Balinese Life (by Maggie)

In this blog post I am going to teach you all about Balinese life. I know all about it because I was there for two weeks.

Balinese life is probably very different then your use to. Every day they put a offering out for their gods. Every thing that they eat or drink they take a little bit out and give to their gods. Sometimes you will see men wearing udan which is something they wear on their head. If they are wearing a lighter colored one that means they are going to be in a ceremony. If they are wearing a darker colored one that means their friend is going to be one in a ceremony. One kind of ceremony is a funeral. At the funeral they burn the body because their sole is gone. One other thing is that they believe in reincarnation.

Almost every Balinese family owns a rice field. After the harvest you might think they try to sell the rice but what they actually do is eat it. They eat lunch for every meal and the amount they harvest lasts about four months. One thing I find very interesting is that in each family compound is a temple and in each village there are three temples and in all of Bali there are nine main holy temples. One other thing most Balinese families have is a dog. In the daytime the dogs run off and play and when it starts to get dark they run home. And last but not least almost every Balinese family has a moped. The most people that I saw on one moped was five.

I hope you learned a lot about Balinese life and enjoyed reading this blog post.

Biking through the Rice Fields in Bali (by Jacob)

Last week we went on a bike tour through the rice fields of Bali. The bike ride started at the top of Mt. Batur (a volcano in the middle of Bali.)  We started by riding down the side of the volcano. The volcano was really steep so we had to press the brakes all the way down. Once we were all the way down, we passed through a small village that was unlike neighborhoods at home. There were chickens and dogs running around, the dogs were running up to your bike and it was pretty nerve racking. Then we took a sharp left and went through the rice fields. My mom said it was her Eat Pray Love moment. I was amazed that you go through villages and the next thing you know you are biking through the rice fields. After biking through the rice fields we stopped at a family compound. Family compounds are amazing.  They have small buildings for each part of their house.  For example, the parents bedroom and the kids bedroom are in the same building. In a separate building is where the grandparents sleep.

In Balinese society in the 1st,2nd and 3rd classes the oldest son takes care of the grandparents and in the 4th class the youngest son takes care of the parents. The daughters go off and lives with her husband's family. At the family compound we went to there were chicks running around and the kids that lived there played catch with the chicks and picked them up. The kids let us pick up the chicks.

Not long after we left the compound, we got to a busy street and it was kind of scary because if you fall,  a moped or car would run over you.  After 6-8 more miles of biking, we were finished, and having lunch. At lunch we were all talking about how fun the bike ride was. I said it was the first time I have ever went on a 25 mile bike ride and my hands hurt more then my legs, because pretty much the entire ride I was pressing the hand brakes because it was all down hill.

Here is a video my dad took while we were biking:

Jewelry Making (by Maggie)

       When we stayed in Ubud we went to a jewelry making class . I thought, "cool we get to make beaded necklaces", actually we got to make real rings! It was so cool. Now I will tell you how I made them. The materials were a  blow torch, 92.5% silver, 7.5% copper [ if you put too much copper the ring turns your finger green!], a hammer, a polishing machine, a mold on a brick, and sand paper. First we burned the silver and copper together so it would become harder.

We then poured the silver and copper into the mold and it turns into a 1 inch line of solid.

Next we used a hammer to make the edges squared. By doing that the solid became longer. You repeat the process about 5-7 times and it takes about an hour, more or less. After doing this it becomes 5-7 inches.

Next we rubbed sandpaper on it. After this we shine it up. From there they measure your finger and make the ring the size on your finger. Then if you want to, they engrave any words you want on it. I chose my 1st ring to say Maggie and the 2nd one to say Bali. The "Master" then bends the ring in a circle. They measure the ring on your finger and if it's too big or small they fix the ring so it is just the right size. Again they rub the sandpaper on it and polish it a few more times. They make a few changes and finally they give you your ring! Now I have two rings that remind me of Bali. I was very excited to have rings that fit perfectly.

