Rainy Season Ends with Tragedy

   It has started to be hot and dry in our city of Denpasar.  Just a few weeks ago, however, there was torrential rain throughout the island.

   It was the last weeks of the rainy season, and it ended with tragedy.  There were landslides all over the island... roads out, homes destroyed, and lives lost.

   In the midst of the tragedy, it has been encouraging to see the way that the people of Bali have rallied to help the victims.  The aid has poured in to help to provide for immediate needs of food and shelter, but there seems to also be a commitment to long-term support for the people affected by these landslides.

Everyone's Mad

   This is a hot topic here in Indo right now...

    Every year, forest fires are started in Indonesian forests to clear way for new palm oil plantations.  Technically, starting the fires is illegal.  But the highly lucrative palm oil trade brings a big dose of greed in to the picture.  So in reality, those laws don't really make much of a difference.

   The bad news is that the smoke from all those fires travels over the ocean to Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. 

   And the good folks in those countries are mad... and rightly so.  Their anger is directed at the Indonesian government, the palm oil companies (who happen to have wealthy Singaporean and Malaysian investors), and anyone else who will listen.

   Just try entering the hashtag #HAZE or #IndonesiaHaze into Twitter, and you'll see lots of unhappy people.

   To see what these countries look like with and without the haze, you can check out these interesting before and after shots from Malaysia and Singapore by clicking HERE.

Cold

   I think we have adjusted to the weather here... 

   We were on the way to school the other day.  It was freezing.  The kids were all complaining about how cold it was.  We put up the windows.  The kids were huddled together for warmth.  You would have thought the temps were hovering near 32°.

   When I whipped out the phone to check... it was actually 70°. 

   There have been posts like this on the blog before... for a little #tbt fun, click here.

The Big Delay

   We had a long day of driving in front of us... about 7 hours of driving over really bad roads.  On our way from Mbay over to Maumere on Flores island, we came across a bridge that was out.  The alternative road was more like a trail, and it passed over a riverbed that was usually dry.  

    We were (un)fortunate enough to come upon this riverbed right after a night of heavy rains.  There was lots of water.  It would have been passable except for one deep spot right in the middle of the river.  So we waited about an hour and a half with a group of other travelers until the river receded about 8 inches or so.   

    While we waited several 'brave' guys provided the group with entertainment.  They tried to make it across on their motorbikes, only to stall out halfway across.  Their motorbikes would've been carried down the river if it weren't for some friendly onlookers that rushed into the water to save the bikes. 

Flooded

Parts of our drive seemed more like white water rafting...

    A couple of weeks ago, there were floods of epic proportions in our city of Denpasar.  Denpasar is an incredibly densely populated city.  There is a complex system of drainage ditches, canals, and pipes to handle the heavy rains during rainy season.  Sometimes trash and debris completely clog up those canals and ditches.  Sometimes the heavy rain lasts for days.  Sometimes those two things happen at the same time... and it gets really bad really quick.

The guys in yellow were champions.

   That was the situation a couple of weeks ago.  We've never seen it that bad in our seven years here in Denpasar.  There were a lot of cars and motorbikes that got stranded with engines flooded or stuck in deep mud or hidden ditches.

   Kristi and I were trying to get through this mess.  We didn't want to, but we had to get to the immigration office before they closed.  It took us about two hours to make what would have normally been a 15 minute drive.   A couple of times I thought we weren't going to make it.
   In the picture on the left, the two guys in yellow rain suits tried to warn many people in cars and on motorbikes not to try passing this flooded area.  While Kristi and I sat there trying to figure out what to do, we watched several cars and motorbikes get stuck.  The guys in yellow were great and waded into the water to help lots of motorbikers.  Shortly after this picture was taken, the guy on the motorbike got stuck in the deepest part when his engine flooded.

Getting Ready for Re-entry

   The differences between life in the US and Indonesia are huge.  Culture, traffic, food, clothing, language, weather, etc.

   As we get ready to head back on the 15th of January, one of the differences on that list is gets drastic due to the time of year that we are going back.

   This is one of the hottest, most humid times of the year in Bali.  It is also one of the coldest, driest times in America.

   As you can see from the photo, it was a 75 degree difference yesterday (9am America time, 10pm Indonesia time). 

   In January, the temperature is regularly in the high 80s in Bali, and the humidity is also in the high 80s.

   We're actually looking forward to it...  :o)

Kedinginan (Freezing)

   Since coming to America, there has rarely been a day that we have not found ourselves freezing cold at one point or another.  This has usually been due to the ridiculously frigid levels that air conditioners are set to in homes, stores, and restaurants. 

   With Fall officially here, now it is the actual weather joining in to make us cold.  We often feel out of place, when we are wearing jackets and/or shivering when everyone else is 'comfortable'. So we try to blend in as much as possible.

   This morning, I was especially cold after a breakfast meeting with friends.  In the privacy of my (rented) vehicle, I set the thermostat to where I wanted it... and turn on the heated seats.  It was great.

