Life in Amed

We spent the past weekend with another family from the Green School in Amed, a fishing village on the east coast of Bali.   On our way there we stopped at Tirta Gangga which is a water palace built in 1946 by the King of Karangasem.  Much of it was destroyed when Mt. Agung erupted in 1963, but since then it has been rebuilt and restored to close to the original.  The kids had fun hopping across the steppingstones and swimming in the pool where the king used to swim.

Once we got to Amed, we settled into the slower pace of life in this small, coastal fishing village.  Every morning we watched the fishing boats come to shore at 7:30.  Mainly they were catching mackerel which they sold for 10-30 cents depending on supply and demand.  At times the boats go out in the late afternoon, but the morning seemed to be the most bustling time for the fishermen.  The boats all have colorful sails and were a beautiful sight on the horizon.  

Our timing was good and we were there for the big culmination of a 10 day ceremony for the opening of a new temple.  We went to the temple for the ceremony and the beginning of the 


'melasti' or procession to the beach to make offerings and gather holy water.  In preparation for the ceremony, we all got dressed in our Balinese ceremony clothes.  We had brought them along not knowing whether we would need them for Tirta Gangga which we didn't.  However, we weren't planning on going to a major ceremony so I didn't bring my kebaya, ceremonial top, and when the women living next to the hotel saw me, they brought out all their kebayas and let me borrow one.  Tom and Nat were brought in by the man of the family and blessed with holy water and ceremonial rice grains.  I would have liked to see the whole melasti but the kids were restless and we weren't sure what they would think about the offering of a goat in the sea, watching it die and be washed away.


The new temple cost $35,000 to build which is about the yearly salary of about 15 people. These villages must have been saving for many years.  The excitement was palpable as it seemed that this long-standing dream had come true. 


The driver who took us was at the ceremony, so we had a bit of an adventure getting a ride back to the hotel.  We were able to flag down a minibus that took us.


          

 My favorite thing about the weekend though was our time playing on the beach with some local girls.  Tom taught them a bunch of camp songs and Alexa taught them some hand games and they taught us some Balinese dancing and songs.  We seemed as enamored by them and they were with us. You can check out Tom in action in this short video posted by our friends http://youtu.be/LoUekld_fAA

Australia

Australia was a nice break from Bali. The relief felt in 70 degree weather was extreme for Rock and he realized he wasn't so homesick as much as hot sick. Australia also felt amazingly clean and orderly in comparison to Bali. However, it was also extremely expensive which started to feel pretty oppressive.


Highlights from our trip were contributed by all members of the family ...


Playing in parks
























Bouldering at Granite Gorge














Taking hot baths


Feeding wallabies and seeing the joeys

Swimming with two sea turtles on the Great Barrier Reef

Seeing the opera house

Seeing some friends from Bali in Sydney


Sunsets over the Sydney Harbor

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Being cold


Spending time with Mimi and Papa


A quiet walk along a river in search of platypus


Playing at the Powerhouse Museum


The Narnia exhibit at the museum

Art Show

Sorry-I thought I had posted this.  This is from May 1.

Tonight the boys had an art show for the painting class they have been taking. One of the moms at the Green School is a pretty famous painter from Norway and she started a painting class with a Balinese painter for kids. Every Monday for the past couple of months they have gone and explored acrylic paint and canvas. 


Tonight we came together for an art exhibition for families and the community. Owen was so proud. Mostly Henry observed in class only last week, working on a collaborative piece with a friend. It has been fun to see what they produce and how they express themselves and their thoughts through art.


At the show, Bjorg, the artist, announced that she is also arranging a show at a local fancy hotel. The kids were excited about this, although they mainly wanted to know if they could swim in the pool. However, Owen also said that he thought he better start working a bit less abstract for that show.


Originally the paintings were going to be for sale with the proceeds going to the Smile Foundation in Bali. This is an organization that changes people's lives through repairing facial and cranial abnormalities. Owen and several of the kids didn't like the idea of selling their paintings because they wanted to bring them home. I told Owen that we would buy his paintings so we could keep them and also make the donation to the Smile Foundation.


We are off to Australia tomorrow so I will be off blogging for about 2 weeks.  Enjoy Spring as we are off to enjoy Fall for the second time in the past 12 months.