more fun

Hello,
Just had a man come into the office and ask about yoga stuff. We are near the yoga office and though the door is covered with orangutan photos, they still come in and ask. He said, "So this all is balispirit yoga?" I said, " Well,no we just rent the office . We are not part of that because we are orangutans" In a very dry English accent keeping his face perfectly still he delivered his line, "Well, of course you are. " And just looked at me. I completely cracked up...could not stop laughing. I could only pciture ...laughing...like the Planet of the Apes was renting office space.
So, I thought I could share that one.
My weekend, well, it's easy.....the library for new books. This time I changed it up and signed up for a 3 hour mask carving class...amazing.
We took this stump of wood and with Ketut's help and his master craftsmanship, I have a mask! It was so much fun...I've never done any of that before and I'd have to admit that I did a lot of watching but still.....I learned. Carved a mask out of wood! So, for the Halloween party this year. I say we order wooden half masks. He showed me some....an amazing old man with an enormous nose, a Bali one, he can do whatever you like. He makes full ones as well. I'll get his web address and we can order. he paints them, the detail is so beautiful. Think Halloween!!
Okay, I've got to get some awareness writing finished for the local paper. take care, joyce

volunteer work in Bali

I have volunteered so many places with so many different projects but this is the longest that I have stayed anywhere and I definitely feel more involved with the longer stay. There is a huge opportunity in this organization at this office for creativity. As I look at the amazing group of people, tourists, that come into the office to talk with me about conservation from all over the world, I am strengthened by their desire to help the planet. Encouraged. A man from Columbia and his wife have no children and want to give money to groups that help wildlife. He doesn’t know if its not too late for the earth but he can give money. A man from Italy wants to organize a fundraiser for us. A young full of hope student from Atlanta works with a network of concerned students at home and will see how they can help us. A man from Ca. is going to see about doing a documentary about the need to develop eco-tourism in Sumatra. Let’s see who else? A teacher from MI has a grant to interview people working for conservation all over the earth…so that she can go home and reinspire her students that they really can make a difference. She taped an interview with me. Aussie woman who picks a new NGO each year and donates to them, gives their items to her family and friends as gifts and educates the young children in her family. Almost every day someone comes into the office to ask about what we are doing and how they can help! Dewi,the young woman who works at the office, says there are more now…because I am friendly people like to talk.:) We also worked on the outside look of the office, a German volunteer Volker, helped us design a cool banner and encouraged us to make the outside more inviting. Dewi and our new volunteer from Oz, Sophie, hung orangutan photos, got another new banner, put out a display for out t-shirts and sure enough he was right…more people, more t-shirt sales. We have a woman who will sell our t-shirts back home. I bet there are some shops you know…eco-friendly …that would carry our t-shirts as well.
I am still writing articles about conservation and eco-tourism and we’ll see if they work to wake up people to the issues. All of this work has been rewarding for me, challenging and at times frustrating. Maybe even more than frustrating is a better word! We visited our first school last Friday to do an orangutan conservation talk to 10 yr olds. From the days of Discovery Toys, I made a matching card game with orangutan photos and facts. It’s a hit.There is a ton more we could do there. I wish I spoke Indonesian. We need to find someone who can do these short talks at the schools here in Bali. I think the office here could use an education volunteer as well as a fundraising volunteer and then an organizing campaigns volunteer. Learning learning learning….the beauty of volunteering…learning.
As life here in Bali continues,..my goodness its my 4th month Madge!...I’ve gotten into a rather nice weekend rut. I go to Ari for my foot massage that is the most healing thing I do. She is the size of a peanut with hands of steel and slowly works through all the reflexology points. Yesterday I went to a new salon…all Indonesians go there…for a crème bath. That is the hair shampoos with massage and crème on your hair. They give the most amazing head massages…indescribable. She worked on all the points on my head with pressure and those same fingers of steel. Head to toe. The middle just takes care of itself with yoga. But this place only charges 17,000 Rupiah. Oh, my gosh, that is about $1.70! I was embarrassed to have it be so little. The spa in town that caters to tourists charges 80,000-110,000.

