creativity

when i had returned from visiting the temple in the forest, who should i bump into but...yep, ketut! i laughed, how he always shows up at the right moment. also another friend of mine, a young 15 year old that helped me the first time with my computer, just show up all the time too. after the cleansing ceremony by the sea, there he was, standing next to me, as the 1000 people all left...and we spoke a bit and suddenly as the line of 20 priests passed us, he said,"ah, this is my father!" and pointed to one of the priests that i especially like, and i told him we must meet before i leave because i have a lot of questions for his father.

and now here was ketut, and i always have a lot of questions for him too, trying to understand what makes this community tick. as we stood there talking, a young fellow on a motorbike slowly passed us and honked his little horn to announce that he is selling some fast food for the kids. ketuts kids immediately went running after him and asked if they could buy some, which he agreed.

and i went over to watch what he was going to serve them. it turned out that he makes little dumplings, and has a little skillet and gas balloon and cupboard with all the ingredients all compactly arranged on the back of his motorbike. he is a fellow i have seen on the streets many times over the month i have been here, always wearing a green knit hat no matter the weather, he happily went about preparing the little egg dumplings and even had his stapler there to fold the paper into a little plate for the kids to eat along with some ketchup.

i was curious as to how this fellow decided to make these dumplings so i asked ketut if he would translate some questions for me. which he agreed to do.

how did he decide to make these? it was his idea.
where did he ever see something like it? in java
how long has he been doing this? 14 years was making pancakes and pushing them in a cart along the street. now for 2 years he has been making the dumplings instead, and has a motorcycle and travels from singaraja where he lives, which is an hour away, everyday going through the neighborhoods along the way and honking his horn and selling.
how old is he? 29 and comes from java.
does he enjoy what he is doing? yes!

after he drove off i commented to ketut that it is very impressive that for 14 years he pushed a cart and saved his money, and now he has a motorcycle and makes dumplings, which is unique. that i was impressed. and he is always smiling...you can tell he loves what he is doing.

ketut said: it is called creativity! if you are creative, you can make a living doing anything you love.

ogoh ogoh and nyepi

ogoh ogoh is the celebration of frightening away the evil spirits from bali in order to bring in the new year without them! it is done for the last 20 years in a modern "float parade" version instead of the original gamelon band parade that would exorcise them in former times. so now, each "clan" which is a neighborhood, makes one of the images from the famous ramayana tales at least 10 feet high and made from paper mache and foam rubber and prepared by the teenagers for the month preceding the celebration. along with the huge impressive images are all neighborhood bands with hand made bamboo instruments, beating out known rhythms as they march the 10+ kilometers down the main road, ending up at the cemetery and burning them.

it was fascinating watching how the images progressed over the past month, from mere skeletal wire concoctions into magnificent elaborate detailed huge images, that were headless until the last day, when the prepared but hidden heads, were connected to the bodies, after all the suspense leading up to it! each of the clans also bought group t-shirts for the event.

all of this is only men and boys..no girls are involved in any of this, in general, you never see boys and girls together, at any age....the boys hang out on the streets with big speakers blaring out electronic western music as the big moment approaches, drinking beer and being stupid. the girls are nowhere to be seen.

i asked mitha if she would take me on her motorbike to the beginning of the parade so that i could walk along with them from the start. she agreed, and even though she is not yet 13 she was driving very well the motorbike, even though the legal age is 16! she is very cautious and confident. the police never really stop anyone, even though you are supposed to have a license and be 16 and be wearing a helmet...

as we drove along the main road i saw the groups of men and the blaring music every 500 meters or so...and i wondered what will happen to bali in the next 10 years?! how will these traditions and ceremonies be carried on by this next generation that is so enhanced with the western world? the float i liked best was one of a punk that was made in the neighborhood nearby me. i would stop and admire it as it was built each day, and when it was done, i was so impressed, i asked the young 20(?) year old artist that had worked on it most of the time if he would stand next to it so i could take his picture. he refused, (without any words since he doesn't know english) and no matter how much i begged him, he just smiled and sat in place, so in the end i photographed him separately, but you can see the resemblance of his image and the one he made.

