Putu has a name.

Last week we attended our first one month and seven days baby ceremony. 
Yes can you believe it, these guys love there ceremonies over here. 

When a mother gives birth, she, her husband and baby are spiritually unclean and are not allowed to enter a temple until the baby is one month and seven days old and they have all been cleansed by the Manku. Similar to when a woman is menstruating and cannot enter a temple.

Putu (first child) was given the name of Cahaya Laksmi Dewi. After a month of Ima's sister asking what is her name, Ima gave up and said you name her as we cannot think of anything. So her sister came up with Cahaya "a little ray of sunshine" and the two goddesses names Laksmi and Dewi. it was a great success as everybody loves it, Cahaya is pronounced Chahaya as the letter c here in Bali is always pronounced with a ch sound.

                           Made presenting Cahaya with her two baby black roosters.

 Wow there were offerings everywhere stacks of them, fires burning to open Cahaya's mind so she will not suffer from depression or anxiety but have a clear path to consciousness and the Gods.

She was presented with two black baby roosters to grow up with as her souls protectors, (no wonder we never get a sleep in  around here the village is full of frickin roosters)!!

We still don't know who she is the reincarnation of, I think we have to wait for her foot touching ceremony.....keep you posted.

Her parents are just gorgeous, they were over the other day (Ima is now the latest knitter in the village), and they were worried that Ima's milk was no good as Cahaya needs the breast hourly and the only way she stops is if Made holds her all night....yes ALL night. 

Well little Miss Porky Cahaya has no problem with her Mothers milk, she just loves being held all day AND all night. You know over here the whole family sleep in the same bed until the children go to school some even stay there until they are too tall to all fit in. I couldn't stand it, but sleep is no big deal for the Balinese, you have what you can get when you can get it and no one complains. 

My beautiful girls holding their first piece of knitting, all wearing the hats that Mum knitted for them.

                                                          
 Happy Days!

Sorry this email has taken so long, we have all been flat out over here with Cremation, Sib's arrival and a whirlwind trip to Perth. But if I was really honest with you i would tell you I have been putting this blog on hold, you know it's really crazy why do we put off things that bring us joy??? I love doing this but sometimes to get started is just so hard and it reminds me of being at Uni and doing an essay but once you know what you want to say something inside takes over and you can't stop and your so happy getting it all out and when your done you feel complete. Soooh why not do it straight away?? Arrrgh frustrating, but anyway I won't go on as I better start my next Blog. Here's a sneak peak 

Banjar Cooking

OHMG my first thought was do I have to eat that next week??? But I was told no that they are for the spirit to take in the next life! Whew! Think of us on the first of October when we've been invited at 5 am to dig up Made's grandfathers bones and wash and wrap them all ready for cremation at 1.00!

Catch you in a week or so love J.

We have a pond!!!

Woo Hoo!

After 8 months it is finally finished, what an experience......it's been round, square, too big too small filled in dug out......and of course caused a few ...well maybe a lot of domestics along the way BUT it is finished and dare I say our relationship is so much better for it.

You know one of my Mantras is "everything will come together when you surrender"  but every now and then I get blindsided by a need to control.

It's small projects like these that really help us grow, I have grown some more patience and tolerance and cut back on control and demand, like when I went and sat on the bed and cried because Ken had filled a part of the garden with stones....

 Like my son says "first world problems". Now I look at the stones and think oh yeah quite creative and ask myself why did I want it all my way??

The pond is a huge crowd drawer, everyone loves Koi and birds here as I've said before, there are some serious competitors in these fields so the kids and adults come and watch and feed the Koi we love it.

Ken releasing some new fish.

Now here I go with another of my "magical" stories .....well Ken and I had to buy some Koi for the pond right, but the problem is they are so expensive for a decent size one your looking at around $100.

A couple of weeks before the pond was ready Wayan tells us that he has a friend in Tatiapi (just down the road) who wants to sell his Koi, he has 10 and will sell them all for one million ($100). So we all jump on our bikes and take of to Tatiapi we get there and the fish are a decent size but not that attractive I look at Ken and he says sold!

We get on to our bikes and I said geez Ken it was great to get some fish but they were pretty ugly....he says to me you need to be grateful give thanks to the Gods for what we've got...yeah yeah yeah.

So I go home and have a chat with God or whoevers listening "Hey I really appreciate you giving us these fish but did they have to be so Ugly can I have some beautiful ones please.