An Aussie family told me that you can live in Bali like a millionaire and that is true. There are things that I could never afford to do at home and here they are weekly. Makes for a lot of expats! Today is manicure and pedicure as it is time for a change from the gorgeous green toenails--but what color now I am deeply appreciative of the library which has an amazing group of Asian books that I would never get to at home. I love that every night I read. Now reading The Becoming of Madame Mao…absolutely so good. All of this stuff, the smiling people, the being in the day, walking home and having my neighborhood…Penglategan…kids out playing badminton on the street…it is a really good environment to balance the weekly problems of how to get more people involved in caring about the planet. What now seems so obvious to me about taking an active role in helping the environment wasn’t always so. So how to bring more people on board. This is my weekly frustration at the office when I read about cruelty to orangutans, I just have to breathe and think of how to change that. Humans can bring it up a notch and do more than we are doing. It’s awareness first and then action.
I read this thing that China has finally passed us in the US in carbon emissions but then I read the find print. Per person China emits 5.1 tons…..India is just 1.8 tons and then the next number made me gasp. The U.S. is responsible for 19.4 tons for each person! 19.4 tons each? The EU is only 8.6 tons. It’s just too much. Especially because when I ‘m home I don’t even KNOW how I am emitting these damn Carbon Emissions. Alright my car…but what else? Is it all my car or is there something else that I am doing that I need to at least be AWARE of? No more closed eyes living for me. Dang! I just can’t stand that I am screwing up the environment more than 2 times as much as my friends in Europe and I am doing it out of ignorance.
So, there you have it. Awareness first. Very few of us really want to hurt the air, the rainforest, the orangutans but ignorance is bliss and apparently also really hurts. So, now that I am aware………..it’s kicking my ass into action. And that is what I want to do here with this great NGO…..bring awareness first and then follow it with action. It is intense work. I care so much. I really want orangutans to catch a break and live on. Extinction is so fucking final. So I’m in….hoping that my drop in the ocean of caring adds energy to the cause.
Of course I want to do that in between foot massages, crème baths, cooking classes, yoga classes, batik classes, meditating and watching kites fly. (It is kite flying season and the sky is full of simple, beautiful kites).
And we are coming up to cremation time as well. Every 5 years each village cremates their dead that have been buried for the last 5 years. Yes, they bring up their caskets, wash the bones and then cremate them. We are coming up to July cremation month. It’s a big time deal. It is expensive and elaborate to create this ceremony and the every 5 years is the way villages afford it. Every temple is busy on the weekend making the most amazing things….I saw bamboo horses yesterday being made, a 3 story high bamboo structure getting built for the prince this month, everyone is making massive numbers of offering baskets. There are enormous things that need to get done. I have no ideas what to expect. Today is a day off i am getting a new flashy color on my toes, I am buying a sarong and sash to get ready!
So, there you have it. Let me know how you are doing…and do check out your carbon emissions...where the hell are those things coming from!!

Another Day in Bali

A Poem for a Good Friend of Mine

no matter what we believe
the truth is that
we have hours of life here not forever...
maybe though we have no idea of how we will die
we have a huge gift in how we live
and to know that we cannot protect ourselves from death
perhaps can give us the courage to live
as if it is our right
to take our own individual beautiful dance here on earth
to feel, to love, to learn

I wrote that for a friend… a while ago.
Bali is a unique place to pose questions…soulful questions not like hmm…what should I have for breakfast? (especially since it is always an egg.) but questions about what is Joyce, what is earth, There is something in the vibrations here that allow some new to be heard … something most definitely encouraging.
On a trip that appears to be an outward journey…ho ho off to Bali I go….comes inward travel like following a little road map through the places in my mind, I am a tourist of the internal kind. The atmosphere allows stillness…Rachmaninoff, birds, children laughing outside, blessings.
My Japanese yoga teacher who teaches a class for 2 hours mostly in Japanese says at the beginning of class in a very sweet accent, “You on your mat now. Stay on your mat. You came here find connection between your body and your soul. Please listen your body. Just one minute now feel you spine (we are in mountain pose) feel the energy of the earth come up through your body. Listen your body please.”