i wanted mitha to leave me at the beginning, but it was so far, and she felt responsible for me, and even though i tried to convince her how much i love walking and the fun of it all, she just sat on her motorbike, not saying a word, but refusing to leave me. no matter how much i explained to her that i can walk long distances and that i will be fine and she can drive home alone and thank you etc...she just sat their, knowing that she is not going to let me do this absurd inappropriate thing...eventually i am the one that gave in...admiring her silent power, a 13 year old! and got back on the bike and said "okay, we do it your way" and she smiled and drove me back to her house where we waited a few hours for the parade to begin. all along the way we had seen people giving offerings and priests doing cleansing ceremonies for the new year. when we got back to her house her younger sister came home and handed a little plastic bag with a few tablespoons of water in it with something orange that looked like a baby goldfish, floating in it, to her mother. i asked what it was and she said holy water to bless the house with. what? a goldfish is holy water??! and then they showed me it was an orange petal of a flower and that even though they don't have enough money to give the real offering to the temple, their niece sent over some of their holy water which will be sprinkled on the 2 huts and grounds as a purifying rite for the new year.

in bali every person will tell you something different, no matter about what subject, whether religion, timetables, laws, customs...so not wanting to miss the beginning of the parade, we set off by foot at 6 as the gardener had told me, even though her father said it will only reach the village at 10...he was right! and we just walked and walked and walked until we finally met up with the parade, as it began. the good thing was that there were no crowds where we were, and as we joined in with them as they approached the village center, the crowds were 5 people deep and it was hours later...and i had seen enough ogoh ogoh for this year...so i walked home, before it ended at midnight.

the following morning at dawn (6 a.m.) the 24 hours of silence began. all electricity in the country was closed down (but i heard that in the south where there are so many tourists they make exceptions). there are 4 rules for nyepi:

-no fire, electricity
-stay inside, no walking or sitting outside your house
-fasting from dawn to dusk
-no work

so i looked forward to this day of silence. and stayed inside my room, and meditated a few times during the day, my bed has a big beautiful high mosquito net around it in white, and when i wasn't meditating i was either looking at a big board filled with magazine photos that i made with my latest vision for life, or laying on my bed and allowing random thoughts to come... it was very special..i kind of felt like in a cocoon on the bed, and the beautiful colorful butterfly that
will soon shed the cocoon and spread her delicate wings would soon be born.

before dusk nicole and jochan and i had a small meal before it was too dark to see anything, on my way back to my room, since any use of flashlights etc, is strictly forbidden, unless of emergency. and since it was also the "dark moon", which means the day before what we call the new moon, the sky was pitch black, other than the many stars, but since we were supposed to stay inside, all there was was total blackness. the night went on forever, for me, since 7 was already dark so i went to bed, but just tossed and turned and awoke about 20 times . many of the balinese have a real fear about the dark, i am grateful that my fear of the dark which went on until the age of 42 had ended, and i could just appreciate the pitch black darkness of the forest and the sea around my room. At dawn i heard a fisherman rev up his motor and it was exactly 6. and the new year had begun, and hopefully the evil spirits did not find the island of bali at night, since it appeared like no one was home! and thus starts the new year!

the invisible lesson

once we had all arrived at the sea for the cleansing ceremony, everyone just kind of schmoozed around, having something to drink or eat until things were organized and the actual ceremony would begin (with over a 1000 people, not a simple task). ketut invited me for a cup of water, while others were buying all kinds of homemade soups and rice meals cooked on the spot and served in plastic bowls that were later rinsed in a bucket of water one after the other...typical asian dish washing practice, recycling!

i noticed that the little temple next to my resort, which happened to be the center for this celebration, had the gate opened and i decided to take the opportunity that i am in temple clothing and the gate is open, to enter inside and get a close up view and feel of the small place that radiates female energy whenever i go past it everyday. but how to get to it, since the grounds in front of it were covered from side to side and front to back with some 200 people sitting on their tongs next to each other like sardines...hmmm...what an opportunity but how to do it?

so i stood there for a moment thinking how i would maneuver myself, when suddenly i noticed there were some balinese women with offerings on their heads doing exactly that, so i can just follow their bee line?! i thought....and was wrong...when i saw them doing it, it looked so simple, so quick, so flowing, so natural, and then suddenly i found myself feeling like the jolly green giant stomping on all of these delicate balinese men women children and infants, with not the slightest idea of where to place my foot as it hung in the air, balancing myself on the one that i did manage to put down somewhere, but what now??! constantly turning around to apologize for kicking someone, or stepping on someones sarong, or bumping someones shoulder, and not a soul budged for me! they just continued to sit still....

