathering scraps of wood and roof to use for the small side kitchen.  And apparently, now he was ready.
   So we started putting it up.  No measuring, no leveling, just trial and error and lots of eyeballing.  It was done in about 1.5 hours.  As we were building it, Supri (the guy with the hat) told me that it's nice living in the village, because no one really cares about how things look.  It just matters it's functional or not.
   It was functional: A tin roof, woven bamboo for walls, and dirt on the floor.  I'll probably be enjoying coffee and food from that kitchen in the next few days...

Devil's Spicy Noodles

   There is a popular noodle place in our city.  There's always a line backed out to the street in order to get these noodles.  We decided to forego the long line and get them delivered.  Even though I got level 1, the lowest level of spice, I still suffered and sweated through the experience.

   Kristi got the level 3 and handled it well.  She even tried a few bites of the level 5, the spiciest option available.

Tentara

   The military stationed in and around our city recently put some of their equipment and vehicles on display at the local park.  Interestingly enough, all the kids were allowed to get in to vehicles, hold guns, throw knives, etc.

   I am not sure how "safe" it was, but it was a good time.

Tentara means soldier...

Mud Wrestling

   Bali has a traditional form of martial arts that is very sophisticated and refined... mud wrestling.  Seriously.  Kenan's class took a trip to the rice fields to learn about mepantingan (mud wrestling).  Kenan loved it because he got to get really dirty and wrestle with his buddies.  Can you spot Kenan in the picture?

   (Remember you can click on the picture to make it bigger)

The Gym

   This is where I go to work out.  It's a small little gym not far from our house.  The equipment is old and there is no AC.  Interestingly enough, it's not that hard to get used to working out in 95° weather. There are nicer gyms in our city, but you really can't beat the price at this place.  A monthly membership is around $2.50.  Yep, you read that right... two dollars and fifty cents per month.

Magic Cookie Bars

   My mom makes these things called Magic Cookie Bars.  It's a mix of chocolate, coconut, graham cracker crumbs, nuts, and pure magic.  I love them.

   Usually mail takes about 2-4 weeks to get from America to Indonesia.  Despite this fact, my mom baked some of these magical bars and sent them over in an airtight container.  Despite all odds, they arrived in pristine condition.  It was a great day!

 

 

Remembering

   Kristi and I recently attended a friend's wedding.  I happened to sit down beside a very interesting lady.  She was 85 years old.  About 70 years ago, her husband "kidnapped" her from her parents' house so that he could marry (he wasn't technically allowed to marry her since she came from a lower caste, so a "kidnapping" marriage was the only culturally appropriate way to let true love win).
   She also remembers when Japan occupied Indonesia during World War 2.  She told me stories about the Japanese soldiers that would come into her elementary school.  They would have to salute the Japanese officers and the Japanese flag.
   Her grandkids told me that she was the prettiest girl in the village back when she was young.  I asked her if this was true.  She just smiled...

Smoke (Part 1)

   Several times since moving to Indonesia, I've woken up and my room has been full of smoke.  Not like smoke from a fire, but diesel fumes from an exhaust pipe.  The first time it happened, I had no idea what was happening and freaked out a little bit (actually a lot).

   Here's what was happening...

   Whenever an area in our city has lots of cases of dengue fever, the local government will send out a group of guys to fog the area to kill/control mosquitos.  Because our rainy season has been so erratic, there are many more mosquitos and many more cases of dengue than normal... and by extension, the fogging guys have been around a lot more often.

Cave

   This blog does its best to show what real life is like here in Indo.  Sometimes that's fun and interesting, other times that's just plain gross.  This post will be more towards the gross side.
    In order to improve public health, there is a national push to make bathrooms dryer and cleaner.  One sign I read recently in a bathroom said, "Kering itu sehat" meaning "Dryness is healthy".
    However, this push for cleaner and dryer bathrooms will take a while to become the norm for most places.  I stopped by a place this week to get the car washed.  It was a respectable establishment... clean, well managed, etc.  But I walked into the bathroom and saw this.  Nothing out of the ordinary.
    I just had to smile.

Poor Dogs

  This is one of my favorite kids...