The solitude of being…to be alone with myself in a spiritual way. A holiday. Surrounded by large green leaves and people who absolutely understand a smile while working on a conservation project that allows creativity and heart. Everything about SOS seems to tap into some former life…this office is just like a real estate open house with new people coming in and me, I’m in sales still…but its conservation sales…can I get them to buy in and help, the writing, teaching..even get to go to a school this week, merchandising and marketing our t-shirts, prospecting for new leads…it goes on. Amazing connections AND it all begins from a heart belief in this work to protect orangutans and rainforests. I think everyone can pick some group, some animal, some child to help and feel all the better…a different kind of cardio workout. 

This smiling Italian man came to visit again today at the office, where I have met so many interesting people who care. He wants to fundraise for us because he can feel the heart in SOS. Wish Lucy was here to meet him. He wore a purple shirt, unbuttoned or maybe it doesn’t have buttons?, his meditation beads, gray and black hair in a rather artistic style, has come here from India…and he really is…full of heart. He just kind of bubbles over with happiness. He stopped by to give me an update on what he is learning about raising money in Bali to let me know that he is researching and will have an idea soon. I am excited to hear his plan!
(You won’t believe the wide assortment of people who come to the office…amazing with amazing ideas to help…wonder who will sit in this desk after I am gone. Such a great spot to volunteer.)
Oh, food update…..
Tumeric root and coconut milk with ginger, garlic…an amazing stir fry.
Mint and coconut milk…the best refreshing drink

Found this today…I stored it away the first time I read it…
Dalai Lama “You may think you look beautiful in a meditative state but that’s not enough. To generate compassion, you have to get up and live it.”

So, obviously, I have decided to go with the blog, write on sister!

From the inside out

Traveling….traveling around the world looking at stuff. I am not good at that and yet I love that. Now in my fourth month in Bali …4th month!...? I have reached that place of breathing in Bali. What does that mean? It means I am breathing it in…like you do when you are home but don’t even notice. Breathe and drive around. Breathe and work. Breathe and pay bills. It’s so automatic that you don’t even notice…till you travel.
But a new place takes adjustment and my body is maybe on alert taking in all the changes. So breathing, being naturally somewhere takes a bit of time. My times up. I say I am adjusted. First of all either all my prayers worked or the season changed, they turned the heat down or maybe my furnace, the internal one, self-corrected. I am crazy in love with the dry season, can’t believe I thought it would be the hotter season. My brain works again in these cooler temperature, 2 blankets at night and I don’t just sit at my desk without blinking feeling sweat beads mass all over my face and drip down.
My lifestyle now feels familiar…people on scooters with little children as young as babies, holding on with their little hands, feet dangling, woman walking with tall covered woven baskets balanced on their heads on the way to ceremonies, lower caste women, my age, working hard labor digging dirt, lifting bricks and putting them in a basket and then carrying that basket on their heads(really…) flowers so delicate and brilliant, the smell of incense burning freshly an offering to the good and the bad, dogs covered with mange or with raw wounds from fights wandering the streets, it’s really not Kansas but somehow it now feels like home.
I have Balinese friends all along my path that stop and smile, talk, laugh. They call me Joycee because all words have 2 syllables here I think so I really have to be Joycee. You know how Canadians are so incredibly polite. The Balinese make them look rude. It’s that nice here.
So, on this walking thing…if I was to walk about 2 blocks here, passing all the clusters of women talking and smiling outside their shops, I would be asked about 8-10 times, ‘Taksi?’ or ‘Transport?” by men sitting in groups along the way. It can make you a bit crazy to say No Thank you so many times.
So the other day on my way to yet another amazing foot massage…I sat down like the Balinese do and just watched the world go by, scooter madness is always amusing. Tbey carry pipes…like 12’ long on their shoulder, drive with one hand or 6 large bottles of water in racks or 6 bottles of gas. I even saw two guys…one riding backwards with a wheelbarrow in his hands trying to hold it, keep his balance. Anyway, not very many Balinese people walk anywhere but a Balinese man strolled by and I couldn’t resist. As he passed me, I said, “Taksi?” He looked at me and then totally cracked up. It was so funny…best joke ever. I did it twice before I was ready to move on.
So as I moved from being a tourist to being a local, I asked my taxi philosophy man…what about anger? What if you feel angry, what then?” “Well, we believe that if you are making bad feelings to someone, then you make them maybe sick. Better not to do this.”
The beauty of working in Bali on tough conservation problems is that the culture has this lovely healing effect. I can hear something so sad and shocking in the land of orangutan conservation that it is mind boggling….what is it …what will it take for the people who can actually solve the problems to pull off the road, the accomplishment racetrack, and use all their brilliance to solve the problems? World brilliance solving world problems. But it’s not that easy. And then I watch a simple blessing and breathe.
Taking a look at the issues facing the rainforest here, it seems like an enormous tangle of very thin string that a kitten has played with way too long.
As I have looked at it to learn and unravel, there are so many different issues and its still unraveling:
1. The agriculture of palm oil plantations —Is there a way and any motivation to make it sustainable? If not, how can the forest survive? Money trumps conservation unless people speak up..
2. The social issues of indigenous people losing their land as well as people working on these plantations being underpaid. It’s not a wonderland on these plantations. Who protects them?
3. The survival of all the endangered species – are there more than a handful of organizations (who are working very hard) that actually care about whether or not orangutans get to live in the forest? Or tigers, elephants and their buddies the rhinoceros? There are a gazillion causes that need attention. Do these amazing creatures merit a rescue? Will the collective intelligent world eyes stay closed?
4. The apparent corruption of the Indonesian government that I read about every day makes illegal logging not that difficult or legal logging moving into ‘protected’ habitat.
5. International companies taking whatever they need from here, making whatever money they can from logging, oil palm, mining with not even a pause on is this ethical?
6. Us palm oil users…crazy worldwide palm oil users. I would have Pringled, girl scout cookied, Tom toothpasted, Dialed and even Ben and Jerried my way through my life (and there are so many more!) never having a clue that my snack had anything to do with an orangutan, a rainforest, my air! What little Girl Scout is going to sell those cookies if she finds out now that the orangutans lose their forest because of it? How crazy is that?

