Month: September 2009

  • Tidak, Tidak, Tidak: Lampang! (No, No, No, Lampang!)

    Are we heading home? I ask. Nanti (later) Is the response I get. The children need food. We drive far away. I laugh at my insistent need to get things done, when I know this is enough. We go for babi guling at a grimy…

  • Saya Tidak “Turis” (I am Not a Tourist)

    Once again, I’m awake before sunrise. Annie and I drink hot copi, eat sweet wild mangoes, then I tuck a couple plastic wrapped chocolate-rice millet sweet cracker into my purse for later. (Annie laughs that when I say I want to try alllll Indonesian food,…

  • Saya Mao Tidur Secorang (I go to Sleep Now)

    After so many days, overflowing with so many golden hours of stunning amazement and emotion and languages and people, I find I am craving some quiet time. I get up with the morning light, jalan-jalan (walk) to the market with Anni, we eat delicious, hot…

  • Pendeta (The Priestess)

    When I feel like I’ve had enough (it’s been hours – sitting, eating, listening in the hot sun–since the priestess arrived) still, the rituals continue. The gamelon plays. The bell rings. The people talk and laugh. I have no familiar context, no familiar words, no…

  • Nanti, Nanti (Waiting for Later…)

    1pm arrives. Then 2pm. 2:30pm. Nanti, nanti (later, later), people whisper but are not alarmed. The ceremony might not start until 4. I struggle to stay awake and smiling. But finally, the priest comes, except the priest is female. Gray-white hair, soft face, serious brown…

  • Wedding? Belum… (The Wedding? Not Yet…)

    It’s a long drive back to the compound. Already a full day, I realize it’s only about to begin, at 1 with the wedding which I am told will be very, very long. Tired but excited, I am now greeted with familiar waves and warm…

  • Matahari & Air (Sun & Holy Water)

    Oka is waiting at the car to take us to another temple, the temple of holy water. This water you can drink, Annie tells me, or swim. But it is very cold. More highway close calls, and we descend to another temple. We navigate stairs…

  • Visiting the “Stone Temple” of Bali

    Miles away (and maybe a hundred highway close calls later), bapak Oka parks the car in a deserted lot. Annie takes my hand and we head down the empty street. The morning sun has just edged up over the mountains, as we descend the hundreds…

  • Metatah & the Giant (Tooth Filing Ceremony & the Giant!)

    It’s still dark as night when I wake up. Annie dresses me in the sarong and brings up a necklace she wants me to wear today. The wedding of Oka’s daughter will start at 5AM with the traditional Balinese tooth filing, or metatah. Long teeth…

  • Internet & Iyam Burring (Internet & Chicken)

    With Oka’s daughter’s wedding on the 23 of September, I know today is my one day to get work done. Every day I say I will work a few hours, every day Oka or Annie nod only to take me to a new “very Indonesian”…

  • Pura and Gamelon (Temples and Gamelon)

    During the long drive over, Oka tells me about the castes, I repeat their Balinese names and forms of address, but intentionally forget them (I decided I don’t want to reinforce the practice–and learn instead the national Indonesian language which lacks caste distinction–but I am…

  • Cunung Cunung… (Fireflies & Getting Dressed)

    We walk home as it grows dark. My body, still the reverberation of drastic time differences, feels like its floating through the day, ready to drop asleep at any moment, then wide awake the next. I am ready to sleep, but instead, Annie dresses me,…

  • Babi Guling & Pensar (Suckling Pig & the Market)

    Annie tells me Oka will take me to a big, big ceremony tonight. But I must dress Indonesian. She will take me shopping at the Ubud pensar ( or market). But first, lunch. She wants me to try babi guling (or suckling pig) As a…

  • Mangii & Rumbutan (Mangosteen & Rumbutan)

    I learn the Indonesian names of fruit as I eat them. Watermelon, papaya, and mangoes give way to salak – with a hard, brown, snake-like-skin that peels back to reveal strange, white, effervescent fruit. Football sized durian (my least favorite) with the spiked yellow shell…

  • Satu, Dua, Tiga, Emphat, Lima (Counting to 5, in Indonesian)

    Before bed that first night, I count my push-ups in Indonesian. When I get to five, I start over. Five times. I like five (lima!) the best, it makes me think of Peru. I never forget it. What comes between one and five is much…

  • Hanya Satu Hare (Only One Day)

    Annie calls me for dinner. It’s simple Indonesian, just for first night. she apologizes. It smells and looks amazing. We sit to eat. I grip my napkin in my lap with my left hand. Trying to distract it from helping me eat. (Right hand good,…

  • Hujan! (or Rain!)

    Annie tells Oka to stop at the market, rows of fresh fruit and meat. At the check-stands, mediocre karaoke singers take turns serenading shoppers as they come and go in the dripping evening. I point to things like a five year old and ask for…

  • Hati-Hati! (Arriving in Indonesia, Alone)

    It takes two hours to get through the visa line. I talk to equally tired, disoriented travelers as we wait. It impresses them that I’m staying for a month, that I found my house on Craigslist, that a last minute snafu over dates makes me…

  • Sama Sama (or You Are Welcome II)

    I have the entire row to myself, in the double-decker jet. After a chicken and rice dinner served by green pin-striped waitresses, I don EVA Air’s bright green travel slippers and curl up in the 4 pillows and 4 blankets left to my row with…

  • Kemabli (or You Are Welcome)

    It’s 1am at the Sea Tac airport. It’s deserted and dark. Security takes all of 20 seconds. I ride the shuttle, through concrete tunnels, alone. I clutch an Indonesian dictionary and practice. Kembali or you are welcome. The escalator ride up deposits me into a…

  • Teri Mi Kasih! (or Thank you!)

    I brush the last coat of stain on the most exposed wall of my house. Breathe a huge sigh of relief to be done for the year. They show up around 8pm. As I stuff what seems like the equivalent to the REI range of…

  • Last Day and a New Idea

    My last day in Seattle is a sunny, warm blur. No time for slow buses, I drive downtown for the final sprint of last minute errands, in between alternating hours of work and a final coat of stain on my little cedar shingled house, before…