   His grandpa, Ngakan, was in a motorbike accident several years ago.  Ngakan's bones in his lower leg were crushed and still haven't healed properly.  I've been helping to transport him from his home up in a village down to the big hospital in the city.  I usually stop by once a week.

   One of the fun things about the trip is getting to hang out with this little guy.  He's always got a smile ready, BUT when he does cry, his dad has found a guaranteed way to make him smile again.

   ***Dog Lovers, stop reading at this point***

   His dad picks up a squirt bottle and sprays water on all the dogs around their home.  This sends the dogs running, and it also makes his kid laugh.  So the dogs get squirted a lot.

   Ngakan will be getting surgery on his leg this week.  We're hoping that he will not need to get his leg amputated.  Keep him in your prayers.

Random Spitting

   We recently started seeing signs like this popping up all around our neighborhood.  It says, "Dilarang meludah sembarangan".  Which basically means something like "Don't spit indiscriminately (randomly)".  No reasons are given.  No dangers are listed.

   You don't really see that many people just spitting all over the place in our town, so I decided to do a little informal investigating.  I asked around to some of our neighbors about why the signs were posted.  One guy said, "It's just a theory..."  When I asked him, "A theory about what?", he didn't have any further comment.  Other people answered that it was about diseases.  Again, no more specifics were given.

   So, I'm not sure why, but don't spit carelessly...

Spaghetti?

   I was traveling in a neighboring country recently and was amazed at the amount of telephone and electric lines running in the city.  Our lines in Indonesia aren't super organized, but they're not this mixed up...

   I thought to myself how big of a headache it would be if you had to actually locate and fix a problem.  Two minutes later, I came across a guy trying to do exactly that.

   Poor guy.

Here Comes the Boom

   Every several years or so, a trend spreads among the kids in every corner of our island.  You'll see boys walking around with big PVC pipes, taped together with a crude trigger mechanism.  They have spray cans with some type of mentholated spirits and lighters.  Boys and lighters... it's a dangerous combination.  There are incredibly loud booms happening throughout the day.  The contraption looks similar to a potato gun, just without the potato.  

   I was actually tempted to tell the kids on my street about the possibility of loading up a potato into the pipe but thought better of it after imagining how badly that could turn out...

   This year, we decided to get into the action.  Here's a video of Jaiden testing out our cannon.  It's pretty small compared to the other ones that the boys on our street are using.

Add this to the list...

***NOT A POST FOR DOG LOVERS.  PLEASE DON'T READ OR CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO MAKE IT BIGGER***  

   Lots of times here in Indo, something happens that is quite normal.  Totally ordinary...
   Then it hits me, that often the most normal things here would be considered bizarre or unacceptable back in America.  I've often thought of keeping a list of those bizarre things.  Although I still haven't gotten around to making that list, we saw something the other day that definitely belongs on it.

   We were sitting at a stoplight.  Waiting to make a left-hand turn onto a busy road.  Before the light turned green, two government workers rode past us on a motorbike.  The bizarre part of the story is that they were dragging a dead dog on a rope behind them.  They also made the turn, speeding off with that poor dog dragging along behind them.
   The context of the story is that there continues to be a problem with Rabies on our island.  People have died after being bitten by rabid dogs, so there are still drastic measures being taken. 

Go Heels

***This is a North Carolina specific post, sorry to everyone else***

   The Tar Heels are 9-1, and their fame has spread far and wide.  With the complete dismantling of Duke, Miami, and countless others, many fans have been jumping onto the bandwagon lately.

   Apparently, there have been a few new fans from Bali too?  I saw this sticker on a car as I was walking out of a store the other day.  I'm not sure how this even happens, i.e. the logistics of getting that sticker to Indonesia, etc.  However, with a fine institution such as UNC, full of integrity and honor, I'm sure it's just natural that they'd draw fans from all over the world...

Who Needs Jimmy Dean?

   The Balinese people love their pork.  The signature Balinese dish is Babi Guling (roasted pig), and a favorite ceremonial food is Lawar... both consisting mainly of pork.  It causes lots of problems for those who don't keep it balanced with other, more healthy choices.  Many of the patients that Access Life Bali helps have suffered strokes and other health problems related to high cholesterol and high blood pressure.  Even the governor of Bali came out last month, urging the Balinese people to cut back on their pork consumption for the sake of their health.