Weeellll no jokes one week later we were visiting the new parents Ima and Made to see the baby and 

Made says " Ken I want you to have my Koi, my pump is broken and they are too much work for me now I want you to have them please it's my gift to you. We walk outside and there in the pond is 15 of the most beautiful Koi all hand reared as babies by Made...some of them were huge!

Can you believe it!!!! We are truly blessed.

The little buggers kept us up last night, at 2.30 they were chasing each other round the pond, jumping and splashing for hours......they were spawning. I didn't know this about Koi and as the pond is under our bedroom window it did not make for a good sleep, even with ear plugs and then of course you've got the roosters, dogs and call to prayer greeting you at dawn. Ahhh kind of reminds me of Green Acres with a twist.

The latest craze here in downtown Dukuh Kangin is Knitting! Yep it started with me teaching Wayan's wife Dayu and Yannik, then a couple of girls, now we have a regular knitting group of 4 girls and 5 boys.....and growing by the day, the others are on hold until I get to Perth and get some more needles and wool.

Ok well it's by for now but just one more thing......our canary has arrived!! 

Ketut rocked up this morning with a bedraggled looking multi coloured canary that his friend gave to him and he has passed on to us. He has the voice of a soprano....a little beaut and we have named him Koming.

But before Ketut came Devi our masseuse/friend arrived with a gift on Wednesday, an unusual bird that has black whiskers, and mimics animal noises, mieows like a cat and clicks like a cicada! Can you fricken believe it?????? So now there's 8 and still counting.

So it's goodbye and much love and a special Thankyou for all the lovely messages from my last blog x

Happy Anniversary!!!

Woo Hoo, today I celebrate the 18th Anniversary of my life here since being diagnosed with a Brain Tumour so large I had three months left to live.

(This is the size I thought my tumor was, but unknown to me it was 3 times bigger!)

This time 18 years ago I underwent an 17 hour operation in which the ENT surgeon went through my left ear canal removed all of my inner ear to get to my tumour which was wrapped around my brain stem and had been growing for so many years it had misshapen my skull. Then my wonderful Neurologist held my brain in his hand whilst getting the bulk of the tumor out.....after that he took the fat from my stomach and made a pad around my brain stem where he lovingly placed my brain on to rest.....forever.

As I tell you this I am overcome with love, joy and excitement with what this tumour has given me. The tumour was so large they could not get it all out and over the last 17 years life's  been a bit of a roller coaster where I've had to have radiation and monitoring.

 BUT last year a miracle happened, I went to see my radiologist, and whilst sitting in the reception area I heard my Dr calling out "where's the miracle woman?" "I'm here" I called back (as I truly believe I am a miracle) and he said no I'm not joking  I can't see it .....IT'S GONE! 

So now I live a life without my little friend that was in my head. Like Wayan says "that God he have schedule Mam".

Wayan is one of the most prophetic guys I know.

It just so happens that today is also Bali's Independence Day, how's that?

 I come to a country that also celebrates on the 17th of August, at the risk of sounding corny I also celebrate my Independence......of self, what I mean is my tumour gave me courage, courage to live the best life I could for myself independent of what I was taught growing up, the shoulds and should nots, the how could you's and the ....blah blah blah's. I was Free! Free to be whoever I wanted to be and to embrace every day as a new start.

Guess what! We have a car!! Well a midget kinda toy car, but it's a car!

We have rented a Suzuki Karimun, Carrymoon in Balinese, it's a bit sahkit (sick) ie: it needed an oil change, new tyres, new lights and stuff for the radiator....hopefully that's it for a while but hey it only costs us $100 a month and is so much better than the scooter when it rains!!!

Wayan is so happy he's been doing lessons for the last couple of weeks, and we're still waiting for his license to appear as it takes some time but shouldn't be too long as we slipped a few extra thousand rupee of encouragement for the Police to process it. 

In the meantime if the Police pick us up (happened yesterday whilst on the way to the airport) we just slip another couple of thousand and all is well!!!

Will keep you posted on our travels, happy days.

I dedicate this blog to my amazingly wonderful family and friends who if not for them I would not be here today, as you can have the best surgeons in the world but it's love, prayer, hope and positivity that truly saves your life and these people (you know who you are) gave that to me in bucket loads.

                                                            

THANKYOU

 J.

Light and dark, happy and sad....

    Putu Putra

This week a baby girl arrived in our village. Her name is Putu Putra, she is the first child for Made the Sculptor and Ima the Nurse. We are all so happy and everyone has already visited the new parents, can you believe it? Putu was born in Denpassar on Monday and she came home on Tuesday and by the time Ken and I visited her yesterday (Wednesday) half of the village had been to offer her parents congratulations!! 

