09/01/2018 Day 3

Good afternoon (Guten Tag) dear participant! I wake up sweaty from dream-filled slumber. The day starts as always very warm. Today we have Bahasa and offering crafting.

Bahasa is the Indonesian main language. Here in Bali, three languages are spoken. Bahasa, Bali and English. You could say Bahasa is the standard German, Bali is the Bavarian and English is used when you're dealing with tourists. Personally, I find Bali difficult to speak while Bahasa is relatively easy to pronounce. The crazy thing is that there is only present tense here. When something happened, you have to infer it from the context of the sentence.

Well, first let's have breakfast and then see what the day brings. The morning is relatively uneventful. I spend my time with the other participants by the pool until the class starts. So I lie in the shade and enjoy the beautiful weather. It's hot, but bearable by the pool.
The class starts at 10:00. The pictures can be found here as well.
We learn things like: Good morning, good day, my name is blablabla... just things to get started in a language. But the class also ends and we quickly find ourselves back at the pool. Lunch, pool and then we start with the offerings. I decided not to train my dexterity skills and instead take videos and pictures of the others. Paula is the fastest and most beautiful at making the offering. I'm really impressed by how great of a crafter she is. It's a pity that she's only here for a week. Sarah and Paula are only here for the introduction week and will continue to Nusa Penida for the Turtle Project on Sunday. They would have certainly done a good job in the kindergarten as well.

After everyone is finished, Komang (one of the coordinators) hands me an offering. I was busy with the camera (hustle hustle). What takes us several minutes, she finishes in a minute. According to tradition, women here take care of the daily offerings. Once in the morning and once in the evening. In addition to these daily ceremonies, there are many other non-daily ceremonies. The residents of Bali have their own calendar for this. If you want, I can upload it and try to explain the individual ceremonies. That will be an extra blog post.

There's a temple nearby, we've made offerings, so what do we do? Of course, we go to the temple and pray. For those who think there are Nazis here because of the swastika... they are not Nazis. This is a sun symbol and is supposed to bring luck. The National Socialists only adopted this sign and perverted its meaning for their own benefit. Also, if you look closely, the sun symbol is straight and the Nazi swastika is slanted. So these two can actually be distinguished quite well.

Back to the temple. So when we arrive there, we pray in turn. To do this, the incense stick is lit, inserted into the offering and placed on the shrine. Then you take a few flowers, fold your hands with the flowers in between and bring your hands to approximately the height of your forehead. Usually, you would then recite five traditional prayers, which we won't do now. Ngurah (coordinator) tells us to pray however we want and finish with the final of the five prayers.
The last prayer is: Om Santi Santi Santi Om. (which means something like: Peace Peace Peace)

And so, blessed by the gods, we make our way back to the bungalows. The rest of the day is relatively unspectacular. Some shopping, pool, dinner, chatting with the other participants, business as usual. See you on the next day. Selamat Tinggal!