my day revolves alot around what the sea is doing...at the moment it is jumping high in the sky crashing against the shore and high tide...so that for me means...enjoy it from afar visually and acoustically and save the snorkeling and the swimming for a quieter time...and the walking along the sand to the nearby village for low tide...
and yesterday in the morning it was quite low so instead of having my fruit plate for breakfast, i decided to take advantage of the wide shore that was revealed and would allow free access to the otherwise obstacle course of walking along the coast...so off i went, flip flops in hand with my water bottle and camera to discover unknown territory....and there was lots to discover, as i shared in the photos of it all yesterday (picasa; a walk along the beach)...
most amazing was to see how simple people can live....a mattress, and 4 bamboo walls surrounding it with a door to get in and out...that is called a house! even when i was walking back along the main road there was a little kiosk, and i always take a peek, and i saw a dressing table from afar, and then the bed, and realized that this w
oman lives in the kiosk, just opens up the front of her house, which has a bed, and sell the stuff a meter from her bed...also the "pet shop" selling the fish for the aquarium in little plastic bags hanging from the motorbike was cute!a sign saying incense, caught my attention so i decided to walk down the narrow path until i reached an entrance to a courtyard, and walked in and found in whatever
direction i looked a woman or two or a man, making or packaging incense....i asked if i could photograph, in sign language, and he sign languaged me to the "factory"....a smallish dark open room with 5 women standing in booths with brown powder on their shelf, dipping red pained bamboo sticks in clusters of about 100 into the powder that was sticking to the ends of the sticks that they had previously dipped in some liquid glue i assume...i just love seeing how things are made...and they were all happy to pose for me, and then as i walked out i saw them packaging it right there too...
after that i went by a new bakery, not a popular thing here in bali, they don't eat much sweets...and there were great birthday cakes....i asked if i could photograph them...she was a bit hesitant, and asked what i am going to do with the photos?! and i said; show to my friends in israel how lovely the cakes you make here in bali! so she agreed...it was a bakery that she opened up 6 months ago...i wished her luck...
it was interesting that the only only only person i have met here in bali that even knows that "is-ra-ale" is a country, was a poor fellow living in the bamboo hut, that was trying to get me to go on a fishing boat or dolphin trip so he could earn some money...i passed him and his neighbors on the shore yesterday as they were all 5 pushing the narrow fishing boats onto shore....i offered to help, since there was an old woman at least my age helping too, and they accepted and so we were 6 pushing and lifting and placing the boat in safe keeping from the waves to come...afterwards he invited me to sit down and talk a bit, and when he asked where i am from and i again said slowly : is rah ale"...he said "oh! very complicated there! bombings! very complicated! all the people fighting all the time!" i was so happy that someone had finally heard of the place! i asked him how he knew, and he said he watches tv by his friends and has seen news broadcasts....he also spoke excellent english...and so so poor.....
another stop along the way as i walked past many shops that i have passed on the motorbike trips, but never walked by since they were quite far, was a workshop for making the cement altar decorations...wow..that was amazing...i thought that they were cast in molds wi
th the cement...but not at all!! young men are squatting for 8 hours or more, without any lighting ,, opposite a basic shape of cement that is dry enough to allow it to be carved with a long thin trimming tool very exquisitely! almost like paper cutting designs...and layer after layer of sketching and then removing the unnecessary cement until he gets a lovely 3 dimensional leaf or whatever....just lovely watching such excellent workmanship!2 more short stories....one, that while i have excellent gamelon players here working at the resort as guards and gardeners, they are not teachers...so they don't know how to teach me, they just know how to show me and expect me to be able to remember a complicated 60 note song after 4 times of demonstrating it at lightening speed....and i prayed,,,,and suddenly when we were going to learn a new song, i heard a voice that said: take the camera and video it and then you can learn it from that! wow...and that is what i did, and then played it back 100 times while listening and slowly attempting to play along with it, and finally being able to play it alone! a miracle ...i can never believe when they first play the melodies that i will ever ever ever even be able to decipher the tune! and then an hour later, it all makes sense after practice practice, practice ...nice!
and last of all is that my balinese seamstress that went with me to pick out the brocade material for a few blouses last week and promised to have them ready in a week, actually showed up with all 3 of them, and they are lovely, and it is so nice to have blouses that fit! so i am all set for any ceremony they throw at me!! let me at 'em!
having fun....
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