Approaching my third month here in Indonesia I have had so many revelations and discoveries about myself. I am faced with the truth about just how resilient I am. Can I go without the good old predictable comforts of home? I have had a turbulent time here in first two months. We all have extreme highs and lows here. Life is not easy or convenient in Indonesia. However, the difficulties here force us to have active minds to solve the ever-present obstacles to our success. Complacency is not an option here; at least not for us. My identity has been rattled since I have left my career, home, and friends and family back home. Staying busy with tasks and duties back home really allowed me to avoid some pretty big internal questions. Everyday here in Bali I have at least three big discoveries- no kidding. I am learning the art of slowing down and letting things slowly unfold. Nothing can be forced here. Just when I think I am about to make something big happen the whole island shuts down for a full moon ceremony or a cremation. Or I get turned around because of a pile of sand or a sinkhole in the road. As a result, everything is on hold and I lose momentum. Patience is key. Not one of my strengths but I am working on it.
Every western person living or traveling in Indonesia has an interesting story. There are no boring people here. Really. In fact, Pete and I have the most boring story in town. We are working on that too. Most folks here speak several languages and have been living internationally for decades. Everyday I meet someone new that inspires me here.
I have rented a motorbike. I decided if I couldn’t beat the locals I might as well join them on the road. Cruising around on the back streets of Ubud on my motorbike, eating street food, and hanging with the locals is fun! The kids love to cruise on the motorbike as well. Something they could never do at home in the US. Not legally anyway.
Our house is falling apart but we are growing to love it anyway. There are leaks in every room and it rains really fucking hard here. Like buckets of rain. No roof could stand up to the rain here. Our plumbing is shotty. Some days we have no water. The wiring in the house trips every day and some days there are black outs across the whole island. Our pool is not finished because the owner of the house ran out of money and cannot afford the pump. So we have a big beautiful pool filled with rainwater, leaves, and frogs. Rats get into everything here, especially the food. I have invested in big plastic containers for food storage but the rats are working on those too. Termites are rampant here in Bali and every morning we wake up to a pile of wood dust on our pillows and in our sheets. All this is typical for Bali so we are learning to accept our reality here and embrace our house for what it is.
We share our homestead property with a Balinese family that makes bricks. They work hard and are good people. They speak no English so we communicate with smiles. Our neighbor Putu is a wood carver with his father who is 94 years old. I never see them leave their homestead. They have a pet squirrel and baby bunnies. The kids hang out there and play with their animals. We also have three dogs, one puppy, two kittens, fish, three turtles, frogs, snakes, scorpions, tropical birds, HUGE spiders, and massive Tokay geckos on our property. It is an animal lovers paradise. However, most will die because of poor conditions but they are quickly replaced. Dogs and cats are not spayed or neutered here so there are litters of babies everywhere. Dogs look horrible here because of malnutrition and mange, but Hindus revere them as a vehicle to the next life so they are kind to them. However, they do sacrifice dogs at ceremonies and there are ceremonies daily here.
Ceremonies for rain, rice, full moon, fish, children, dogs, wealth, and so on. . . .
I have gotten used to having a pembantu and a driver. Kadek our pembantu cooks and cleans here everyday. Her cooking is not good and her cleaning is mediocre but I love having her anyway. She speaks no English. Sometimes I sit with her by our 20meter pond (pool) and just hang out. We watch the frogs and lizards and we eat peanuts. It is nice.
Food here is tricky. One must be skeptical of anything packaged because there are few regulations for food processing here in Indonesia. Most food here is loaded with MSG and formaldehyde. Even fresh produce can be dangerous here because of the lack of regulations for pesticide use. We do not buy anything that is not organic here- especially rice. We live in the sawah (rice paddies) here and it is scary what they spray on there crops. Eeeek. Never will I buy white rice again from SE Asia.
Western foods are hard to find in the village and what does exist is really expensive. You can find nine-dollar boxes of cereal and seven-dollar bottles of balsamic vinegar. So mostly we eat Indonesian food and the kids are super sick of it.
Mildew. If you like mold, you should move here.
Yesterday I took my favorite shirt and favorite skirt from Atheleta to a tailor who is going to copy both for about 12 bucks. I am also having some customs pillows and batik lamps made for about the same. Pretty cool.
Pete is working hard to establish a business here. It is not easy. Again, everything gets put on hold for religious holidays, monsoons, etc. . . . For now, we are living pretty slim. It has been awhile since we lived like poor folks and we have had some big adjustments. After establishing a comfortable income in the US it has been hard to start over here in Indonesia. We spent most of our US money to get here, afford a house, and put our kids in international school for a year. Now we exist on a small wage for daily living. Nothing left over each month. Struggle now and benefit later. If you are a westerner trying to live in Indonesia, you better be a risk taker. Even the super wealthy westerners here are faced with visa complications and constant Indonesian shenanigans. The government here is super corrupt and it can be a challenge to protect oneself from injustice. That being said, the Balinese are gentle and kind. There is virtually no crime here and no violence. I never worry about our safety here in the village. The kids run free here.
I think Bali is growing on me.
Judy is a hard worker and loves a good construction project. She worked in the rain and mud.
Ok, so about 20 minutes after this photo was taken the kitten caught and ate the baby chicken. Judy cried. Oh the lessons in Bali.
