Into our sixth week we go - having gained enough footing to raise our eyes from the path beneath our feet, we’ve begun to take in the lay of the land. It has been a fascinating couple of weeks here in the Nyuh Kuning neighborhood.
It has gotten significantly hotter in the last few days in preparation for the start of the rainy season. We have to remind ourselves that in a month or so we might be longing for these sunny though stiflingly-hot days. The neighborhood is atwitter with the filming of Eat, Pray, Love in Ubud. Taxi drivers casually mention sightings of Julia Roberts, and a dozen of our friends were cast as extras in the last few weeks. It has been an interesting point of reflection – what will this movie mean for Nyuh Kuning? For greater Ubud? For Bali? It is a swirling contemplation. It is amazing the amount of scandal and intrigue one woman’s reflections have stirred. I wonder if her wildest imaginings could have captured this scene…
Dan’s weeks are filling to the brim with English classes he teaches at the Youth Center, math lessons for the 12 year old daughter of friends of ours from Canada, language classes at the library in town, YBS website upkeep, creating a 3D rendering of the new clinic that is in its beginning stages, and a zillion other bits and pieces. His photo chronicles are growing by the day – we will continue to post samples as they rise to the surface!
I have attended my first handful of births and am absolutely hooked. I have a difficult time imagining not doing this work in some capacity. My heart races every time the phone rings or dings with a text-message. There is a tangible sense of being exactly where we are supposed to be. My new skill-set includes prenatal examinations (in English and Bahasa Indonesia), charting & labor support, using the Doppler to monitor and document fetal heart rhythms, and the like. It will be fascinating to see how this particular aspect of the journey will continue to unfold...

- Our home at Loka Pala -

Spaces

Loka Pala

This is the view from our front porch at the villa Loka Pala in Nyuh Kuning, Ubud. It is really lovely, we're thrilled to have found it.

The walled "compound" is bordered on two sides by rice paddies, and is a 2 minute walk from the clinic. The beautiful stone & tile pool has also been a life-saving element - for both ourselves and friends from the clinic.

We have a remarkably kind and friendly landlord, as well as caretakers that are patient, ever-smiling, and generous as we practice our Bahasa Indonesia with them each day. With the final additions of our pleasant neighbors and the motley duo of guard dogs, Momo and Lilo, Loka Pala has become home.

Sari Organika

This photo was taken on the walk to Sari Organika in Ubud - an organic farm a mile into the rice paddies from downtown (and yet a world away) up a path just wide enough for two folks or a single motorbike. The juices and foods on the menu come straight from the gardens, greenhouses and paddies - it is an amazing place.

Rice paddies constitute most of the open spaces, the green spaces in Ubud. Bands of ducks are loosed the paddies to pick off pests, and large bamboo masts dot the fields with banners of fabric flapping in the breeze. These structures are erected to ward off invisible pests, evil and trickster spirits.

Echo Beach

This beach was the first we'd visited in Bali - located on the South-Western shores of the island in the Indian Ocean. The sands were black (telling of their volcanic origins) and the waves inviting. Surfers abounded as did shells, laughter and lung-fulls of salty air.

Beginnings

It has been three full weeks since we arrived in Bali. Having just made this observation, I feel compelled by habit to follow it up with something along the lines of “…it feels like a life time” or, conversely, “…where has the time gone?” – but I can’t sort it out. Time feels surreal, nearly obsolete. Much in the way we have only one scheduled item a few times a week – our language class at the local library – the days are filled without a tangible routine. A day’s activities materialize in an order that is realized only later, upon reflection. “What am I doing tomorrow?” – “What did I do yesterday”… “What about this afternoon”… these are compartmentalized reflections that are at once useless here, and entirely NOT the point. It feels rather like meditation. Meals are taken when hungry, yoga done when restless, work done when inspired, books read as desired, a swim had when overheated. Despite this, there feels a distinction between this life and a vacation – rather than leaving necessities by the wayside in favor of escapist pursuits – it has been a revelation, a reflection, something that has nothing to do with schedules, racing and deadlines.
There are many little details that I find myself trying to catalogue to write down – tidbits that I would find fun and insightful was I reading rather than writing this narrative. I can’t seem to organize them properly to share …
Yesterday we spent the day on a beautiful beach with a small group of friends from the clinic. The group included Dan and I, the outgoing volunteer coordinator and his wife who is a labour and delivery nurse, the two volunteers we arrived with (a young professional from Boston, and a labour and delivery traveling nurse from LA), and a couple from D.C. who are here to deliver their baby girl within the next month. We bobbed in the turquoise water, rode waves with our bodies and rented foam boards, marveled at the clarity of the water and the tremendous amount of coral washing up on the beach’s white sand. We lounged, ate fresh grilled mahi-mahi, talked, walked, laughed and wondered over the contrast of white sand, turquoise water and black rock cliffs that framed either side of the little beach cove. I read back over these words and feel strange about the image they capture – to pick it out this one day to outline might overshadow the role it plays in the greater context of days lived here and those that remain to be lived in the coming months – it is a part of the whole.
I am trying to decipher whether my overly-philosophical sensibility is a pointed reflection or rather a testament to an introspective morning…perhaps it is both.
Outside the sliding screen doors Momo and Lilo are sleeping sprawled in the shady tiled porch. They were rescued as puppies by the previous tenant that lived in our flat. The landlord of the villa keeps them on and feeds them and they provide security and peculiarly fickle affection. They are a fascinating pair. More than once they’ve escorted us from the main street in the evening, as we stepped out of a taxi from dinner, through the dark side streets into the villa’s courtyard. Given the slightest opportunity they will slip inside the doors of our room and curl up to sleep near the door. Though pleasant company in general, they are still “Bali-dogs” slightly feral, flea-ridden and a bit mangy – and there is the small fact that when woken from sleep, or startled, it is teeth first, questions later. We’ve developed a quirky relationship with them and are both glad of their presence and company as we settle into life in this new home.