i managed to reach the little gate, take a quick look around, saw that there was actually a hidden well that had been uncovered and revealed in honor of the ceremony and from where they took the sacred water for the cleansing...nice surprise...and then decided to go back out and listen to the gamelons...

so, hmm...back through them all, but how?? ugh,,,with barely enough width to place my big foot between the rows and rows of people that now had their backs to me, so they didn't even know i was trying to get through! clomped my way through them and decided not to do that again! i went to sit in a more open space near the gamelon band. just as i placed my tongs on the ground and sat down near a little bamboo fence on my own, i heard someone call my name, and it was mitha, the 13 year old that i tutor in english! i laughed again at the synchronicity of it all....how in the world, among over 1000 people, did i end up sitting right on the other side of the divider next to her and her sister, who later shared their flowers so that i could go through the hindu prayer motions of clasped hands on the third eye or above the head, each time with a different color of flower...and me changing the words to suit my own prayer, which i am certain had the same meaning as theirs.

as i sat there for the cleansing ceremony, listening to the gamelons, tons of people were passing me and it turned out i had sat down quite close to the entrance of an unofficial urinal....and what was fascinating was to watch how all these balinese made their way through all of us seated devotees, so simply! and suddenly i realized what they were doing, that i had never given much value to until now; as they stepped from row to row in between the people they bent at the waist slightly and placed their right hand at an angle in front of them close to their thigh, as if they were "slicing through" the crowds....amazing!! this gesture of humbleness towards those seated, along with a very clear intention of their outstretched hand had a kind of invisible energy to it that just parted a path for them, regardless of whether they were in front or behind the seated people...no need for "excuse me"'s or tapping people on the shoulder to make room, or apologizing ...just that same invisible ego that makes them invisible but full of strength and intention. what a nice lesson. and i realize that without having gone through the opposite experience, i would not have had the inner need to recognize and appreciate the power that rests in their way of doing it.

the forest temple

as i was standing along the street with lots of the other villagers awaiting the beginning of the cleansing walk to the temple on the sea, ketut appeared, again, and stood next to me and we spoke. i asked him about a bath house he had mentioned in an earlier conversation...telling him that i found it in the village, but didn't know which side was for the women, because there was not a sign. so he said "just go in one of the sides and if you see men, then go to the other side." i laughed and said i would prefer to go in the right side. so he said that always the mens side is to the east and the womens side is to the west...and i realized it is also like that in all the airports etc...clever...

he then mentioned that behind the spring waters of the bath house there is a temple on the hillside but behind the temple, there is another temple, that you have to climb up a lot of steps until you finally reach it...and that it is said that there are deer living in the forest, but no one has ever seen them, but that if something good or bad is going to happen, they will let out a call, that some can hear....

well...after a preview like that, i decided that the day after the cleansing ceremony and the day before the day of silence for the new year, is a good time to take an afternoon hike and discover the temple in the forest. i packed a bag with my temple clothes (sarong,, sash and brocade blouse...left the girdle at home) and took a towel for the bath house and figured that after a hike up the mountain a cold mountain spring water shower will probably feel good.

i climbed the stairs to the first temple, after having switched to my temple clothes and then i started looking around for the stairs that would take me even higher...but none to be found...what a disappointment. it was hard for me to believe that ketut would call some 20-30 steps a big climb in the forest,,,,but there was nothing else around, other than a birds eye view of the village of tejakula...which it was interesting to see, since i didn't realize that it was actually very big and that the side that i was on is just a small suburb of the town. now i understood what i had seen the morning before when i awoke at 5 to go to the cleansing ceremony at the main temple...i had walked the dark streets for 20 minutes and only saw one other person walking in temple clothes and figured that everyone is still asleep other that the saint eileen who has to be first all the time and not miss anything! and as i entered the gates of the temple after having followed the other man through narrow winding paths in the dense housing compounds, i was surprised!

a huge temple courtyard filled with over a thousand men women and children dressed in white with colored baskets filled with their offerings, and big banners and two gamelon bands were all inside...having already finished praying and were now getting organized for the procession of the altars and the villagers that follow each of the respective suburbs down the road and to the sea. a constant stream of villagers continued to flow through the narrow doorways, and meanwhile they all got organized in the order that they would walk. i waited on the road, with ketut , which is when he told me about the temple...so back to my forest walk...

