Cremation part 2.

Hi guys, betchya didn't think you'd be hearing from me this soon!
Just a quick note before you read this be aware that there are photo's that might be disturbing and also that my village is very happy for me to put these photos in my blog.

But before I start from where I left off I think I should tell you who Nanon is, as in my last blog I talked about his father's cremation. Nanon is a gorgeous 7 year old boy who comes to English class he is so shy but tries so hard to pronounce the English words correctly whilst looking at his toes, I almost need a hearing aid to hear him.

 Well three years ago his father died, I asked Yannik what did he die from she said "I don't know Mum but he big big man then little skinny" I said "Oh, he probably died of cancer" she replied "No mum, no cancer he die what this Kangker Darah" which when I looked it up in my Indo dictionary means Blood Cancer. It amazes me all the time how primitive the people of our village are, no one goes to a Dr as they are either too expensive or will tell them bad news. I have so many horror stories maybe when I have time I will share a few of them with you, all I need for starters is our English teacher Tartik she has enough to write an essay, like for instance when she was crawling at 1 year old and touched a light switch and blew her thumb off...oh yeah and was never taken to the Drs and the smell was horrendous as the gangrene set in...but here I go again getting distracted. 

Happy days on our way to cremation

The day before cremation Wayan told me that all the families of the deceased had to go to the cemetery and wake up their relatives "eskuse me eskuse me, wake up, you sleep here 1 more time, tomorrow we come get you and help you go home".  Isn't that beautiful?  No wonder all Balinese are so scared of cemeteries they truly believe that the dead are living until they are cremated, they even put bamboo in your mouth when you are buried so that they can give you a drink for the first few days of you being in the ground then they take the piece of bamboo out and fill in the grave.

Getting warm.

Speaking of graves it was hard work trying to find Made's grandfathers grave as it was pitch black only a few people had torches and the headstones are tiny. The cemetery itself is on a slope with heaps of rubble but Ken and I managed to get a front row plot (pardon the pun) as the digging began everyone was chatting kids were running around from grave to grave to see which body would pop up first kind of like a Kinder surprise. We were the first to find our body, after you go down about a meter you find plastic rice bags that have been placed as a warning your getting warm, one more foot and we struck gold Woo Hoo everybody was cheering! I just can't friggin' explain it, it was just so joyful and wonderful something I have never experienced before.

Before you could say Jack Robinson the body was up on the ground with sheet untied and everyone picking up bones and giving them a good wash with water that has been blessed by Manku's and carried in buckets all the way to the cemetery. After being washed all the bones have to be counted and every single digit has to be there or you can not be cremated.....as you can't show up in your next life missing a finger.

Our Yannik lovingly cleansing her grandmothers bones notice the ribbon on her skull...beautiful.

What really surprised me was that I thought skeletons were white but these were really brown very interesting as I don't think it was the dirt because the whole body is wrapped in a white sheet that was not decomposed.

After being cleansed.

By 6am all of the bodies had been exhumed except for one, Tartik's father in law his family had tried digging everywhere but could not find him, Tartik was at home with her 2 year old daughter Kadek who was sleeping, suddenly someone realised this and rang her mobile "come down Dad won't let us find him until grandaughter here" within minutes of Tartik arriving carrying a sound asleep Kadek her grandfathers body was found. Isn't that amazing?

Just check out the joy as everybody walks around the crate of the deceased"s goodies.

After a few hours of ceremonies and Ken and I having a nap back at home we made our way to cremation. The place was packed people, priests, effigies and of course food stalls for lunch I'm telling you it reminded me a bit of the Royal Show.

All of the effigies had piles of wood stacked under them ready for ignition, the 12 year olds body had 2 gas burners set up on either side of the effigy, apparently she had been injected with formaldahyde so as not to smell (sorry just thought some of you might be interested as there is no refridgeration out here only the rich or tourists have fridges). Once all of the effigies were ignited at once the heat was amazing and Ken and I had to move quickly but as I hurrying away I managed to get some video of the event the people running around thru the effigies are waving there hands as an act of helping them have a speedy journey.....possibly so they don't feel the heat too much what do you think?

So there you go, it's goodbye from me and its goodbye from these guys.....who lived next door now they're on another journey in another life and this is just a small reminder that they were here.