a WEekend of green toenails and a cooking show

Well, I haven’t yet taken a trip around this small island. I ask people where they have been and so far nothing is screaming at me. I may go up to an ecolodge for a couple of days. The woman who runs it takes treks to Sumatra to the orangs and donates $ to SOS. It’s up in the mountains. Most people say to keep away from Kuta, the Australian wasteland. However, I did have time for a pedicure and now have these very cool emerald green toes…really busting out! Photos to follow.
And today I took a cooking class. I am now in a food coma. Where to begin,,,
at 9am our chef took us for a walk to the market…a place that I had not investigated. Oh my, we went downstairs where they sell spices, fruits, vegetables meat, fish and chicken. It’s all these dark narrow hallways, women selling from baskets all crouching on the ground, so many different foods. Not so great to see flies landing on the fish, the meat, the chicken. Encourages me to stay with the tofu and tempe! This part of the market opens at 5am for locals to get their produce. Our chef stopped along the way to explain the names of things and how it is used. From there back to the restaurant where the 4 of us took a seat for the start of a cooking show! And we each were given a chance to cook for the next 4 hours…yes, a 5 hour class. I am so ready to come home and cook! Think I’d like to do a fundraiser for SOS with everything that I had to eat today.
First the Basic Gede, which is used in many dishes and has roots, ginger, garlic, peppers, tumeric, cumin…all the favorites fried together. Sayur Urab, an amazing veggie dish with coconut shavings, carrots, beans, cabbage, sprouts, chili garlic, shrimp paste. The beginning………He made this dish, had each of us help a bit and then we ate while he got ready for the next dish. Tuna Sambal Matah, grilled tuna steaks brushed with the Basic Gede with lemon grass, lime, ginger, shallots, chilies mixed but not cooked as a dressing. Oh my oh my. We ate. Tempe Manis was up next. Tempe cut into small French fry sizes and fried with peanuts, garlic, sugar and chili peppers. Crunchy goodness. We ate. Opor Ayam was cooking on the stove…chicken soup Bali style—potatoes, bay leaf, carrot the basic gede and coconut milk..we waited for that one and went on to Bali Satay Lilit. Ground pork mixed with the Basic, coconut milk, brown sugar and wrapped around lemon grass very carefully and then grilled. You have no idea how good that was. We were all now in a bit of a food coma, sitting back in that Thanksgiving mode, quieter, but still there was the Chicken soup next. Delicious. And after that one specialty Sambal Udang…spicy prawns…pretty much the same seasonings and these were sauted. All of this was served with rice, the big staple in Bali. Oh my gosh….are you as full as I am? We were done, nothing more to learn but dessert was on the way. Black rice …oh, my goodness…so good! With a bit of coconut milk on top. I was amazed. This entire class, tour of the market and meal was over the top. I will go back next month and have the vegetarian course.I’ll probably be hungry in a month. Right now I need to walk it off. it will be a while before I eat again. Phew……….so yummy. Feast is on when I get home!! So get ready!! Bali festival!

Orangutan Conservation...the reason I am here

As I’ve been adjusting to the culture and filling you in, I’ve also been learning about the crisis the orangutans face, the actual orangutans lifestyle and the problems the Indonesian government faces. I can only describe this as a tangled up ball of yarn and searching for the ending..,well, it hasn’t happened yet. There are so many issues… the most urgent and the best kept secret is the palm oil problem. I had NO idea and I’m pretty sure you don’t either. But if I am here learning, I figure you want to learn as well. What is palm oil and why is it a problem?
First, the orangutans.
I know that in the world we have people without food, children who need our help, lots of issues on the planet to work on, and you ask, what is it Joyce, what’s with this orangutan thing that has your heart so firmly in its grasp?
Have you looked at an orangutan photo or at the zoo? It might be their eyes, the thought and feelings are so much like ours (97% same genes…truly, that might be more than that one weird cousin in the family!), maybe their natural calmness and gentleness, but I think it’s their mothering style.
These orangutan mothers stay with their one baby till she reaches 6 or 7 or 8. She carries her everywhere, teaches her jungle survival, feeds her, builds nests so they can sleep together. Those little babies cling to her body with fingers and toes and know the safety of mom. I understand this mothering thing. I understand protection, love, and caring. A Mom’s job. I feel a responsibility to help these beautiful orangutan mothers.
Willy Smits, started BOS(Borneo Orangutan Society) a true hero for the orangs, said that a mother orangutan caught in a fire with her baby went to a road in the hopes that a car would come by. When it did and slowed down, she gave up her baby. Yes, she gave her baby to humans to care for. .Do you get that? I find that so amazing and perplexing. But rather than have them both perish in the fire, she actually gave her baby to a human to be saved. I feel her right in my heart and her trust about us humans. That we can do the right thing. WE can, right? She took an enormous chance on us. I’d like to think we can honor that trust.
So, what is the problem and what does an orangutan in Indonesia have to do with your life in Crystal Lake, Illinois? Here’s the deal. Palm oil plantations are a HUGE international enterprise. And the oil palm workers end up beating, killing or keeping the babies as pets, which is something SOS works to stop.. It’s nasty. I didn’t have a clue what palm oil was. But manufacturers have found more and more uses for it. Are you ready….( this is no way near a complete list…1000s of products)
Girl Scout cookies (I think the girl scouts would be sad if they knew their big fundraiser was killing orangutans)
Detergent, soap, toothpaste
Oreos
Avon, Clinique, Sephora, Lancome, Mary Kay’s, Cover Girl…more
Dial…more soaps…lots more
Nestles, Procter and Gamble, Unilever
Kirkland
Tom’s (say it isn’t so)
And
Ben & Jerry’s
McDonalds
Quaker
Milk…what how can that be…check out Vit A palmitate oh and the cheeky bastards can get away with labeling it as vegetable oil too)