as i began to leave the temple, disappointed that i couldn't find the steps that ketut had mentioned, just as i took the last steps to the main path, i spotted a few old steps, with no beginning to them, behind a cement wall...and decided to try them out...and sure enough...they were the cleverly hidden steps leading up the mountain.

as i began the hike, i tried to imagine who had carried all these cement blocks up the mountain side to make these steps?! probably women, since they are always the ones to be seen with a towel wound around into a kind of bagel on the top of their heads, carrying huge piles of firewood, or baskets of bricks, or long bamboo poles for men to build with later...

not being a real hiker, i had to stop every 5 steps to breathe, look around, and try and spot the famous hiding deer, and then continue another 5 steps up the steep mountainside, not able to see how tall it actually was and how much further i had to go...grateful that it was an overcast day with a nice afternoon breeze, since parts of the path were just dry mud and if it had been raining i couldn't have done it, as it had rained the previous day.

sadly i knew that others had walked before me the day before, since the candy wrappers and were strewn along this god forsaken path...at one point i was up so high and in among the trees in this steep winding primitive path, i could have a birds eye view of the village, and it put things in proportion...how when i am inside it it is as if the village was created just for me, with so many meaningful and interesting interactions going on as i walk along the road, and up high above it all, it was just a combination of motorbikes and roosters crowing, and kids yelling and chanting from the main temple below...so different...like any other village in the world, with more congested areas, and less congested with trees and the sea...and also all along the path were those that had to leave their initials or names scraped into the rocks...but i was grateful that there was not an admission fee to be paid and a long line of tourists in a bee line up the mountain to see the forest at the top...because then the atmosphere would have been so different. i kept imaging that i was climbing massada.

every now and then the path would disappear, and i had to decide whether to just push through the forest and hopefully find the steps again, which is exactly what happened...(to distract people from actually walking all the way to the top?? if you are not really determined?)

and finally i spotted the tip of the mountain, and saw a small cement bricked wall with palm leaf offering decorations strewn on the ground, remainders of those that had climbed up here the day before for the cleansing ceremony....(and i thought i was the only one that would climb all the way up here!)

and as i entered the small simple barren area there were 2 plain cement altars...no fierce dragon carvings, no colorful ramayana drawings, no elaborate gold doors or 7 tiered entrance...and as i walked up closer to say my prayer of thanks for being able to arrive at this sacred spot on top of the mountain in the forest, and to ask to be cleansed also for the new year...as i walked up closer to the altar to look at the innermost sacred spot of each of the simple box like enclosures to see who is the god i am praying to this time? what i found was...
an empty space! and i thought it was just perfect! my god is inside of me....and when i looked in, all there was was me...and i smiled at how appropriate it was to have climbed all the way up here, to find myself.

the car ride with gede

Nicole arranged that a driver pick me up to take me to the airport at 4 am and then wait a whole day and bring me back at night when I fly back again from Singapore….and at a reasonable price. So exactly to the minute the car drove up and a friendly driver introduced himself in Indonesian “namasayah gede” and then translated it into English; my name is gedi, I thought that was so nice that I answered him back in Indonesian “namasayah eileen!” and giggled and said that was the first time I was speaking Indonesian to someone and now when all the kids yell “what is your name?: I can answer them “namasayah Eileen” and they will laugh even more!

We drove in the dark for two and a half hours, arriving at the airport a little after sunrise. The road we took was one that i hadn’t been on before, one of the 7 that go from the north to the south, which means climbing up the mountain side to where the volcano is and then going back down the other side to the southern coast where the airport is. The road goes through many little villages as it steeply winds itself around the mountainside climbing higher and higher at which point the fog settles and the driving becomes much slower, thankfully there isn’t a lot of predawn traffic and also this road is not too busy in general.. so the slow pace with turning the brights on and off and trying to see the road was not too nerve wracking . in spite of the fact that there are no reflectors on the sides of the road or even white or yellow lines showing you a border that you can follow. Every now and then someone is walking on the side of the narrow 2 lane road, or a dog is wandering by or a motorcyclist tuns the curve and suddenly appears, and at the top the rain drizzles constantly, the people that live in that area live in fog the entire time and all year have a drizzle even when it isn’t monsoon. Tangerines and cloves were harvested along the way.

