I'm back and alive! Hurrah! No time to blog on the last three weeks, but sufficed to say that they were great! It's the lunchbreak from our kids summer mission- and I've been out to buy bamboo cane sticks from Homebase for this afternoon! It was a fab morning so far, my first time as a fully fledger team leader (I was one last year, but one of my assistants last year was a headteacher, so you can imagine, I was amply aided!), and my lovely two minions (Hmm, I like that word too much- I mean it in the nicest possible sense- I usually prefer to myself as a minion at work- ooooh, no work yeh, just remembered!) are being great! Please if any of my correspondents are in the habit of praying, please pray for energy, enthusiasm, patience, creativity, love and compassion and safety at all times for our mission!
Lots of love,
Kezzie xxx
Monday, July 24, 2006
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Bali week 2
At last, managed to make it to the internet for a while!
It's Sunday again and I really wanted to go to church, and had found an advert in the paper for a seven-day adventist church which seemed to have a service at 11am (in addition to the 9am service advertised, which I didnt wake in time for). Very excited, as have not either experienced a service of this type or an Indonesian service. However, I got very lost trying to find it (it seemed so easy from the map), and then all of a sudden, feeling very hot and flustered, I chanced upon a building with a cross on top!!! I made my way there, at 10.45 to find that it was a catholic church, and I had missed mass, which was 9-11am. A very nice man, told me when the next service would be. It looked very different inside, I was very sad to have missed it. Then I had a wander around for the next 10mins, trying to find the church I had the address for, eventually I chanced upon a protestant (feels weird saying that word- I never use it in UK!) church, adn had a quick chat to the men who were there, who told me I had also missed their service, which was also 9am!!! They gave me a kind of parish magazine which I shall peruse later! They then directed me to the Adventist church (not at all obvious, down a side street), and I arrived- unfortunately the paper was wrong and there was no service at 11am, but there was one on Wednesday. So I didnt manage to make it to church this morning, but at least I now know where the catholic, protestant and adventist churches are in Denpasar!!!!
Anyway, enough of my wafflings, it's been a great week thus far. We've had rehearsals every day, and the group has managed to reduce our 'faffing' a great deal, so time has been used productively. Our leader, Pak Susila was pleased with us, and believed that we were 'ready' for our performance. The big day itself was yesterday, and all seemed to go well except that a number of the group were feeling a little unwell (most of them went to the same restaurant, whilst Kathy, Matt and I went to another one on our own). We had a lazy morning (to our shame, Liz and I awoke at 11am!!) and then departed for the art centre at 3pm. Our rehearsal was watched with much interested by Balinese, and Andy's famous piece 'Pig' met with raptuous applause, even in rehearsal). During the 3 hours between rehearsal and 8pm performance, after a delicious dinner of Nasi Bungkus (literal translation: take-away rice: actual one- white rice, with satay something or other, piece of chicken, some veg and noodles), the prep began. Each female was made up by a Balinese lady, with lots and lots of make-up and then our hair was made into a coifed up-do with flowers in our hair also- this took around 20 mins). As most of the group do not where make-up this was met to a certain extent with horror and I admit to feeling rather like a hideous china doll, yet it looked fab on other people, so I can only conclude that to oneself, one appears hideous, but the exterior effect is good. The hair however (if we pretend no hair spray was involved!) was beautiful though! Our sarongs were also tied for us (as my usual attempt is a rather bedraggled mess!), and since I was a drum player, I managed to get mine tied loosely to allow the facility to sit cross-legged, which was a relief as most of the other girls were finding breathing and sitting difficult!
The performance itself was well received, and the Wantilan was full of very appreciative and receptive people (Balinese can be very critical of gamelan performances and are not afraid to boo and jeer if something is not in order) and many of the group were on a massive high after the performance. My only slight personal dampener for the experience was the dead-leg i had after the first Gong Kebyar set which was totally unexpected and I physically just couldnt walk off the stage properly! In an attempt to walk normally I tried to pretend it wasnt happening, but in my numbness put the entire weight of my body onto my bent big toe (as cannot tell what you are doing when dead leg!) felt something give way, and then scraped it, almost knocked a gamelan instrument onto myself and generally looked in pain! In the end, I gave up trying to hide it and was aided off the stage by our suling player!
We havent actually done a great deal apart from the rehearsals, but have seen some fantastic performances, particularly the Gamelan Jegog (massive Bamboo gamelan from Negara in West Bali) and Gamelan Cendana who performed for us, and eaten some delicious food. I had a lovely experience returning to the warung (eaterie) in the market, I used to eat in all the time. The lady who owns it called out my name as did her husband and was genuinely pleased to see me. I had my favourite dish, Cap Jai (no one makes it like her) and had Avocado juice to drink, which was amazing!!! It's still the same!
I haven't really had much chance to talk to Balinese friends about things, apart from very superficial level conversation, but it's been really lovely to see people. It was weird at first to be back here, but now it feels like I have been here forever!
I made a little realisation in my head. Sin is like a mosquito bite. It's always around, and there's always the possibility of getting more. You really really want to scratch it, and it's so hard to resist, and at the time it feels great to scratch it, but afterwards it scars and taints you for ages and the long term result is never good. I am finding it hard to resist both, and feel like a horrid person at the moment, please pray for me in respect of both the metaphor and the reality!