This is huge…an enormous problem. And a damn good secret too. So how do you get palm oil…from oil palm tree plantations that grow in Indonesia. These plantations are expanding by cutting down the rainforest. Really, that’s what is happening here. We are all unknowingly taking down the rainforest with these products and lots more. 1 out of 10 products in the grocery store has it. I didn’t know. I didn’t have a clue that something that I use at home would mean that I have agreed to take down the rainforest. Did you?
So, is it important to you now? Can you stare at your toothpaste tube, your crackers, your Pringles… and start to feel its way out of control. Add the wish to put it into biofuel! Really! Imagine making a fuel to better our planet by taking down the rainforest to do it. Who’s crazy here and who’s making all the money?
These WORLD corporations are happily making money buying more land for these giant plantations…tearing out the rainforest. How does this happen? Sweet little countries like Denmark…all tidy on their own shores…own palm oil plantations here..as does England and more. No consideration to make it sustainable. And the Netherlands, so conscious about the environment, they are the number one consumer of palm oil in the EU. But consumers saying NO are starting to have an impact. Consumers! That would be us…our power. So, this is the way it looks to me….big business has been having a party, making money, making oil, giving the Indonesia gov money for rainforests.
It will all continue because money has always been tough on the environment. It just is. Unless, unless, each of us does a little bit of good to stand up for sustainable palm oil and say what we need. I for one could really use your help. I am writing articles and will work to get them published in enough places to educate people about the problem. Because it isn’t just the orangutans. If this oil palm expansion keeps going, the global warming thing heats up big time.
So, if you want to help.
Easy way…give money to an orangutan group, a rainforest group, or some group where you feel good about the work they are doing to help save any wildlife group living in the rainforest. It does not have to be a big chunk of money. www.orangutans-sos.org, my group.
A bit more effort…write something short and sweet..
Email or Write your favorite product that uses palm oil…better yet get a petition going…or get your school to do it…and tell them you cannot and will not use their product until the palm oil plantations become sustainable. No more destructive plantations. This sustainable plantation issue is going to take lots more work to establish and verify but if we don’t insist, the big co. won’t do it on their own. The environment will loose unless we all say NO!
Some background…..Palm oil trees give oil for 25 years and then get too tall to get the bunches off without crushing them when they hit the ground. New plants take 6 years to become oil producers. There has not been staggered plantings. So as all developing countries would do…they sell off rainforest (it is by the way illegal to export timber here but it is done because the rest of the world buys it) because there is so much money to be made with the rainforest wood and then they put in a new plantation and wait.
If you are inspired More ways for you to help…
Actually join a group working to save the rainforest and see how you can help (now that would be pretty darn active!!)
(What is interesting, amazing about this new volunteer job is that it is so involved and intertwined. It is about orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos…all endangered and living in that rainforest, it is about indigenous people losing their land, it is about the air we breathe and global warming and it is about big business doing things for the short term gain and all of us being rather blind to the consequences of their actions and our purchases.)
If you’re hedging on this, wondering how that nice woman Joyce became such a raving activist, take my word for it…this is important. We of the developed world cannot go create environmental chaos in the third world and not expect it to screw things up for us all…eventually. Climate change, global warming escalates quickly without a rainforest and even if you don’t believe in that here’s another one
…we humans have an obligation to use our brains and our sense of right and wrong to help not to harm. And it is so lovely to think that we all can help. Consumers can stop the palm oil craziness, which is just some fat cats getting richer with absolutely no cares about the planet, the orangutans, or us! . Jeex….I have turned into an activist. Ho hum….at least my heart is 100% in. I can find no reason to ignore this. So figure out your level of helping and just do it. If you want more ideas, I have lots! Thanks for your help. I believe that we as a race can be depended on to stop this destructive path. I believe that when the orangutan mom handed over her baby, she handed it right to me and I want to take her trust and do something to stop the destruction of her habitat andher entire species. And you?