As we got closer to ubud after 2 hours the spa signs began to show up in amongst the forest and slowly the shops and houses became closer to each other and less forests. Eventually arriving to the city, but I was happy to again have a peek at all the rice fields around ubud, since I hadn’t since them ever since I left my other resort where I had enjoyed watching the growing cycle. And then, arriving at the bigger cities of Kuta and Sanur which are already filled with huge billboards and wider streets and street lights, and tons of traffic.

We parted at the airport planning to meet again 12 hours later when I land and he will take me back home. When I returned from Singapore and exited the airport there were so many drivers with signs and tons of people waiting and I thought; oh god, he doesn’t even know my name, and I hardly looked to see his face and how are we going to find each other, do I have to start reading all these signs and looking at the hundreds of Balinese to see which one is him?? And I just continued to walk out giving a general glance without changing the pace of my stride and suddenly I saw a hand waving above the crowds from the back and knew we had found each other quite quickly and was happy. We both were happy to see each other again, he is a very peaceful and friendly man,..

On the 3 hour drive home I decided to ask him more questions than i did on the way in since it was such an opportunity to get to know someone and learn a little more about Balinese life. And together with that, I didn’t feel the need to keep up a conversation with him all the time, just whatever flowed naturally . and also just trying to understand this interesting way of people driving on the road,…no one is angry or blaming or pushing or honking or impatient….so strange…and the driving is far from easy since the road s are narrow, and there are a combination of trucks, vans tons of motorbikes, people walking and dogs and all on the opposite side of the road than what I am used to, and only a handful of traffic lights in the city itself, and the rest of the way, none, not speed limits no stop signs, no policemen, trying to catch you with their cameras behind a curve, no regards to lines on the street, no lights on the roads….and it all flows.

How does it flow?? That is what I tried to figure out on the way home, because it just flows. And I remembered something ketut had told me the day before about one of the rules to success: keep moving. And I saw that this is something real here.. everyone I saw was all the time moving. You do not stop, you can slow down but you keep moving and everyone is just in a kind of flow…moving together, maybe we stopped once or twice for a truck that suddenly parked on the road to deliver something, so everyone first just stays behind it and if after a minute or so you see that it really has stopped, then you just slowly went around it, since overtaking it immediately would show disrespect, impatience, intolerance. There is no honking no anger, no impatience, no pushing, just a merging of motorbikes and cars, and people, forming a new path , and when I asked gede about it he said that they have tolerance for each other. And that it is understandable that everyone can make small mistakes on the road. and that if someone is in a hurry then they may take a little bit more of his side of the road so he is wiling to move over to the side so that they can get by, when I asked how come there are no speed limits..he laughed and said that everyone just drives from their heart, if you can go faster you do and if not then you don’t, hmmm so simple…but what he said was that no one thinks the road is theirs, and becomes possessive, they are all in it together.

There were so many times I thought that we were going to hit another car or kill someone on the side walking in the dark or run off the road a motorcyclists. but no…all the time everyone was calm, no one touched each other ever n a hairs breath away and I never saw an accident or a dead animal, on the road. Or a police man. I was so happy that it is a few days before the new years and it was night time so all the villages were having a gamelon practice in the temple and the big floats of the ogoh oogoh were there too, all lite up so I could see all the wild creations… and then after going through that it got again, very foggy, in the dark we began the long wind back down to the northern coast, and I had had enough already, I didn’t know whether I had been on he road for years or minutes and I just wanted home….and he took it so gently and sensitively and I was sure that he was aware that if he didn’t I would start getting nauseous. And it was that same sensitivity that they have for other drivers on the road that he has towards his passenger….very touching. I had asked him earlier on how much he takes to go to ubud, since I need to get there in another 2 weeks, he told me his price and that there is a nice route and I can see the volcano if we leave at 8…and i said I would check out with another drivier that lives nearer and let him know.. he asked that if the other driver wants the same price if i can please call him to drive.

By the time we arrived safely at the resort at 10:30 at night, I knew that no matter what the other driver wants, this friendly kind good driver that did an amazing job in the dark of pre- dawn and the return night sky to bring me back and forth all in one day, deserves another job, and I told him we will meet again in 2 weeks time. Thank you gede!

ketut

The first day I arrived at the temple in Tejakula for their yearly ceremony, which happened to fall on the same day that I arrived to the village, a very nice young man walked up to me and introduced himself, as I stood amongst a courtyard full of men and women from the village that were preparing the area for the ceremony. He made me feel at home and explained things in excellent English. His name was Ketut.

