More pictures of the New Year Celebration.

More pictures of the New Year Celebration.

   We have spent a quiet day reading by the pool.  I think this idea of Silent Day is one we could all copy!  Part of the "belief" is that since the ogoh-ogoh have been burned, the world is clean and by being silent, Bali is telling the evil spirits that no one lives here.  The lack of sound almost makes it seem possible!

3 pictures for you

Offerings at the temple

Young girl "anointed" with rice

Procession from the ritual washing at the sea

Ogoh Ogoh and morning doves

This would never happen outside of Bali!  The entire island is "closed" today for the celebration of the Hindu New Year.  And closed, means just that.   All shops, businesses, traffic (including motorbikes to our relief), use of fire, use of electricity (except in the hotels and resorts), and even the AIRPORT are closed.  Everyone is required to stay at home between 6 AM this morning and 6 AM tomorrow....and this means us.  No one is allowed outside his/her home and this is actually enforced.  This special day is called a day of silence and it is  to be a time of reflection including reflection on what one has done wrong in the previous year in addition to learning to control oneself and submit to God.  Tomorrow some of the shops are still closed and according to the hotel information sheet some of the banks.  We are hoping the ATMs that were shut off last night will be turned on tomorrow....there is an exit tax we need to pay to leave tomorrow and we really do need the ATM to work!

So, we woke to peace this morning and the sound of cooing morning doves and no motor bikes.  Even though where we are staying is not in the heart of Ubud, there was road noise which is wonderfully absent.  So...an entire day where we are required to stay in the hotel grounds, there is a reduced staff who will provide us meals and we will e-mail, read, and begin the process of packing.  We are picked up tomorrow at 6 PM, will have lunch on the beach near the airport and are due to leave around 00:45, flying first to Seoul and then on to Chicago.  What an adventure this has been!

But about the Ogoh-Ogoh.  These are huge paper mache monsters unlike any we have ever seen. They are truly terrible looking and many  times they are doing terrible things, like killing babies, stepping on people, basically anything you can imagine.  They represent the evil spirits in the world and in us, are built in all the villages by the young men (no girls allowed), are financed by donation, worked on for months, and then are paraded through the villages on the night before Silent Day.  A platform is constructed of thick bamboo poles in a checkerboard fashion so that depending on the size of the statue 50 plus young men can fit into the framework and carry the monster.  For the tall ones there are men with long poles lifting the electrical wires out of the way.  But really fun was seeing the young boys between 5 and 10 carrying the lighter monsters and having the time of their life.  Cheering each other on, laughing,and over the top excited.

We also believe that this parade/celebration brought out every Westerner in the area and it was great people watching!!  The challenge of the night was pointing out the people we thought were "permanent" expat residents!  We watched a long time, sitting on a shop step, but finally left for a really good dinner and a walk back to De Menut.  We didn't stay for the end which is a huge bonfire during which the ogoh-ogoh are burned (clearing the world of the evil spirits) so that today the world basically starts over clean.

Tomorrow we have been told that people visit family members and apologize and ask for forgiveness as well as head to the beaches.

In the days leading up to Nyepi (the name for this entire celebration) we saw many temple ceremonies (from the outside, but the walls are only 4 feet high).  Men dressed in long white clothes with a head covering of various designs mostly white and the women in an ankle length skirt with beautiful lace tops...smaller versions for the children.  The women walk down the road and into the temple banancing on their heads closed baskets of food  for an offering to God and to receive a blessing.  After the temple ceremony, the baskets are taken home and are part of the feast the family shares today.  I am not sure how the now cooking prohibition is carried out regarding the feast - although I suspect the chickens we have seen go by in crates on the trucks for days play a prominent role.)  The priest sprinkles water on all of the people attending as they kneel and similar to our Ash Wednesday, kernels of cooked rice are placed on their foreheads and at the base of their necks. Life here depends on rice, so this seems VERY appropriate. We saw streams of people returning from "washing" a symbol of God in the ocean or the lake (depending on where we were), in the festival dress over the last few days and will not forget the sight.  For not knowing about this holiday when we made our travel plans, this has been a real bonus.

