Death By a Thousand Cuts

Today was proof that every day in SE Asia isn't glory.

I brought my laundry home from the laundromat after carefully going thru the process of planning it into my day and opened my dresser to put them away and realized that anything I left in the cabinets for at least a week had a thick layer of hairy orange and green mold. Nice.

Back to the laundromat tomorrow.

I then tried using my professional grade hair clippers for a hair cut after deciding it was no big deal that I left my voltage converter in Seattle. I burned my clippers' motor half way into the process.

Looking into the mirror at the problem I decided the only course of action was to shave my head with a little gillette shaver.

1.5 hours later...

My head is shaved for the first time in my life. I'm ready for tomorrow.

fourth grade mudpit play

This is my daughter Elena's future class at the Green School celebrating Earth day by performing a play that explores the relationship between masculinity and femininity. The concept stems from the Balinese ritual called Mepantigan. It's a combination of martial arts in a mudpit. The women vs. the men in this case. The elegant girls pushed the crude boys over and flipped them on their backs. It's safe to say the Green School is the only school in the world with a permanent mud wrestling pit.

Canggu beach ceremony

javanese teak wall panel splits

Big Grass

Kris Kristofferson

I Travelled twelve hours each way to Malang, east Java to visit the factory last weekend over three days. We drove in formation with an infinite number of smokey trucker and inter-island ferry convoys in a cramped pick-up truck. I lost consciousness but was still awake if that makes sense. Maybe it was the curry and the diesel fumes baking my brain, or maybe it was the 8-song music loop, played at least 53 times each way.

Anyway, I encountered many really kind, spiritual people there. They treated me with more respect than I've ever experienced. They even went out after dinner and bought me brand new bed sheets to make me feel special for a day or so. Considering they live on about $5 a day it's obvious who is special.

new friends David and Winwee

Rivers.
The balinese hydrology is ancient. Carved into the volcanic soil is a matrix occupying the space between roadways and farms that is designed to flood any and every bit of the island's beautifully terraced agricultural plots. These are thin ribbons of water. If you look closely they have very little volume but during a storm the ribbons become torrents, sometimes spilling over, usually merging with streams and rivers. The scope of this infrastructure is mind boggling but when the floods happen, and they do, it becomes a masterful work borne of survival instincts planned eons ago to support the many generations who come to rely on the bounty of the farmland. Their principle yield being rice.

Waruna; God of all things water

Rain.
I thought it rained hard in Seattle but after a monster downpour in Bali I have decided what is truly rain and what is simply drizzle. First let's quantify "rain". If each drop contains water in the quantity of a shy liter and the drops are collectively whizzing through the air at a spacing of a shy centimeter then that is "rain". If the sky has opened up with cracks of thunder and the God of Rain, Waruna has unleashed an ocean of holy water on the earth and its scrambling, stumbling, scattering and thoroughly soaked inhabitants find nary a crevice of protection from the deluge...then that is; "rain".

Steamy.
Tomorrow morning it will be steamy and I will feel like a Chinese humbao as soon as I wake. Where my skin (surface of bun) stops and the thickened soupy air starts will be difficult to determine until the tropical sun rises and bakes the paste away revealing a beautiful new layer of skin ready to burn. I'm ready.

Went to dinner last night in Ubud at a place called Clear. It had the Star Wars Bar vibe which made me feel about how plain I was amongst all the characters from around the world. Swanky and stylish vs regular dude. At first maybe I was a little disinclined to engage with them but after watching for awhile and remembering that many are here for the same reasons I eventually relaxed and observed all the interesting people like my mom taught me 25 years ago in Ann Arbor. The bridge was divided and I was right in there in the social soup.

My experiences in the mountains has always resulted in the overwhelming feeling of being a speck on the planet but I never thought a plant could have the same effect.

I've finally relaxed. I'm sleeping like a rock even though the humidity is strong... like ox. What a relief after feeling the angst to arrive here after 500 days of imagining. I can't wait 'til the girls arrive, Bali will be that much better.

I finally got a short window of time in my schedule to make a post that captures what I've experienced and the only picture I want to share is of my best friend Ben and his oldest son Rian. We had a nice meal after a long day and shared some laughs

phase one is underway!

Off and running!
Well, Brooke saw me off last night and I made it across the big pond without a scratch after some really tearful goodbyes with the girls. There's a method to the madness and I guess my early foray to Bali is necessary for multiple reasons but it's still tough to separate from my family for four months.

All the planning, packing and organizing was done with great precision and we all know the value of smooth sailing but having planned to death all actions that are currently underway, the element of surprise has fallen into the trash heap and I'm just following my own travel plans that have been established since the the dawn of man it seems . I'm still enjoying everything and living for the moment in two major airports; Seatac and Taipei and on two airplanes, including listening to a man in the seat behind me snort and gurgle his phlegm for 13 hours (I guess that's always surprising). Anyway, the true adventure begins very soon and spontaneity will be the general theme with the girls and Brooke set to arrive in the summer.