Ever since then he has appeared several times, out of the blue, just when I was happy to see a familiar face that could help me at just that moment with a question or problem. He would just suddenly be standing by me saying “hello Eileen”. And I was so grateful to see him. Whether it was at the ceremony the following day when I was debating whether to watch the older women making ceremonial baskets from palm leaves or to go into the inner court of the temple to pray, and he appears suggesting that they teach me how to make them along with them…so down I sat and had hands on experience, which I love. And another time it was when I was walking home from the internet café, wondering which house is his in the village, and he appeared next to me on his motorbike and asked if I would like to come over to see his house and family. And drove for 2 minutes and arrived at the most modern beautiful villa in the village, and I knew it had to be his, which it was..

Another time I was returning from the internet café and there was a rainstorm and so I ducked into a little kiosk and sat there for almost an hour since the rain didn’t stop and watched them gambling with dominoes, wondering why god had me sitting with them for so long, and suddenly ketut walked out of his house, which was next to the kiosk, and invited me over…and that was nice.

Then another time I was caught in the rain and was standing under a big plastic covering for a car in an orchard, wondering who put it there, and in comes ketut with his mother and sister and I asked him if he too is running under cover, and he said, no, this is his garage and his orchard and he came to pick some rambutan for his sister to take back to lovina.

And then yesterday, after I had tried for hours to figure out what happened to the laptop, and walked to the internet café to see if maybe the owner was around and could look at it, but he wasn’t and when I walked back and was glancing over to see the big float that the villagers had made, who should be standing there with his daughter, but, ketut….and I said, how he was just the person I needed, since I didn’t know what to do with the computer and to a ride to the airport in 2 days…and off we went to his house where he made a number of phone calls to technicians and friends and invited his nephew to come have a look too, and in the end, after they tried and tried to revive it, he offered to drive me the following day to a near by city (1 hour away) in his car and to fix it…I thought it would be a big imposition and said that I will just not use it for the next month and have it fixed in Israel…he asked how much a technician in Israel will take for it, and I said, about $60 minimum, and he suggested I think about it again and go with him because it will be much cheaper and I also will be able to use it for the month I am still here. He offered to drive me back to the resort, and I said, I can walk, and he said that he would like to since he would like to see the resort. I agreed, and he told me that he noticed that the owner uses energy saving LED light fixtures and he would like to speak with him about it. So I was happy to introduce him to jochan…they are both men of visions and ability to realize them and I was happy they would get a chance to meet each other.

So we left this morning at 10 and returned at 4. It was very interesting to spend a day with him…he is 40 years old and has much wisdom. For hours I questioned him about life, bali his life, business, dreams, spirituality, money, time, trust, religion, goals, risks, music, village life, investments, and choices….

He worked on a cruise ship as a waiter for 12 years. He has traveled the world. And has built a home in the capital, and in the end, sold it and came back to his little village of Tejakula, where he has is slowly bringing the luxuries of the world to his village; filtered water so the villagers do not have to boil the tap water, but rather he has a factory that filters and delivers the water to everyone, run by his father and mother, he is joining a franchise of mini markets and is buying a plot of land in a choice spot so that the younger generation that prefers to go into that kind of shop instead of the small dark little kiosks that line the streets, where they will be able to buy the powdered milk for the babies in the village and will not have to drive an hour into the city to find basics that they need. And lastly a garage that will sell spare parts for all of the motorbikes that abound here so that, again it will be close by instead of an hour away….

So the fellow is clever, has money, and likes taking risks and loves challenges and ideas. It is all done in a very low key peaceful kind and respectful way. Some of the sayings he shared with me today were: do unto others as you would have others do unto you,, and manage your time instead of your time managing you, and what will be will be, trusting that god will bring it all in its time. And last but not least his bottom line belief of don’t worry, be happy. That there is never ever a reason to worry since everything comes from god and god is good and there are always options so if plan A doesn’t work, you have plan B and if B doesn’t work you go to C and if C doesn’t work you go to D which means dead and you let it go.

When I asked him about the men and women that I hear singing in the temple 3 times a day on the loud speaker, he said that anyone can do it, and that they are singing lessons about life; how to treat your friends, how to act towards god, and to yourself, and that the Balinese learn through songs, and the jews for example learn from books, from reading.