But who knows all this and who has time to care and what can we do about it anyway? So that’s what I think about here volunteering with the Sumatran Orangutan Society while I also see the beauty of Bali, the ceremonies to good and bad, the smiles. It’s a good place to ponder and a good place to try to figure out…how can we all make a difference? I really believe in the ability of all of us to solve problems together. I believe in heart, ethics and caring… .
And in the middle of that, I have to wonder about the writing. My chosen method here is a bit of a surprise. Opens up an entirely new world…praise, criticism. This is not mathematics, not selling toys, not selling real estate. It’s me looking at things, feeling things and giving my thoughts words. From the inside out. That’s how I write. I look for a heart string… a way into the heart, to the place that conservation is no longer a problem, but an obligation in how we live. All of those numbered problems have solutions with heart. And would that be such a bad thing? To become motivated enough by just knowing that something is the right thing to do and then working to solve problems? I continue to ponder, to read(Amy Tan Saving Fish from Drowning, and something else, yet another Rusdie) and get foot massages, manicures and other lovely things to keep my heart soft.
I am not sure if I’ll keep this blog going. I’m not so sure about blogs. I got a criticism on something I wrote and it felt like a total invasion of my freedom….and privacy, which is pretty damn funny for someone writing on the internet! But I’m thinking that the emails to my friends, the ups and downs and funny stories about whatever I’m thinking might just be the ticket for me. I’ll let you know…. Meanwhile, have a good day over there …do something quite loverly for yourself.
OH, wait, one more thing….I read that in an airport in Japan they tested their drug dogs by putting $10,000 worth of marijuana inside a suitcase. …just a regular passengers suitcase. Well, the dogs missed it and the police forgot what suitcase they put it in. They had to call everyone on the plane to find out who had it!
And I can now do a headstand without balancing against the wall which is way too exciting...it is big news here in Bali. :)