         Ima and daughter.

Wow I was so suprised the young parents were so cool, calm and connected. When I asked Ima if she had any painkillers during her birth she asked me. Why?

Birth and death are simple occurrences here yet everyone and I mean everyone is involved, our village is one big family.

Sadly Putu arrived one week after, another woman in the village gave birth to a baby girl who only lived for 6 hours, she came two months early and Wayan told me that when she was born they put her in the "oven" (humicrib) but she died. 

Not long after she died her father brought her home by motorbike at 10.00pm he was met by the people of our village who helped bury her and everybody sang long into the night. It was very sad and everybody was affected, she was Tomong and Wayan's baby sister they are two young boys who come for English and Maths, Tomong cried all weekend.

The acceptance here of death is so calming and reassuring grief comes but with the grief is an understanding that nothing is gone forever as the spirit lives on.

Made and Ima will find out in three months who Putra has incarnated as.....I will keep you posted.

In all the years (30) that I have been coming here, I have never had a negative experience, but last month Ken and I were talking over coffee about the middle aged Brittish Woman who had been murdered here in Ubud and Ken asked me what would I do if someone attacked me? Straight away I said that's not going to happen I'm not putting it out there later on that day I started thinking about what he said and I thought to myself be careful why couldn't that happen to you (warning). 

That afternoon Ken said that he could not take me into Ubud for my Buddhist class as he was going with Ketut to see the healer about his knee. I said no worries I will go in by myself, as evening approached I thought maybe I should get Nyoman our neighbour to take me in but then I thought no I don't want to put him out (warning). Isn't it amazing that we receive messages from our intuitive self but put them to the side.

                                                     Our local cemetery 

As I was coming home on the bike at 8.00pm it started to pour with rain, and I mean pour. I could hardly see and with the lack of street lights I had to go quite slow, after a while I started to notice another bike following me and as I rounded the bend the bike started weaving in and out by my side getting closer and closer to me.

I tried to see who it was but my vision was blurred because of the rain, all of a sudden the man on the bike came right up to my side reached out and grabbed my breast!

What a shock I couldn't believe the scream that came out of my mouth...after that he sped off into the night, not long and the anger kicked in and I started to go after him beeping my horn trying to attract attention to no avail. I went home and burst I to tears, my intuition kept telling me that day to be careful but I didn't listen. 

When I got home, I was suprised to see Wayan,Ketut and Yannick they had been waiting for me and were worried as it was getting late and there was so much rain. As shaken as I was it was lovely to have family looking out for me.

The next day Ibu made special offerings to thank the Gods that nothing worse had happened to me. I love that, such positivity, and gratitude that I was Ok, no victim.

I got many messages that night and the main one was that this particular Buddhist class was over for me and that I had received all that I needed to receive.....for the time being...anyway it's a long story ... one day I will tell you.

Hence to say I no longer ride my scooter in the dark!!! I guess I could be flattered that at my age a young man still wanted to grab my.....Su Su (breasts). ☺️

Much love J

July 9th.

It's Election Day here in Indonesia, just two parties to vote for Probawa 1 or Jakowi 2 guess who we are going for??

The competition is on between Wayan and Koming, Wayan thinks Probawa is good and strong and will wipe out all of the criminals in Indonesia....yet he voted for the more peaceful Jakowi???

 I'm so glad.

Ken and I popped down to check out the voting this morning and were amazed to see that after voting everyone has to give a fingerprint of they're little finger to the Policeman standing at the door as confirmation of there vote.

       English Lesson in progress.

When Ken and I left Perth for our little adventure we had no idea that we would buy our house (within two weeks of being here) adopt a new family and have our own little school!!!

At first we started with four young girls who needed to improve their grades so we hired an English and Mathematics teacher to tutor them four times a week. Weeeell within weeks people started to ask can I learn English, can you teach my grandchildren English and Mathematics...

So overnight we went from tutoring a couple of girls to a little school of 33 kids with ages ranging from 4 to 17!

                

 Life is pretty full on the kids come in groups of 8 and are here for two hours 6 days a week and that's just English we don't have the funds to employ our Mathematics teacher full time just yet....maybe you could help??

The kids are so wonderful and respectful it's a pure joy to have them here, every Sunday morning at 8.00 they are here to clean up around our house (as that's what they do in their regular school).

