Just another day in this magical place.

Hi guys,

Now I've got this blogging stuff down pat (with help from the lovely S.L.) there's no stopping me so look out....or look away😜

Sedap Malam

For Mothers Day this year K and I attended a fund raising luncheon at our favourite restaurant, The Bridges. The proceeds went to the Bumi Sehat (healthy earth mother) foundation, a wonderful birthing/child health centre here in Ubud. Guest speaker was Robin Lim.

I was interested in infertility as our two good friends Koming and Yannick have been trying to have babies for 14 years between them.

                             The beautiful girls, Yannick and Koming                             

  

It's really important to have children here in Bali as not only do they complete your family but they are there to help you across to the other side when your body dies. Only your children can perform the special rituals of purification, dig your body up after 5 years (how long it takes to save for a cremation), piece together every single bone that has to be accounted for and send you off in a big (straw) cow packed full of goodies (including live chicken) for your next life.

Some barren couples even adopt children from there relatives, so that someone will be there for them at the end.

Yannick and Koming are not at that point (thank goodness) and are still very hopeful. I was told at the luncheon that infertility treatments were held on Wednesdays and consisted of acupuncture and chinease medicine. So that Wed we jumped on our scooters and were off, when we arrived we got such a surprise- a) the place was packed and b) it was full of Westerners. There were Russian's and Swiss, Italian, English, Americans and Australians, all at different stages of pregnancy and some bringing their babies for a check up.

We sat on the bench patiently waiting, playing Spot The Pregnant Balinese Woman (we only saw one, can you believe it, apparently women come from all over the world to have their babies here because of the love, care and support of the staff)........all of a sudden we heard a baby cry and a Balinese man talking well Yannick was up like a shot and into the room next door closely followed by Koming, after a short while of contemplation I thought what the heck and in I went too.

Wow there on the bed lay a mother with her newborn baby to her breast, and the sacred placenta (Ari-Ari) still attached sitting in a bowl covered with flowers.

Yannick and Koming were having a chat with the proud father, who was so happy that I had come into the room and was sharing their moment, it was their 3rd child and they had no problems with me taking a photo to share with my friends. Can you believe it??? Just beautiful.

Did you know that the placenta is seen as a sacred spirit that look as after the child? It is taken to the child's home and is buried by the front door with stones, as the baby grows water from its bath is used as an offering for the spirit even some of the babies milk and food too is given in thanks to the Ari-Ari. 

Yannick and Koming went well with their treatments and will continue to go every Wed until we hear some good news. I will keep you posted.

Until next time much love

J

Koming having acupuncture with smoking herbs

Eka (manager) with 4 lovely sisters from Perth, visiting Bumi Sehat (a place that they had made donations to, but never before visited)

For more information on Bumi Sehat- click this link xx

Villa Sedap Malam.

Sedap Malam is the name of our home here in Ubud.

The name comes from my favourite Balinese flower, in English it's called the Tuber Rose. 

Such a heady pungent sweet fragrance which comes out at night. Malam means evening in Indonesian and Sedap means pleasant, tasteful and delicious. 

We have planted 10 Sedap Malams in our garden and house is full of them the scent comes out at night and gives a feeling of magic, speaking of magic one of my favourite things to do is look at the rice paddies in the evening and see the fireflies zooming around.

I have never seen anything like it. Michael Leunig said that they were all gone from Ubud and I'm so excited to say that we have them on our property, which tells me that not a lot of pesticide is used on our rice.....thank goodness.

Our Villa is three years old and was built by our neighbour Bapak (father). Wayan, his son is our housekeeper and between them and Ibu (mother), we are so looked after. They do everything from building maintenance, painting, gardening and cleaning, to security watch, paying our bills, picking up the laundry and booking transport the list goes on and on. They have become family and their children and grandchildren Putu and Made are always over to play and to see what they can score- either a Yakult, iceypole, biscuit etc. etc. We love it!

The villa sits in the front of a rice Padi alongside the river, the view is outstanding, ken and I both pray to the Gods that it will stay that way. Ubud has become a tourist hot spot and many rice padis have now been converted to villas, and in the last year the price for land has risen by 30%.

Magical things happen here all the time....also some pretty hair raising things as well, now we just take everything in our stride. The day we bought the house I opened the side door and a snake slid out WTF??#^*¥"!! and that was just the beginning. 

We have snakes,geckos,rats, dragons,rats, frogs, spiders, rats, chickens, random dogs bats and yes rats!!

I cannot believe that the princess me is so used to it now, it just seems normal, but I am relieved that finally we have the rats out of the house after removing the kitchen cupboards and ripping up the decking, they now live in the backyard feasting on the chicken food.

Actually they look quite cute, 4 year old Putu came over the other day proudly holding a dead baby rat CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!.... Can you believe that I'm still here? Well I love it,the occasional scream still comes out every now and then but quite rare compared to the early days.

We are very happy with our dream home but thought we might make a few adjustments, like putting in a Koi pond, don't know what happened but can't get to the front door now as there is not much earth left!! What a project, Ken is in his element though sometimes dumbstruck and thinking WTF have we done.

The workers come at 7am eat breaky slog away until 12 have lunch a bowl of rice and then all go and sleep in the Bale Benong,( the Bale Benong is a large outdoor mattress  built into a little pavilion, I spend a lot of my time there ) it's lovely Ken and I quietly creep around the workers whilst they are sleeping  and at the end of the day Ken sends them home with a Bintang, they are the happiest workers in Ubud. Did you know the average wage of a working man here is $7.00 a day, tops $10.00.

As usual I can go on and on but you will have to wait until next time.

Cinta J

PS: I have just found this blog I'm sorry I've been so slack it's been waiting there for 6 months now, can you believe how quick time passes? I have so much more to tell, and now that I think I'm getting the hang of this you might hear from me again sooner.