Bali is only a few hours from Java, but culturally, it is a whole world away. The people are primarily Hindu, so small baskets of colorful flower petals and incense—and the occasional cigarette—line streets, sidewalks, steps and cars’ dashboards as offerings to the gods. In Bali, I saw no mosques and heard no call to … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: September 2012
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Kuta, Bali
As Peace Corps Volunteers we are forbidden to travel away from our sites overnight during our first three months at our permanent site. September 15th marked our group’s three-month mark, so we are finally released from our gilded village cages. To celebrate this, 13 volunteers and I headed to Southern Bali for the first time … Continue reading
Teacher Problems, #2
Behind-the-Blog Drama
During Idul Fitri, the biggest Islamic holiday of the year, I had way too much time to think about life and generally, I was having emotional overload with all the new experiences and information. I felt a lot of things that I couldn’t really blog about simply because it just wasn’t very clear. Now, after … Continue reading
Becak Ridin’ & the Most Useful Word in Bahasa Indonesia
The other day I arrived to my site from visiting nearby volunteers in another city and it was pretty late—meaning after 6pm. It was already dark out and I didn’t feel like walking the several kilometers between the bus terminal and my house, so I decided to take a becak. A becak is basically Indonesia’s … Continue reading
An Epic Beach Battle
At a beach side warong, there was once an epic battle between two little island boys with the sea in their blood and the sun in their hair. Continue reading
Conversations with Indonesian Journalists
(Alternatively, this could be titled Accosted by Indonesian Journalists.) A few weeks ago, I was trying to catch up on some online activities at an outdoor internet café close to my town’s main square. I spotted a nice empty table to sit at, next to a large group of men, smoking and a single, lone … Continue reading