I should also mention that there are beautiful small offerings in front of every shop, hotel, doorway, and even in the taxi we hired for a day of sightseeing.  Every family has a temple as part of their compound which is visited daily and it is decorated with bamboo, ribbon, offerings for this holiday.  There are literally thousands of temples in Bali. and they receive the greatest attention and money from the family...not the homes --at least traditionally.  The vast majority of the people living in Bali are Hindu and we have been told there are lots of festivals, celebrations on a complicated calendar system (actually 2 systems and there are priests whose responsibility is to determine the appropriate day for each.)

Yesterday we went on a 7 hour bike trip which really was about 2-3 hours of actual biking with the vast majority being a down hill coast.  It is going to be painful to get back in shape!  But it was interesting.  We were in the countryside with lots of small villages, visited a family compound, rode through a rice field and learned about how that crop is raised, and for the third time visited a coffee plantation.  This time we did try the Luwak coffee (also known as poop coffee and supposedly the most expensive coffee in the world).  Thankfully we did not like it!  What a relief.  I am bringing home some ginger coffee, though, and will be happy to share that!

So it is time to head home and we are ready.  We will miss the wonderful flower smells and balmy air especially in the morning and late afternoon/evening but family and friends are beckoning.  We have had contact via e-mail with the friends we left in Sukadana and think of them and their work often and yet it seems far away  Thank goodness for pictures and memories!

Love to all of you!  And see you soon!  A few pictures coming soon.

Odds and ends post Borneo

We are spending a few days, post Borneo, in Bali so a few additional thoughts and observations:  

Coffee-- Indonesian coffee is ground to a fine powder and stirred into the hot water -- no filtering.  Some of  you know we brought our lexan French press which did make a big difference in the amount of grounds we actually consumed.  Here in Bali, they grow coffee and the most famous (and expensive) is Luwak coffee made from beans that have been eaten by a Asian palm civit, then excreted, cleaned thoroughly and roasted.  (most expensive coffee in the world).  Frankly, I am quite satisfied with the Starbucks I buy at home, so was not even tempted.  And I have had just enough "poop" experience this trip as it is.  Fermentation occurs in their gut which creates more free amino acids -- therefore less acidic.  

Snails-- They are everywhere.  This morning spotted one on the legs of our breakfast table and in Borneo, we had them in and on the squat toilet, the windows, the floor of the bathroom and boxes of toothbrushes (fortunately in wraps).

We had a great evening send-off with the Borneo bunch -- treated some 24 of the clinic crew to supper for all of $40.  We then got hugs from everyone, even the doctors for Lauri.  We will miss their laughter, ready smiles and afternoon "birthday" cappuccino's.  Their dedication is an inspiration to both of us.

Bali is beautiful with mountains, beautiful valleys, tiered rice paddies and a ton of temples (90% HIndu).  But... the traffic is horrible and the crowds (even though it's not peak season) are bad here in Ubud.  Guess we are ready to come home.  We will be here for Nyeti (annual Hindu celebration) where they totally quiet for an entire day to make the evil spirits think Bali is deserted -- everything stops (no flights, nothing open, you stay in your hotel).  That day is preceded by large parades in the evening of these paper mâché ghastly creatures that are being built as we speak and after the parades are burned.  We expect that to be fascinating.  Because of this Hindu event, the temples were a  mass of people praying and milling about yesterday.

And...just to make this Bali stay more interesting, we both got sick last night (who knows from what) and this after Lauri was crowing about how she managed to stay well throughout our time in Borneo, while the weaker member of the family had succumbed to tourista early on.  Guess there is poetic justice after all.

We had planned a bike tour today, but will delay that until tomorrow,  Then, a couple of more days and we are on our way home.  Thanks to all of you for your interest in reading our emails and blog.  Your occasional responses have been greatly appreciated -- especially after a night of battling ants.

Jim

Now, for the last interesting patient:

Now, for the last interesting patient: Earlier this week, we saw an elderly man with a history of diarrhea, some blood in the stools and, at the same time, discovered a bladder obstruction. A foley cath was placed and he returned today for follow-up. Much to our amazement, a rectal exam revealed an impaction of large seeds (he says only langsat, but we wonder about rambutan as well). Ilana and Ronald have been busy removing the impaction (I elected to defer -- have done more than enough over the years) and I am getting periodic updates. Even the orangutans, we noted, spit out the seeds -- don't know why this man decided to do otherwise. Is there a moral to this story?? Suggestions are enouraged.