since i needed a place to stay for the next month, in this village that i love, and since there wasn't one, the owners of some reserved guest houses kindly invited me to rent out a room in their own home until a place would be available next month. i gratefully accepted, and preferred not to have a preview, since i didn't want to be disappointed. whatever they give me, i will take, period. so yesterday morning they picked up my bags from the guest house and brought them over to their compound. the room is just the size of a double bed with a small closet for clothes and a desk. okay...at most i will sleep on the veranda at night if it is too claustrophobic for me.
next they showed me my own bathroom. okay...a squat toilet, a big square tub about a meter high, and tiles on walls and floor and a small hole in the corner. hmm...guess i am going to have to learn how to use a toilet like this for the first time in my life. when i was in japan 11 years ago i chose to just be constipated instead of trying to figure out which direction i was even meant to squat on it...let alone not being able to even squat!
happy to have a few roles of toilet paper left from my stay in the western style villa i had been in the first two weeks, i placed it in the bathroom. but what soon became evident is that everything gets wet because you are just pouring water all over; into the toilet, on yourself, and it all just drains into the little hole in the corner. i couldn't quite figure out what the concept was, so after a few unsuccessful attempts i realized i will just let go of what is and is not appropriate to discuss, and ask my friends how to use the toilet and shower.
they laughed. and laughed. i asked: am i supposed to throw the water on my private parts? or on my hand and then use that to wipe myself with or both? and in what direction? and how do i not get soaking wet in the process? and is there a way to "flick" my hand with the large plastic ladle that holds the COLD water in the big tub? and do i stand or sit in the tub? and if not, then why is there so much water in it? and do you always just use cold water?
my friend answered each question in a general way and said she totally understands me because she experienced the same thing! when she moved from her simple village to the big city of denpassar and went to a fancy restaurant and hotel, she stood confused and alone in the bathroom, unable to figure out how to turn the faucet on, how to dry her hands, and how to flush the toilet. she had never seen western style bathrooms before.
so each day that i am here i try a new method of how to shower with cold water, willingly! ugh...i tried pouring small quantities on different parts of my body and then soaping up, but in the end, i still had to get all that soap off me and ladlefuls poured over me as i shivered, causing my own torture. today i tried just wetting my hair as i bent over forward, and shampooing it and then i would have a good excuse to stand erect and pour ladlefuls all over me in order to get the foam off my hair... still torturous. after about the 6th ladle full i am already in the swing of things and could care less, almost, but by then all the soap is off and no point in continuing, unlike a nice warm rain forest shower head that invites you to just stand in the open air shower and enjoy the beauty and pleasure of it all.
what i have noticed is that when the balinese shower, it takes much longer than me, and the sound of ladles of large quantities of water being poured in quick succession is different than my quickie method. also, each time i walk out of my room after showering and dressing in sarong and sash, they ask me if i have finished my shower. i am standing there with wet hair, all clean, and confused by the question! well, duh, if i am all dressed now, i guess i finished my shower, no? but after the question repeated itself so many times i thought that maybe they are just surprised that someone takes a 2 minute shower and calls them self clean!
finding a method to use the toilet is still a challenge, so i try to economize and only go if i am already undressed and showering, because otherwise it means taking off my sarong and underpants and putting them in a dry place, even though there is no dry place. then trying to figure out which way to stand and how far back or forward in order to "aim" so that what is coming out is going into the hole and not on me! or my surroundings! but it does save on needing a plumber. when i asked why they fill up the big deep tub with so much water, they said that sometimes there is a water shortage, so this is their way of always having enough water to bathe and use the toilet. most of the balinese i meet always smell fresh and clean and shower several times a day.
the same method is used in the kitchen...just smaller. the sink is almost on the floor....just slightly raised and about the size of a large plate. and a hole in the wall for the sewer...(there must be a sewer, but i haven't asked). next to it at the height of the counter is again a small deep tub filled with cold water and a plastic ladle. so...you place the dishes in the shallow space, soap them up and then pour a few ladles of water over them to rinse them. they are then placed inside a cupboard to air dry. the top of the cupboard is where the food that has been cooked in the morning stays all day, in small bowls, and as someone is hungry, he goes and takes a bowl, puts some rice from the rice cooker, that is set to the "warm" setting all day, after it has been cooked early in the morning, and takes a tablespoon of varied spicy delicacies from the different dishes, sits on a little stool and eats alone, washes his plate. finito.
this morning i had the pleasure of watching the maid cook todays' food. this is a wealthy family, so the kitchen has an all ceramic tile counter and floor, unlike the earthen one and open fire that my other friends cook with. it is well lit, unlike the dark cave-like atmosphere that is usually characteristic of the rustic kitchens in the thatch huts. within an hour she had made 5 different courses using more or less the same ingredients for them all; fresh grated coconut, lots of hot chili peppers in green yellow and red, garlic, tiny shallots, ginger, sugar, salt, and MSG. a low wide mortar and pestle of black stone are used to mash up all the spices and even the fish for the fish cakes. all the food was fried in a wok with varying quantities of coconut oil which was changed according to what was being fried. a large piece of coconut was grilled on the gas flame in order to give it a smokey taste before it was grated into the boiled leafy greens and bean vegetable serving.
the most impressive part for me was watching her use only her right hand for preparing the food! (since the left is used in the bathroom...). same goes for eating the food...only the right hand touches the food as it is "thrown" into their mouth, without the use of utensils. all of her movements were efficient, and quick. surprisingly the ants that were crawling on the counter, were only attracted to the banana leaf that had the scraps on it, and not to the food! she was not concerned about them, or the mouse that suddenly flew out of the open cupboard and scurried quickly into the bathroom. the ants were wiped away when she was done in the kitchen, and the mouse, was left to live his life going wherever he pleases...there seems to be an attitude of nonresistance to things. live and let live. even though she is only in her 20's she is a good chef and enjoys this part of her work everyday. if the food is finished by noon and the family wants more food for dinner, they just go to the nearby warong and buy some ready made for less than $1.
today the man with the van that sells the "treats" came honking his horn down our cul d'sac and i decided to see what the natives buy from him. since the maid was there i asked if she would come with me and translate what all the little plastic bags and containers are filled with. his open air van had one side with a slice or two of various fruits, each in a plastic bag; watermelon, papapa, pineapple with sambal, mango, orange. the back was filled with little containers with cooked sweet potatoes/tapioca/potatoe cubes (8 to a pack) or green rice thingamajigs, and orange pumpkin and rice cake with coconut and palm sugar sprinkled on it. the other side had a covered insulated bucket that held 2 types of small plastic bags with liquidy things floating around in it; one was pink the other light brown. the pink one turned out to be tapioca with some probably artificial red coloring in the sweetened watery liquid, i bought it, and it was delicious, the brown one was a bean and rice drink with nutmeg and palm sugar, also delicious. each of the treats cost 10 cents.
so, even though this is not the luxurious seaside villa i thought i was going to live in, and is instead a family compound off the main road, i am getting a real insiders experience of balinese life....cold water and all.
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