Bali United FC

   Kenan has been a big supporter of our local soccer team, Bali United FC.  Their games regularly attract 30,000 wild supporters.  We went to our first game a few weeks ago.  Kenan was happy to get in on the action.  It was a big 3-2 win for the home side.

   Bali United ended up coming in second place in the Indonesian Premier League, losing controversially to a team that is run by the national police force.

   Indonesian soccer games have a reputation for getting out of control.  Smoke bombs, firecrackers, and water bottle bombardment of opposing players are commonplace.  Sadly, one fan even died during an Indonesian Premier League game this year.

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.

The Red & Whites

   Indonesia, despite being a country with a huge population that is crazy about soccer, has always struggled with mediocrity at the national team level.  They float around the bottom quarter of the global FIFA rankings.
   That's why there current run in the AFF Cup has been so encouraging and exciting for Indo.  They just squeaked out a narrow victory over Vietnam to make it to the finals.  They will face either Myanmar or Thailand in the finals beginning on December 14th.
   In case you were interested, here's the highlights from the first leg of their matches with Vietnam.  Indonesia's president was at the game, and the camera cuts to him often after goals scored.  Enjoy...

Champions

   Jaiden is a doer.  She is always up for a new book, a new challenge, a new sport, etc.  She started playing volleyball and got good at it pretty quick.  Her team made it to the finals and they faced an undefeated team.  Jaiden's team got more nervous and scared as they watched their opponent dominating everyone else in earlier rounds.

   But when their match started, Jaiden's team put the hammer down and won 2 games to 0.  Jaiden served to finish out the match.

 

#DabOnEm

   Jaiden's basketball team cruised into their area championship.  Winning their games with comfortable leads and very little drama.  The dab has made its way over to Indo (with a little help from some Carolina Panthers fans that live in the area), so the girls did their best attempt at the dab.
   Still got some work to do...

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...

City Championships - Heartbreak City

    Jaiden's team came up short in the championship game.  It was a fun game to watch, and the parents section was getting fired up.  Jaiden's team, East Denpasar, had the game in hand with 4 minutes to go and a 10 point lead.

    Then it happened...

    Not since the great villain J.J. Redick routinely shredded the Tar Heels or Austin Rivers droppped a dagger in the Dean Dome has the basketball world seen such a startling display of talent and arrogance.  Number 4 (far left in the upper picture) drilled 4 three pointers on 4 consecutive possessions to seal the win.  With each made triple, her celebration antics got more elaborate.  She sent the hundreds of spectators at Ngurah Rai arena into a frenzy (I wish I had gotten a video of that).  The coach almost had to call a timeout to let her finish her celebration before getting back on defense.

     It was a great game.  Wild finish... We'll get 'em next year.

Carolina Girl

   Jaiden recently participated in a basketball tournament for her school.  She played great!  At the end of the tournament, she was selected to the East Denpasar All-Star team which will compete at the big, city tournament in April.
   It was great to watch her compete.  I was fulfilling my dad role of loud and partially obnoxious cheering (this is a tradition that was passed on to me by my father who would loudly cheer at my basketball games and occasionally 'encourage' the refs to make certain calls).
   Everything was going great until Kristi scooted away from me a little bit.  I asked her what was wrong.  It was a hot day, but I didn't feel like I smelled any worse than usual.  She told me that I was embarrassing and that people were staring at me.  I looked around the gym and realized that she was right... lots of people were staring at me and laughing in an amused, but approving, manner.
   It was then that I also realized that we were the only non-Indonesians in the whole gym.  Also, Jaiden was the only non-Indonesian on any of the teams.  I was cheering like an American.  Indonesian culture values the community over the individual.  Indonesians tend to cheer loudly and can get really wild at sporting events, but it seems to always be in the context of community.  They cheer together, in a group without wanting to draw too much attention to one or two individuals.
   So I enjoyed watching my kid play, applied some cultural understanding to a new context, and kept on cheering...

Proud of this Kid...

   Shortly before the end of the school year, Jaiden and her classmate, Dewa Ayu, did something really impressive.  They entered every track and field event at a big meet in Denpasar.  Then they medaled in almost every event they were in.  Their point totals were higher than some of the schools that were there (Yes, they had more points than all the kids from an entire school).
   Jaiden also set a new Bali record for the high jump. 

Progress? Maybe not...