Freezing on the Fourth

   We found a nice spot to watch fireworks on the 4th of July.  We were really cold, so we brought hot chocolate.

   Unfortunately, clouds rolled in so we weren't able to actually see any fireworks. 

Sunrise

   Jaiden wakes up at about 6:00 every morning.  The sun rises fairly consistently around that time throughout the year.  The length of our days here in Indonesia doesn't change as drastically as in the States, so we don't have those really late Summer evenings either when the sun is still out at 9pm.

   Many mornings when the sunrise is especially pretty, we hear Jaiden run downstairs, grab the camera and then she's quite for a while.  She snaps a lot of shots of the sunrise.  It's fun to see her results, and she's still learning how to take good pictures, so these will keep on getting better.

   This one on the right is from last week, taken at 6:06 am.

Ash Days?

That's not snow...

   Last week we were seeing all kinds of pictures from friends in America with scenes of snow, ice, and sleet.  Everything was blanketed with a nice layer of white.  Here in Indonesia there was a different blanket of white that wasn't so nice...

   I was traveling two weeks ago to Java, another island in Indonesia.  About five days after leaving via the Yogyakarta airport, we saw reports on TV and also got news from friends about the situation in Java...

Yogyakarta Airport

   A volcano erupted to the east of where I had been staying in Java.  It shot out dust that affected a large part of the island.  Three major airports were closed, Yogyakarta (the one I flew out of), Semarang, and Solo, and even flights at about 5 other airports were cancelled.

   My friend, Ahmad, from Java sent me a text saying that the ash in the town I had been staying was about 4 inches thick.

   The ash was a minor disruption compared to the thousands of people that had to be evacuated from their homes around the area of Mount Kelud. 
 

A Bad Rainy Day

   I was coming home from a water project late on the 23rd of January.  It had been raining most of the day, and I was waiting at a friend's house on the north side of the island.  I was waiting for the heavy rains to stop.  After about an hour of waiting, I decided it was time to just brave the rains and hop on my motorbike.  I had a 2 hour drive down to my house on the south part of the island.  I wasn't looking forward to it.

   After about 45 minutes, I was reaching the top of the ridge of mountains that separates north and south Bali.  The rain was incredible.  In my six years here, I have never been in a storm like that.  The thunder was deafening and almost constant, and I felt like I was driving through the lightning bolts.  Scary...

   At the top of the mountain, I could no longer see.  If my visor was down, it was not clear.  If it was up, my eyes filled up with water and made for almost zero visibility.  Thankfully, I was near a friend's home, so I stopped.  He gave me an awesome rain jacket, and I remember something he said to me, "In a rainstorm like this, there are going to be big landslides.  It's not a matter of if, but when and where."

   I continued my drive.  Two hours of facing blinding rain, crossing through flooded sections of road, passing by several fallen trees, dodging other debris that had been washed into the road, but I didn't come across a landslide.

   I was saddened to read the news reports the following morning: 4 deaths and 3 injuries in the very same part of the island that I had traveled through.  

Here's the story from Nusa Bali:

(1/26/2014)

Flooding and landslides that have affected parts of Buleleng in North Bali on Thursday, January 23, 2014, are being blamed for 4 deaths and 3 injuries.  Two of the fatalities occurred in a single vehicle overwhelmed by a landslide that swept the car and its passengers into a 30-meter deep ravine.
The accident happened on the main road connecting Singaraja to Denpasar via Kintamani. The car was swept off the road in the village of Mangening at Kubutambahan in Buleleng.  The accident occurred at 5:00 pm on Thursday when the men were traveling to Tegalalang. The depth of the ravine and landslide conditions only allowed rescuers to retrieve the men’s bodies at 7:00 am the following morning.
The two other fatalities claimed the lives of Ni Kadek Sri Ayu Padmini, a student of STKIP from Bebetin Village in Buleleng, and Ni Made Ayu Budi Utami from Lokapaksa Village also in Buleleng.
Padmini was found dead in the middle of a rice field near her home at 11:30 pm  on Thursday night, swept to that location by landslides and rushing flood water. The motorcycle she was riding at the time of the mishap was recovered on Friday morning.
Made Ayu Budi Utami perished when a wall at her home toppled down and killed her on Thursday evening at 10:00 pm.
The rains and winds that struck North Bali also affected Bangli, Tabanan, Gianyar and Badung.  The floods in the area are blamed for the destruction of 18 homes and two motorbikes in four separate villages.  Bali Daily says “scores of houses were swept away" in Petemon and Pengastulan villages by the surging water from the nearby Tukad Saba River.”

Twisters

   The weather in Bali has been pretty wild lately.  We are in the middle of rainy season, but we have had lots of high wind, storms, lightning.  It seems worse than any of our previous years here.  We don't really get the big tornadoes like they do in the Midwest, but we've had some smaller twisters and waterspouts over the last month.  

