You never know where you will end up for breakfast ....

Made took me for a walk the other morning and we ended up at Gede and Putu Suleman's place at about 7.30am. Apparently this is an acceptable time to call in, even when the family has 2 small children. So of course Putu turned on breakfast which consisted of about 5 different cooked dishes. My waistline is definitely suffering from 3 cooked meals a day!

Gede is a mechanic and has his own workshop. He also tells me that he does plumbing and electrical work, a real "jack of all trades". Putu worked in an import/export business before kids and both Gede and Putu speak excellent English so it was a most enjoyable visit. They have become good friends while I've been here. Putu visited Australia as a teenager and she remembered Australian women kept dropping around with food so she has been making sure she does the same here, even though it is not part of the Balinese culture.

A Balinese BBQ

My hosts decided to put on a farewell BBQ for me and invite a number of church families. It was a great night and had some similarities with an Aussie BBQ.
1. The women prepared the food inside and the men cooked outside.
2. There was lots of disagreement on how the fire should go
3. They cooked potatoes in the ashes
4. At the end of the cooking there was LOTS of food.
5. Everyone had a great time

My hosts even went to the trouble of finding me beef, but then they cut it into very fine little pieces. At least it was grilled and tasted great after nearly 4 weeks of chicken.

Differences were
1. The fire is mainly small wood and some charcoal and is fanned continually
2. Whole fish heads are cooked on the fire
3. Every thing has chili. I made a coldslaw but it didn't go down well - not spicy enough. They wanted to know why I didn't add any other spices to the mayonnaise. Apparently a "creamy" flavour is not it.
4. Everyone goes home as soon as they have eaten. The day in Bali starts very early for most people.

A great day of diving

On Monday I took the day off and when for a scuba dive in the north of the island at Tulamben Bay. There you dive to the wreck of a ship that is in shallow water and you just go in off the very pebbly beach. I think it was the best quality and quantity of tropical fish that I have seen anywhere, and enormous numbers of soft corals. It was truly spectacular.

The interesting thing about diving there is that the local village has made an industry of carrying the tanks and gear down to the beach. I was amazed to see women juggling two tanks on their heads.

The trip to the north also involved traveling through some spectacular scenery.

Pre-schoolers are so cute

There is no doubt about it but pre-schoolers in traditional Balinese dress are about as cute as it gets. I was invited to Pica (see previous post) pre-school to see how they celebrated a traditional hindu festival day. Lots of dancing, cooking satay and other traditional food and FUN.

Different groups get together

Once a month the Men's Fellowship gets together to sing, pray together, look at a bible passage and of course have lots of food. I was invited last Friday to go along and do the bible study with them. It was a great time and we discussed together the bible passage. they also had lots of questions about my work in Australia and why I was only staying 4 weeks (going back to my real job doesn't seem to hold much sway as an excuse here). I had a great night with the guys.

Then on Saturday I was invited to the young adults group. I think 20 something olds are the same all everywhere. There was lots of joking and good natured teasing. But they all sing beautifully and did lots of it so that was lovely. My talk was about when Jesus asks us to do the hard things.

A pleasant Sunday Lunch

On my first Sunday here I was invited to lunch with Pica and Raka and their kids Gitar and Wila. As all the family speaks good English it was a most enjoyable time for me. All the family are very involved in the church, especially with music and it is a delight to hear Wila sing accompanied by her brother, as they did for the English service last week. Pica runs a preschool here and has graciously invited me to a number of events with the preschoolers (lots of fun). It turns out that Wila is doing graphic design like my daughter Sarah so they have started an email conversation.

I was also very grateful when Gitar gave up his Sunday afternoon to take me to a shop and get my Internet fixed.

A Balinese Funeral

 In a climate such as this and without refrigeration facilities funerals need to happen in a hurry. Most funerals occur the day after the death. The funeral I went to was of a young man (in his early 30s) who had been killed in a motorbike accident. There were well over 100 people there and and the coffin was on the front porch of the house. After the formal ceremony was finished the coffin was opened and everyone walked slowly past and paid their respects to the widow. Then the coffin was put on bamboo poles and carried on shoulders to the cemetery for burial. It was quite a sight.

The other cultural difference is that the Balinese take as many photos at the funeral as we would at a wedding so I was encouraged to take photos. It felt a bit strange and a couple of people thanked me for taking photos.