   The start of the World Cup is only 10 days away.  Here in Indo, it's a huge deal.  Most TV channels have had a little countdown in the top corner of the screen for the last couple of months.
   In many areas of town, people will put up big flags of the countries which they support.  Nobody really supports Indonesia because Indonesia is not playing in this year's World Cup, and it hasn't played in a World Cup since 1938 where it only played one game in which it lost 6-0 to Hungary.
   I was here for the run-up to the 2010 World Cup too, and I have never, ever seen anyone flying an American flag to show their support for the Yanks.  Usually it's the normal favorites like Germany, Brazil, Italy, England, Netherlands, France, etc.  But this year, just a couple of weeks ago, I saw the Red White and Blue not far from our house.
   It was a big deal.  I got out and started taking pictures.  I think it shows how far the US national team has come...

   Seeing that flag inspired me to believe that we just might even be able to survive our group of death with Portugal and Germany.  But just two days ago, I drove down this street and guess what?  The big American flag got replaced by an even bigger German flag.  Good feelings gone...

Breaking Our Hearts

   Our kids love to eat at McDonalds.  I know, I know... it's unhealthy, it's gross, it's not even real food, etc.  I get all that, but my kids love it.  Indonesians are pretty happy to eat there as well.  Every time they open a new location here in our town, it's really busy from day one.

   We were recently eating at the beloved 'McD', and there was a big soccer match on TV.  It was Indonesia's national team versus Malaysia  The Indonesian national team has a tendency to really break our hearts, seemingly always finding a way to lose, especially when we're facing our bitter rivals, Malaysia.  But the last several months have been different!  We've had a bit of success, and things are starting to look better.

Jaiden is locked in to the action...

   But back to McD... everyone's eyes in the place were glued to the TV (although it doesn't really look like that in the picture), including the McD workers (you'll notice them sitting down and watching the game).  During the first half there were several of Indonesia's shots that went off the crossbar, prompting half of the people in the place to jump up with anticipation only to be letdown as the ball bounced away.  It was fun to be sharing that experience with everyone in the place, and there were a few people very curious as to why the big white guy and his family were so interested in the Indonesian national team.

   McD is always loud with lots of talking, laughing, and kids playing at the playground, but when we finally got a goal (and the win), it momentarily sent the volume and excitement level to a much higher setting.

   Fun times...

Piling In

This is our car with all the neighborhood kids that come with Jaiden to play futsal.  I think there were only 14 people in the car for this photo, usually it's a few more than that.

Waves...

 

Bali is a great place for surfing.  The World Pro Surfing Tour is in Bali at the moment... this break is about 30 minutes from our house and is not at all touristy.  Just a normal little Balinese village that gets a great wave when the swell is right.

Send this man a terrible towel...

Just in case you were wondering, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is 10,021 miles away from Pedawa (a little village in Bali, you can click here if you want to see it in google maps).  Lots of cloves and coffee grow in the forests of Pedawa.

I was there to buy some water and drop off some water filters for a local colleague, and then a man drives up on his motorbike sporting a Pittsburgh Steelers sweatshirt.  I was a bit surprised...

For those of you who don't know, I have five older brothers.  Three of those brothers grew up near Pittsburgh and have retained some sense of loyalty to the Steelers.  So I started to talk to this guy about his sweatshirt and told him I needed his picture as evidence to prove to my brothers that there are Steelers fans in Indonesia.  He quickly straightened up, dusted the dirt off his sweatshirt, and fixed his hair.  He was a good sport and started telling his buddies how his photo would be famous in America.

For the record, he had no idea what the Pittsburgh Steelers were, and he couldn't remember where he got the sweatshirt.

Like a Fish

Jaiden recently had her school swim meet.  She did great, getting two 1st place finishes and two 2nd place finishes.  She does a great job in the water.  

Village Volleyball

I am usually in Tigawasa village at least once a week to check on the status of the completed water project and to visit with friends there.  They are pretty serious about their volleyball there, and I often will join in for a game.

When I first started playing there, I thought I could get by on the fact that I was at least 4 inches taller than the tallest guy in Tigawasa.  Turns out that isn't enough of an advantage for me, because I get smoked every week.  Their technique and knowledge of the game is really impressive seeing that they have never been coached or played in regular competitions growing up.  They say that they learn all of the formations, hitting and service techniques, etc from watching volleyball on TV. 

If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see in the background how the court is lined with bamboo fencing.  This is a newer court that was built onto the side of a mountain, so if a ball goes over the fence, you will be chasing that thing for a long time...