When I asked him what they used to do 30 years ago when there wasn’t a loud speaker and he was a child, so then he wasn’t exposed to these life lessons three times a day, ringing out into the air for a half hour each time? And he said that you would be playing outside and someone would come to cut the grass to give to the animals and would tell the children : now listen I have something to tell you, and he would sing to them lessons about life.

When I asked him if he thinks people are jealous in the village since he is so rich (big villa, a truck, a van, a nanny, owns a lot of land) he looked surprised and said that not at all, they are all proud of him that from their village someone without any higher education has done such things. And when I asked if he can trust Balinese people in interactions, he said that people are people all over the world, and bali isn’t any different, and that he can feel when someone is trustworthy and when they are not, so he listens to his feelings, and that no one in the village would do something dishonest since in a minute the whole village would know about it and he would lose his name, and a mans name is very important…and that all the actions you do today are affecting your whole life, and not just today, so you must make sure they are correct actions.

When asked whether he believes in black magic, he said, no. that if one person can say one thing and another person can say the opposite, there is nothing to believe in that. The truth is the truth.

And where in the world did he most enjoy traveling? In Norway and in New Zealand. And after he had traveled around the world many times, and had lived the fast city life selling insurance and cars in the capital of bali, he was robbed one day of $100,000 and after the initial shock he realized it was his lucky day, since the family was all safe and that now is the right time to move back to his childhood village and start a new life, so he sold his villa and came home, where he bullt another villa and invited his parents to live with him and his wife and son and daughter (THE most beautiful Indonesian beauty I have ever seen, at the age of 6!)

That is a taste of Ketut....my guardian angel.

a new start

The computer had a virus, maybe from the man that sent out a fake e-mail to everyone saying I needed money, and when I stopped his chance…he sent me a virus….but who knows how or why, all I know is that the computer slowly died the day after I managed to notify everyone that I was well…

It was interesting. When I tried for a few hours to get it to work, unsuccessfully, I turned it over to god, since god also created the virus and the man that hoaxed everybody, and I wondered what it is all about. And I made a vow to god that I would like to be able to continue to use my laptop for purposes that will bring me closer to doing gods will; which means studying kabbalah, translating kabbalah, staying in touch with family and friends, and with working my program, and hopefully bringing good things into the world; whether through my blog or through my photographs…and that that would be the only use I would make with the laptop….only to bring me closer to doing gods will.

So now I have had an overhaul on the computer, everything that was on it is gone….no past, only the present, and it is very interesting…as usual, when asked by the technician if it is okay to delete “files” I just wave my hand in the air and say yes, do anything you have to do to make it work again. And I don’t even think about it a moment longer…and only after it is all gone, do I start to realize the repercussions…no more photos, no more music, no more past….only present….

The feeling is good, even though there were a few moments each time when I realized that something else was gone forever, and I said to ketut “all my music is gone?” “yes” “all?” “yes” “wow, I should have told him to put it on the stick first!” and he said that the computer was not responding at all so it wasn’t even an option…and that maybe I wanted music but I would have “zero” computer so the music isn’t worth anything.

It made me laugh each time how ketut related to the computer as a human being; now it is napping, now it is thinking, now it is not telling us what the problem is, it does not know how to speak….” And one of the payoffs of this all is learning patience…just seeing their long delicate fingers touching the keys ever so lightly, and then waiting, no hurry, no cursing, just waiting….

And it was also fun paying the lovely man that repaired it for over 2 hours, and took $20…and when I thanked him profusely for fixing it, he said “it is because you came to Bagus computer shop! Bagus is the best!” .It is nice to see that he is proud of his store and his work.

When I was browsing through a magazine the other day there was an article about decluttering inside and outside…and I thought : ah yes…that would be nice! And so now I have an empty computer….and hopefully it will serve me well and I will treat it well, respectfully and not abuse it with demanding it to work faster and multi task or with multiple copies of things, and just icons and things left on it that no longer are needed…just like having clean space, a clean house a clean computer…and jochan is supposed to physically clean it for me…it had some ink on a corner of it and I asked him if he knows how to remove it. And he looked at the computer and said: I never want to see it look like this again! I couldn’t see anything wrong with it,, so I asked him what he means, and he said it is so filthy that it repulses him ….i laughed…happy that he can see the dirt and is willing to clean it for me and that I don’t see the dirt and love my computer just the way it is, but why not have it nice and clean too?!