   With all this in mind, I want to share one of my favorite foods from here in Bali.  It is homemade pork sausage!  It is spicy, salty, and delicious.  One of my friends who owns a small shop up in the mountains, started making the sausage everyday.  He makes about 20 pounds of it, selling it to local folks in the area.  It's really good.
   Last week, I arrived about an hour before the sausage was ready.  One of my friend's neighbors was helping stuff the sausage to get it ready for frying.  I got a quick video of him doing this... just in case you wanted to know what it looked like to stuff a pig's intestines with meat, spices, fat, and other 'assorted items'.
   I stopped by an hour later.  Paid 10,000 rupiah for an ounce (that's about 75 cents), and it was awesome.  Really good and really spicy.

C'mon Man!

   I was heading to a friend's wedding reception in the mountains.  I was on the motorbike, and I was needing to a break for some lunch.  I stopped by one of my favorite bakso mobile food stalls for a bite to eat (Bakso deserves a whole separate post, I will work on that soon, you can click here if you need to know what it is sooner than that).

   There are wild monkeys in the trees near this food stall. You have to be careful not to put anything down (keys, phone, bag), because the monkeys will take it.  It was a hot day, and I was thirsty.  I got a water and quickly finished about 3/4 of it.  After digging into some bakso, I went to finish off the water... and it was gone!

   I spotted the guilty party.  It was a monkey sitting about 20 feet away from me.  He was holding my water, just relaxing.  He casually opened up the bottle, and took long, slow sips while looking at me out of the corner of his eye.  I'm not sure if he was looking at me because he was afraid I was going to try and reclaim my water or if he was trying to taunt me :o)

   So when in Bali, be careful not to leave items unattended. 

   For those keeping score at home, the score is monkeys 2 - Jon 0.  The first item taken was a pair of Kristi's glasses.

New Ride

    Since January, we've been borrowing cars from other people that have been off the island.  A couple of weeks ago, our borrowing streak ran out, and we had to head out and find a car. 
   Cars are a funny thing in Bali.  They tend not to lose much (if any) value over time.  In some cases, they actually will appreciate in value.  For instance, we bought a car in 2007 for 76 million, sold that same care in 2010 for 78 million, and then I just recently came across an ad for that same make/model/year and it was being sold for 77 million.  8 years later and it still has roughly the same value! 

   The car we settled on is a Suzuki APV.  It's an "everyman's car".  It's not expensive, is fairly reliable, and is easy to fix.  They are everywhere.
   The only problem is that we were wanting an automatic, and automatics are very hard to find.  The overwhelming majority of cars in Indo have a manual transmission.  The search was going on for weeks with no results.
   During this time, Kaelen had been praying for a pink car.  We would have been happy with any color, as long as it was an automatic.  The first one that popped up on the radar had this purplish hue,  and it made me think of Kaelen's prayer.  I told Kaelen that purple and pink are very similar colors...
    Despite some minor issues, it is a decent car and ended up being the one we got.  The kids have called it Huey, the Purple People Eater.

Serious Business

   Kites are a big deal in Bali.  During the windy season from June-August, kids all over the island are flying kites.  If you're in the right areas, it's not uncommon to look up and see close to a hundred kites up in the sky.  But it's not just for kids...

   Adults also take kite making and kite flying seriously.  There are huge festivals and contests that pit kites against each other from villages all over Bali.

   Some of the kites can be over 45 feet long, with the tails measuring 100s of feet long.  Although it's not fun to be stuck in the many traffic jams caused when they are carrying these big kites to the beach to fly them, it is pretty cool to see lots of the big ones up in the air at the same time. 

   With the proliferation of small GoPro-type cameras, more and more villages are recording the events of the day but also hooking up the cameras directly to their big kites as they fly.  It's interesting to get the vantage point from up top.  You can CLICK HERE for one (really long) video taken from a local village in Bali, it kind of shows the activities of the kite festival day. 

   The video on top is a trailer of a documentary that was done chronicling the history of the kites and the cultural/religious significance of the kite festivals.