They sweep and pick up dead leaves and then we move out into the street picking up all of their rubbish that they have just dropped during the week. 

Then it's in to the Temple where we do a big tidy up, slowly slowly the rubbish in our village is disappearing Ken is trying to educate them about plastic and how toxic it is to burn (fires are constantly burning here to get rid of rubbish) we are in the process of trying to find some large recycling bins like we had in Perth.

Along with a full time Mathematics teacher we would love to get these guys a table tennis table, computers and so on, it's our dream and if your interested and would like to contribute that would be fantastic. 

You are always welcome to come and visit, and see how the kids are doing and we would love people to send emails that the kids could reply to as I'm teaching them about the Internet, just send them to jacqueline62@live.com

These kids are not orphans, nor are they disabled they are just poor and uneducated, the local school is even uneducated and these kids are hungry to learn so if you would like to help them you are welcome to make a donation to Danamon Ubud branch (368) Account number 003571737034 Swift Code BDINIDJA  Jacqueline Holmes (Kids of Pejeng). Or send a cheque to Jacqueline Holmes c/o PO Box 237 UBUD Post Office UBUD BALI 80571.

We will email receipts if wanted.

              Checking out our new classroom just waiting for the new desks to arrive.

Our English teacher Tatik.

Until next time much love

J

God of small things.

As you know Ken and I live in front of a massive rice paddie, by the side of a river. Which means "Big Spirit live here", quite scary for the Balinese so we have Temples everywhere to keep the Gods and spirits happy. Normally you would have one Temple in your backyard to welcome or say goodbye to spirit...we have two.

The first night we arrived Ken and I woke terrified as our bedroom windows were rattling/vibrating so hard we thought a Tsunami had hit Kuta!!! As we sat up holding hands, we looked out of the windows to see nothing was moving no trees not even a leaf as there was no breeze at all WTH ???

In the morning when I told Wayan he said "that big spirit madam" and he proceeded to tell me of an incident with the previous occupant Stephanie. She and her husband Ryan decided to put up a fence across the backyard to keep their dog in. The next day they awoke to find the swimming pool half empty. They had the contractor out, who could find no leaks, cracks or problems with the pool. Then they also called a Plumber and again he found no problem.

That night Stephanie and Made (Wayan's brother) had a dream about the fence coming down, the following day Wayan's father (Bapak) went to the local Mangku (priest), the Manku said that "Big Spirit" not happy that Stephanie had built a fence as He/She could not come in to have "smoko" with other spirits.

Stephanie took the fence down and filled the pool and for over two years now that pool has not leaked a drop....go figure!

The windows still rattle but not so often we now welcome visits from our friend, the evenings are so magical here along with "Big Spirit we have the bats coming in at around 6.00pm and the wonderful fire flies one night we even woke up to the thumping sound of a magnificent Owl walking around the balcony just outside of our bedroom. 

Just had to throw this in, one morning after I had showered a bat came flying into my room and straight into the bathroom well I took off ran and jumped in to bed and pulled up the covers, it came back into the bedroom looking around and finally left after Ken came running in answer to my distress call!!! Even though I was scared I felt so honoured, did you know that to American Indians the bat means "rebirth".......and again slight transgression have you ever read Bram Stoker's Dracula??? Fantastic.

OK on with the story ......guys I've only just begun!

Not long after we arrived Ketut and Yannick (our neighbours and now good friends) came over with a present for Ken, I couldn't believe my eyes when Ken opened the box and sitting there was a bloody green budgie....yes a good old Aussie Budgerigar!!!! Ketut had caught it that afternoon in his backyard and he thought that Ken would love it, well Ken might love it but Jacqueline the Libran was not impressed we come to beautiful exotic Bali where the birds are exquisite and we end up with a frickin Budgie!

Well that was the start of our family of birds, after "Ketut" the budgie arrived Wayan came to me one day and said that Nakan the metal worker who built our beautiful fence needed to sell his bird so that he could finish building his new Villa so that's how Lawat/Wayan the little black and white bird with the mighty voice came to us.

Wayan was a beautiful singer and one afternoon 3 local village boys arrived each carrying a bird cage with its cover on, unknown to me a competition had been arranged to see who was the best singer. Down in the backyard the boys had all the cages lined up, including Wayan, the competition was on unfortunately Lawat had a dose of stage fright and didn't utter a sound much to our (human)Wayan's chagrin.