Ceremonies and Rain

I’ve just woken up with a smile on my face…gentle rain is hitting my grass roof and the enormous banana palm leaves just outside my window, which I opened to hear each raindrop as they hit the big leaves, a cool breeze is blowing in, I’m all snuggly in bed under covers. The window on the other side of the room is a picture frame of green. For a Northwest woman green is food for the soul and the addition of rainsounds, heaven. Yea, if you are home now and its cold and the rain has lost its magic, well, believe me it sounds so great after endless sun. There is no sound for hot sun, is there? So the ‘dry’ season means that instead of the very cool torrential rains, we occasionally get this Seattleish rain mostly in the night or morning. This bamboo room with woven bamboo mats on the walls, bamboo poles on the A frame ceiling woven with bamboo and three enormous windows makes for a great rain and reading and writing hut. (think with Sudoko puzzles thrown in we can now say reading and writing and rithmetic)

Last night was an enormous ceremony…there are lots but this one seemed bigger. Each one of the major temples in town had one and one group marched by the office on the road stopping the endless scooter traffic. The women are so gorgeous in their lace tops or white tops with sarongs carrying bamboo baskets on their heads with offerings inside, the men so dapper in white jackets, sarongs and these batik folded headbands. Sometimes the couple rides the scooter to ceremonies, woman riding sidesaddle.

So last night I left the office around 7pm and passed a temple with hundreds of people cross-legged on the ground praying, priests in white blessing them with holy water, all the offerings piled up at the front, the gamelan band at the back playing when needed and one man with very strange makeup on, incense, a crown standing in the back(don’t’know his job) I watched for a while and then felt like I was intruding.
When I walked through town, it was eerie…none of the usual crowd sitting on their shop doorsteps asking ‘transport?’, and no scooters zooming by. And I noticed the offerings. Usually all the stores and house compounds have the small woven banana leaf dish offering with a touch of rice and flowers that would fit inside your hand. But these were enormous, super-sized offerings, all piled up in a mountain in front of everyone’s place. HUGE!

So when I got to the library, I asked the woman. What is this ceremony about? The offerings are enormous. The local woman told me. “This is to the money god. Thanking him if you have a business or thanking him for your family.” Ah, but you aren’t able to go there? “That is because I am menstruating. No woman can make offerings if she is menstruating.” Oh, I see. How bout if you are pregnant? “That is okay.” (Are you shaking your head in wonder?) I was so curious about how she felt about that but didn’t’ want to be rude and ask. I do like this gratitude aspect to say thank you to the money god for prosperity. So many questions about all of these gods. I want to learn more about fearing gods, offerings to them and the demons…the recognition that both exist…good and bad.