   Lots of videos were posted on youtube of this big storm in south Denpasar last month.  This happened not far from the house we lived in way back when we were learning language.  

    It is interesting to hear the guy on the video, because they aren't really aware of how dangerous that thing could be.  When the glass starts breaking, I think they start to get the idea.

Rainy Season Fashion

   I was recently at the office meeting with the Access Life Bali team.  As the meeting went on, the rain started to come down really, really hard.  As I was getting ready to leave, I realized that I had forgotten my rain jacket.  I was on the motorbike that day, and it's about a 15 minute ride home.  In keeping with Indonesian culture, I did not want to get wet.

   So I rummaged around the office for anything that might serve as a rain jacket, and this garbage bag was the best alternative.  With some slight modifications, it fit well and kept me relatively dry.

   It's not too out of the ordinary for people to wear a plastic bag on their head to avoid getting wet, so even though this may look very strange to you, I felt completely normal.

Snuggies

Jaiden and Kenan came with me for a visit to one of our friends' house.  This friend lives up in the mountains, and it can get quite cold (about 70˚ F).  I know that 70 degrees may sound quite comfortable, but that is really cold for us.

So Kenan and Jaiden bundled up in blankets and drank hot tea to warm up. 

Tribute to Rainy Season

Rainy season is coming to a close here in Bali.  It has lasted for much longer than it usually does, and the farmers are lamenting the fact that they can no longer predict the beginning and ending of the seasons like they used to.  It certainly has been weird weather.

Rainy season is a great time of year.  Things truly move at a different pace.  So this picture is our tribute to the end (hopefully it's ending) of rainy season.  It's a guy who was on his motorbike, really didn't want to get wet, and really didn't want to wear a rain jacket.  So, he carried an umbrella...

The picture at the bottom is another fun motorbike picture.  This is a family of four all on a bike (five people is generally the reasonable limit, our family of five can still all fit on the motorbike).  Both of the kids in this picture are sleeping, and the mom is having to hold both of their heads up so that they can continue to sleep comfortably.

The Shade

It's hot here in Bali.  It's humid.  But when you are standing directly in the sunlight, it can get downright unbearable.  That explains why shade is always sought out.  People, motorbikes, animals all congregate and gather in the shady areas.  It's an easy way to identify somebody that is new to Indo by the fact that they just stand in the sun while everyone else is huddled under the closest bit of shade.

One reason for this is because people don't like to be hot.  The other is that people (especially the ladies) don't like to get darkened by the sun.  A nice dark tan is not desirable here.  People are already 'tan' and are trying to avoid becoming more tan (an interesting side note is that while some white people buy self tanning lotion, many Asians will buy whitening lotion).

I snapped this picture while waiting for a light to turn green.  The light was about to turn green because it took me a minute to get the phone out and snap the picture.  However, when I had just pulled up, most of the motorbikes had stopped in the shade of the big tree, and the space closer to the light (and in the sun) was empty. 

Presidential Palace is Flooded

More interesting photos from the Jakarta flooding... This is the President, he's known as SBY (es-bay-yay), and Secretary of State surveying the flooded presidential palace. 

The floods have never reached the palace before...

Severe Rainy Season

 

   We are in the middle of rainy season here in Indonesia.  At our house in Bali, we have gotten lots of rain, but nothing more than usual for this time of year.  It is very normal to have rain that will last the entire night with minor flooding in flood prone areas near our house.

    However, in Jakarta, the rainy season is striking much worse than normal.  Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is notorious for its annual flooding.  This year has been much worse, with water as high as 19 feet in some areas.  15 people have died in the capital alone due to the severe flooding.  

 

So cold...

  16˚ Celsius = 60.8˚ Fahrenheit

I was coming home tonight from the mountains (about 3600 feet above sea level) in central Bali, and I was absolutely freezing.  I had on socks (which is very rare here) and a big jacket, but it was still so cold.  I got home, took a hot shower and wrapped up in blankets, all the while making a really big deal about how cold it was up in those mountains.  I was going about 50 mph on the bike, and I was sure that factoring in all the variables that the wind chill factor would be in the 30s.  

So I was a bit disappointed (and mildly embarrassed) when I worked it all out and found that the wind chill factor was a whopping 54 degrees Fahrenheit.  So either my body has adjusted really well to the warm temperatures in our city (about 140 feet above sea level) or I am just a real big sissy... no comments please.

Ada Perbaikan Jalan : Road Construction

Bali had several days of nonstop rain, high winds, and all around weird weather.  This happened about two weeks ago.  After that, some more days of heavy rains caused lots of landslides all over the island.  A lot of the farmers up in the mountains that grow clove and coffee lost a lot of their trees as well.

We were driving up through these areas and saw a sign that said something like, "Be careful. Road Construction".  After driving past the barrels and rope that marked off the road and seeing the damage to the road below, I think a better warning would have been: "The road you're about to drive on could collapse at any minute, and you could fall 100s of feet into the lake below.  Proceed with caution."