 Wayan (the bird) has not always been called Wayan. When he first arrived I decided to call him Lawat (visitor)...one morning while Ken and I were sitting in the Bale Benong having our constitutional morning tea. I looked up and saw that Lawats cage was empty- what a shock the door was open and Lawat was gone. We couldn't believe it, how could this happen Ken was pedantic about the cage doors when he was feeding the birds. 

News soon got out in the village and people came to offer there condolences especially Nakan, you see birds are a prized possession here in Bali they are truly loved and cared for not like the Balinese cats and dogs....that's another story but birds are a symbol of affluence and they regularly hold competitions for the best birds.

Everyone started looking for Lawat, Bapak was even out in the rice padi that night with his torch and Yannik prepared special offerings to the Gods for Lawat to come back.

The next day when I arrived home from Yoga, there was huge activity around the Bale Benong ( the Bale Benong being our outdoor meeting place where the birds are hung, deals are made and a lot of relaxation happens).

 Apparently Wayan had dreamt that night that he would catch Lawat and Bapak had found Lawats "poo" down in the chook pen implying that Lawat had slept there, yeh what the?

Anyways there was Wayan under the Bale Benong fishing net in hand (ken had taken off to the shops to buy one after sighting Lawat flying around his cage) about to catch Lawat ...... a crowd had gathered the Javenese building the pond, Ibu, Yannik,Ken and Bapak....suspense building when his wife Dayu yells out NOW!  and with that Lawat took off right in front of Wayan's eyes so then Dayu takes off knowing what trouble she's in.

After this news gets out of Wayan's failed attempt, (I can't believe how quick things get out around here everyone knows everything) and over comes Ketut, Ketut says he's been giving this "problem" a great deal of thought and maybe if he got a branch and placed it as a bridge up to the door of Lawats cage then hung several live crickets from the ceiling (Lawats favourite food)  and then tied a piece of string to the door of the cage dragging it through the Bali Benong across the swimming pool to the table and chairs on the other side where he and Wayan would sit and wait, just maybe they could get him...so creative and so hopeful.

 Well the plan was put into action and they waited and waited and sure enough along comes Lawat flying in to land on the fence and look at the yummie crickets, over he jumps to the wooden bridge walks up to the door of the cage (meanwhile everyone was holding there breath with anticipation all eyes on Lawat)  quick as a wink in he pops in to grab a cricket and bam down came the door and a triumphant Ketut and Wayan looked up to the cheer from the crowd Lawat was now home.

 From that day on Lawat became Wayan as he was now a member of our family not a visitor.

So you think it stops there, well you won't believe this but 5 days later Yannik was cleaning Ketut's cage and of he flew straight out the door he must of got some tips from Lawat. 

Poor Yannik she couldn't believe it and went home to make some offerings and pray well...wait for it she prayed and prayed, and in the morning while she was in her bedroom Ketut flew in through the door and landed on her bedside table!!!! Isn't that amazing?

 Well she quickly shut the door and rang her husband Ketut who in turn told his friend at work who in turn said "that Budgie needs a girlfriend come to my place after work", and that afternoon Ketut and Yannik rock up to our place with not only Ketut but a blue budgie we named Yannik the two love birds.

Then there were three,  but we really wanted a bird that we had picked and who was again an exceptional singer so we bought Nyoman the Muray Batu and we were complete....or so we thought.

                  Nyoman having his daily bath.

Wait there's more....

Just last week Yannik told me that she had dreamt of us having a canary and another bird I said go and tell Ken!! After a few days she asked Ketut "why canary not come to Jaklin?" weeellll yesterday our tiler Uncle Wayan arrived with his wife who was talking to Yannik and she said " eh the tourists like birds will they have ours it's Sakit" (sick) and that's how Made arrived, can you believe it!!! Made is not a Canary but a green little critter who is a Frugivore and only eats fruit no crickets.

So there you have it five birds and still waiting for a canary to drop in any day now.

To have a caged bird or not? Ken and I both love birds and think that they should be free, so why do we have them??? They bring us joy that's it simple and selfish. At the moment I'm attending a Buddhist study group and I'm sure the fellow students would not approve especially after I told them that I got great satisfaction out of "zapping" the flies with the battery powered tennis racquet! I have since stopped this practise as I now have more of a consciousness to all living things but I am struggling with letting go of our beautiful birds and....my love of bacon. Somehow I cannot see myself as a Buddhist.

Ok signing off now until next time

Love J

And it's good night from Wayan, Made, Nyoman, Ketut and Yannik.

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