Just little things

I was driving back from Jason’s and a group of about 7 men were sitting together on a pavilion with their cocks in their laps (where else!). They are there every day. Do I seem stuck on this cock thing? Anyway, they hold their cocks and kind of lift them up and put them face to face with the other cocks that strain to peck them. ( Hm…must be another story about cocks and peckers? No no, sorry.) Let me tell you it looks weird.
What are they doing? I asked Kungs brother whose English is not that great yet. Practicing. Practicing? I asked. Yes, the cocks get strong as they practice together. But why do they do this? I asked. It is for ceremonies. He told me. Soon my family compound will have a big ceremony. What is it for? I asked. It is to cleanse our house of bad spirits. We will have a cock fight. Just one? No, many people in our village will bring their cocks to the fights. Why do the cocks fight? They just naturally fight. And we must have blood for the ceremony. Ah, now I think we are getting interesting. So, the cocks draw blood when they fight? No we put little knives on their feet. The blood is an offering to the evil spirits to keep them from doing something bad to our family in the compound. Ah, so one cock fight then. No, the cock fights will go on all day. So apparently the evil gods like a lot of blood and must like gambling too. I didn’t ask about that or what happens to the cocks that die. It’s so complicating understanding someone else’s culture.
On another drive with Kung, I got more on their upcoming ceremony….seems that a long while back in the grandfather time, there was a disagreement in the family compound (So there are disagreements here too) and a line was drawn down the middle of the compound to separate the arguing families. And it stayed this way for some time. But now, Kung’s father is getting sick a lot and the healer has said it is the old line that is causing his distress. So the big ceremony with the extra powerful priest who is coming from far away is going to marry the two sides of the compound which was never formally done after it was split. I would love an invitation…stay tuned.
The weather has changed…I am enjoying the dry season with less humidity in the air, a breeze from Australia and the permanent ‘glow’ is gone from my face…mostly. I think the cooler temperatures are allowing me to soak in the atmosphere rather than spend so much energy on staying cool. And the people who come bless our houses twice a day are now leaving flower petals in a bowl outside my door as a blessing. There are so many lovely things here in Bali.
I’ve amped up my writing figuring that this is probably the most effective way to make use of all the tourists that come to Bali. Happily, my queries are well received and now my days are spent writing conservation articles about orangutans, oil palm and saving the rainforest. I actually have 7 articles to write in the next couple of weeks which is really exciting for me. I can’t believe all that I have learned in a short time and this oil palm thing…I’ll save it for another day but even Ben & Jerry’s uses it…NO, say it isn’t so and Revlon. More on that later. I have work for you all…just a little.
Oh great fun, I joined a Gamelan band…go check that out on the internet. What an interesting sound. I was at the library and they were practicing and a friend asked me to sit in. No written music though so I tapped out a few notes and totally enjoyed the sound. I have no idea how long it will take me to actually learn to play it by ear. I’ll be going back…it meets twice a week.
And just a small thing I found today about the lovely orangutans….
Willy Smits who started BOS the Australian organization that works in Borneo and
Has done amazing work for orangutan conservation, ticks off a list of new findings
just beginning to reveal what we will lose if wild orangutans become extinct. Often
dubbed the world's best field botanists, orangutans are also talented pharmacists,
treating their illnesses with forest plants. Because
of their similarity to humans, the benefits are obvious. Plagued by a splitting headache while
walking in the forest, Smits remembered seeing a slumped female orangutan clutching her
head and groaning, only to make what seemed to be a complete recovery after eating some
flowers from a nearby bush. "I immediately went to a bush of these purple fordia splendissima
and ate some of the flowers and within 15 minutes my headache was gone."

Remember there are ways that you can help. If you need some reminders, just ask me!! J
Time to head to the library finished The Reef by Gunesekera, good! And Tomcat in Love by O’Brien, good! And 2 not worthy of notice. Have started A Hotel in Bali.
Okay, enjoy your day.