Anyway, back to positive things, Just went shopping for Daniel's birthday party. I have two large bags full of stuff (lots of snacks, presents, toys etc) and the whole lot came to the equivalent of only 8-9 pounds! Amazing!!!!!!
Oh, and for the record, no cockroaches in my room! It's very nice and very clean!
It's Sunday again and I really wanted to go to church, and had found an advert in the paper for a seven-day adventist church which seemed to have a service at 11am (in addition to the 9am service advertised, which I didnt wake in time for). Very excited, as have not either experienced a service of this type or an Indonesian service. However, I got very lost trying to find it (it seemed so easy from the map), and then all of a sudden, feeling very hot and flustered, I chanced upon a building with a cross on top!!! I made my way there, at 10.45 to find that it was a catholic church, and I had missed mass, which was 9-11am. A very nice man, told me when the next service would be. It looked very different inside, I was very sad to have missed it. Then I had a wander around for the next 10mins, trying to find the church I had the address for, eventually I chanced upon a protestant (feels weird saying that word- I never use it in UK!) church, adn had a quick chat to the men who were there, who told me I had also missed their service, which was also 9am!!! They gave me a kind of parish magazine which I shall peruse later! They then directed me to the Adventist church (not at all obvious, down a side street), and I arrived- unfortunately the paper was wrong and there was no service at 11am, but there was one on Wednesday. So I didnt manage to make it to church this morning, but at least I now know where the catholic, protestant and adventist churches are in Denpasar!!!!
Anyway, enough of my wafflings, it's been a great week thus far. We've had rehearsals every day, and the group has managed to reduce our 'faffing' a great deal, so time has been used productively. Our leader, Pak Susila was pleased with us, and believed that we were 'ready' for our performance. The big day itself was yesterday, and all seemed to go well except that a number of the group were feeling a little unwell (most of them went to the same restaurant, whilst Kathy, Matt and I went to another one on our own). We had a lazy morning (to our shame, Liz and I awoke at 11am!!) and then departed for the art centre at 3pm. Our rehearsal was watched with much interested by Balinese, and Andy's famous piece 'Pig' met with raptuous applause, even in rehearsal). During the 3 hours between rehearsal and 8pm performance, after a delicious dinner of Nasi Bungkus (literal translation: take-away rice: actual one- white rice, with satay something or other, piece of chicken, some veg and noodles), the prep began. Each female was made up by a Balinese lady, with lots and lots of make-up and then our hair was made into a coifed up-do with flowers in our hair also- this took around 20 mins). As most of the group do not where make-up this was met to a certain extent with horror and I admit to feeling rather like a hideous china doll, yet it looked fab on other people, so I can only conclude that to oneself, one appears hideous, but the exterior effect is good. The hair however (if we pretend no hair spray was involved!) was beautiful though! Our sarongs were also tied for us (as my usual attempt is a rather bedraggled mess!), and since I was a drum player, I managed to get mine tied loosely to allow the facility to sit cross-legged, which was a relief as most of the other girls were finding breathing and sitting difficult!
The performance itself was well received, and the Wantilan was full of very appreciative and receptive people (Balinese can be very critical of gamelan performances and are not afraid to boo and jeer if something is not in order) and many of the group were on a massive high after the performance. My only slight personal dampener for the experience was the dead-leg i had after the first Gong Kebyar set which was totally unexpected and I physically just couldnt walk off the stage properly! In an attempt to walk normally I tried to pretend it wasnt happening, but in my numbness put the entire weight of my body onto my bent big toe (as cannot tell what you are doing when dead leg!) felt something give way, and then scraped it, almost knocked a gamelan instrument onto myself and generally looked in pain! In the end, I gave up trying to hide it and was aided off the stage by our suling player!
We havent actually done a great deal apart from the rehearsals, but have seen some fantastic performances, particularly the Gamelan Jegog (massive Bamboo gamelan from Negara in West Bali) and Gamelan Cendana who performed for us, and eaten some delicious food. I had a lovely experience returning to the warung (eaterie) in the market, I used to eat in all the time. The lady who owns it called out my name as did her husband and was genuinely pleased to see me. I had my favourite dish, Cap Jai (no one makes it like her) and had Avocado juice to drink, which was amazing!!! It's still the same!
I haven't really had much chance to talk to Balinese friends about things, apart from very superficial level conversation, but it's been really lovely to see people. It was weird at first to be back here, but now it feels like I have been here forever!
I made a little realisation in my head. Sin is like a mosquito bite. It's always around, and there's always the possibility of getting more. You really really want to scratch it, and it's so hard to resist, and at the time it feels great to scratch it, but afterwards it scars and taints you for ages and the long term result is never good. I am finding it hard to resist both, and feel like a horrid person at the moment, please pray for me in respect of both the metaphor and the reality!
Anyway, back to positive things, Just went shopping for Daniel's birthday party. I have two large bags full of stuff (lots of snacks, presents, toys etc) and the whole lot came to the equivalent of only 8-9 pounds! Amazing!!!!!!
Oh, and for the record, no cockroaches in my room! It's very nice and very clean!
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