Researching Smiles and other things

I am in my beautiful, peaceful homestay, the ceiling fan my best friend in Bali blows the curtains and cools my face, my ipod plays on shuffle and out every window broad green leaves, tropical flowers in red, purple, violet and yellow, bumble bees and birds. I think it’s important to give you the setting as I sit at my desk eating chocolate frosted banana cake. Decadent at 11 in the morning. The cake was donated to the Jason Monet Exhibition and I need to take it there this morning. But Nyoman (my breakfast fairy) and I thought we should sample it first. I treasure the mornings in Bali waking to do yoga on my porch. Bringing in the calm that underlies everything here…if you look underneath that is.
It hid from me at first…the calm though I saw the beautiful women in lace doing offerings. Covered with tourist trappings and the constant badgering as I walked everywhere…”transport” a few blocks later “transport” (asking if you need a taxi). Any guy who owns a scooter considers himself in business for transport and sits with his friends chatting until a tourist walks by. Or stopping to talk to an old man in his sarong “I have paintings, you come see?” (new motto: never talk to an old man in a sarong) We are the fish that the locals work hard to catch and though it is totally understandable as we are their source of income and it takes a bit to get beyond that level of Bali. I still do not like being a tourist…I am not buying chachkees, not walking around looking at stuff, SHOW ME YOUR LIFE!
But now after 2 months, I can say hello to people who have seen me walk by for 2 months and it is a hello in friendship. I can see it in their eyes. But it has taken a long time not to be just another fish. Picture many little store fronts up and down the streets. The Balinese tradition is for the store clerks to sit on the steps of the store together and chat with each other all day until customers come by. The men sit together sometimes playing chess and the women sit in a cozy huddle giggling. I have a feeling most of the stores are owned by expats.
My favorite spot is close to the office…there is a transport guy, a couple of guys who run a bad art stand and a woman who runs the yoga clothing shop. They are my language school! I stop there each day and they teach me new phrases clapping when I get it right…smiling, laughing and encouraging my silliness. Whenever I go past, we shake hands, practice a phrase and smile. I want to find a chance to sit on the steps and learn about their lives.
Because it dawned on me that in the middle of my crash course learning about orangutan conservation I have been a bit lax on my real research...important world research on smiles and on love, women and time. Imagine getting so caught up in all things orangutan and so overwhelmed by the touristy setting that I spaced on learning about the people. Well, all of that is due to change.
Based on my language guys and Nyoman here at the house, I would put smiles, laughing, enjoying each other as a no effort thing here in Bali. I don’t think anyone thinks about it. But it is time to research, ask questions and learn.
I did have a great talk today with Kung, my taxi driver. I was telling him about a man, who told me that his grown sons hate him and never talk to him. Would this ever happen here in Bali, Kung?
“It could never happen here because we all live in the family compound. We always have a relationship with our family. In the West, when a child is grown they move away from their family. And then having parents, having a son, this is just a story then, isn’t it?” He asked me. “It is not really real is it? It is just a story. I have a son.” In Bali you will always have a relationship. When your parents die you will always pray for them.”
Now Kung has me thinking about exactly how many things in the West are just stories. Not really relationships because we can only talk about them not really live in them. Does it make you think? And in this family compound where relationships are as natural as mosquitoes buzzing around at sunset, children and babies rarely cry. I realized that as I walk through my neighborhood I rarely hear crying and for certain no long drawn out temper tantrum. There is always someone in the compound to help. And what exactly would it be like to grow up never crying? How would it be to never be in a position as a child where you are left with only tears to express yourself? You would have a pretty clear picture of love I think. You can see….the research needs to begin now.
Okay, I am rejoining this long blogget after a day at the exhibition and have just eaten 2 of my new favorite fruits. ..manggas. They are eggplant colored, about the size of a small orange with a smooth outer skin and a lovely green stem with four small leaves. You open them by slicing off a top to see the purplish soft inner layer just under the skin. Inside the purple is the fruit. White! There are lovely sections to take out with a fork, sweet, citrusy and so pretty! Delicious and so refreshing.
And on a totally different note as in way different, I had a weird couple of small welts on my arm that I noticed one night. They were really red but there was a small brown circle on the top of the little volcanos..no broken skin, no itch, no pain. Like vampire bits without the cut. I had slept with 4 ants the night before….no not on purpose the little bastards snuck in. But there was no bite mark. I walked around asking everyone what they though it was the next day and no one knew. Finally after putting iodine on it and triple antibacterial something, I decided to take it to the clinic. But on the way, I walked by Wayan (the healer from E, P and L) and stopped in to see what she thought. “Ah, dirty blood. Here wash with this.” She gave me some leaves dripping with something and I gently started to wipe the area. “No, like this” scrubbing hard actually removing the little brown tops of the volcano. “Are you sure this hard?” She just stared at me…like who’s the healer here? When the scrub down was done, she put on salve and had me sit down. She gave me a packet of rabbit pellets. (Not really…just look like it) “Take 7 now and 7 tonight.” I said ‘seven?” Her accent is tough to understand. Again the look….can’t you count to 7? So I took my 7 pills, asked her what I owed and she said, “Nothing…sometime you will come back can pay then” So, I told her thank you. I told her I thought I was bitten by Dracula and tried to act out Dracula which finally got her to smile a little bit. Meanwhile, slowly the weird little spots disappeared and the spot has healed. What it was, I’ll never know.
So, there you have it. Now as for my work here besides the exhibition which is going on all week, I am writing.My first article on orangutan conservation was published on a website www.baliforkids.org. It is geared toward 10 year olds. I’ve got another one coming up in a magazine Bali & Beyond, and two other articles in 2 other local magazines, which is very exciting. Before I went to Ireland, I had not a clue that I would ever write articles in magazines. How amazing is that! I wonder how many things are possible by just challenging our limits. Now I want to see how far I can send this information and to what websites and other magazines. I do feel like I have learned enough to be able to write clearly on the issues. With that, I’m off.
Oh, if you are keeping up with books…finished Salman Rushdie Midnight Children and started A House in Bali. Take care and take a chance on something new.