Green School (Luke)

     On Friday, October 11th we visited the Green School in Bali, Indonesia. First of all the Green School is a very different and special school. It was started by John Hardy, a jeweler who went to a convention with his wife one day. A man shared his dreams of a school that was part of nature and very good. After the convention John asked the man if his daughters who were being home schooled at the time could attend his school. The man then told John that the school was just a vision of his and that it wasn't actually real, so John decided to make the school real. Unfortunately John did not have the materials to make a school so he started a bamboo company to make the school's architecture.  In 2008 the school started and had about 70 kids. They now have 332 kids from Preschool to High School.
 
      The structure of the Green School is just one of many things that make this place unique. The property covers 7 hectares or roughly 17 acres! The "Heart of the School" is where the kids eat lunch and where the high school is located.  Words can't even come close to explaining what the Heart of School is, but if you picture a two story, bamboo made, no walls, 70 by 25 square foot building you might be able to think of something close to that. It was crazy. Here are some pictures of it:

None of the classrooms have walls making it able to connect to nature more. The music room is shaped like a turtle making it look amazing from the inside and out. A funny story about the energy of the Green School is about solar panels. When John was doing a project on something he met this kind worker and talked with him. The guy was moved by John's story and coincidentally worked for a solar panel company. He then shipped 15 solar panels to John in Bali.  John was going to plant them but realized they didn't look good with the school so he called the man and asked him if he cut some and form different shapes? The man said that you could but it would lose some power, but John didn't mind. He shaped them together and made a leaf out of solar panels that ran throughout the school.

      Another amazing feature about this school is it's way of learning. The kids from the start learn four different types of learning: cognitive, spiritual, emotional, and physical. This prepares the kids for their future where they will be very knowledgable but not socially awkward. This I thought was an incredibly smart idea. The kids also have three parts of the day. The start of the day is Thematic. Each grade has a different theme every 6-8 weeks that they base their learning off of. For example if the 2nd grade's theme is storytelling they will tell stories and talk about the stories or discuss the story's history. This helps them learn, as well as the next part of the day, skills. From late morning to lunch they learn math, writing, reading, science and everything else we need to know. After lunch they have their active part of the day. They get out and learn about nature and the world around them. At this time in high school they will have explorations or electives. This could mean photography, learning more of a subject you're interested in and so on.

    I really was amazed by the Green School's community. A lot of the parents are at the school when the kids are in class. Either to help the kids or just work on their computers, they are welcome. Everybody is very kind to each other and happy. They have a boarding school there which only contains 9 kids so far. They also have 32 kids from Bali on scholarship. They are at 10% of Balinese students but, they want to increase the Balinese population in the school to 20%. I was really amazed by the Green School. I might even want to go there for high school.  I find it very interesting and if you ever go to Bali visit the Green School, it really is an amazing place. If you want to learn more about the Green School you can visit them at www.greenschool.org .

Semenggoh Orangutan Sanctuary (by Maggie)

We went to Semenggoh Orangutan Sanctuary where they help orangutans learn to survive in the wild.  When we went, we saw a lot of orangutans.  They were all over the place.  Right as we started to look at one another one would show up.  And that was only in the first part.  In the second part we saw twice as many because it was feeding time and because almost every orangutan had a little baby attached.  It was very cute.  And all the orangutans would steal the food and not give it to the babies.  That is why the people that worked their had to feed the babies.  Once they got up pretty high the parents would put the babies all by their self and watch them because they needed to learn how to do that because soon the babies would have to go all by their selves.
So if you go to Borneo I suggest you go to Semenggoh because you will really enjoy it.

Jong's Crocodile Farm (Borneo) by Jacob

A few days ago when we were still in Borneo we went to a huge crocodile farm. At the crocodile farm I thought there was going to be a few crocodiles and some other animals. There was actually hundreds of crocodiles and and a bunch of other animals.

When we got there we walked over to a bunch of pictures of crocodiles. A couple had information on crocodiles, alligators,and ghariel (another member of the crocodile family). There were also other pictures of people getting pulled out of crocodiles. There is one picture that shows a 17ft crocodile with a 10 year old kid getting pulled out. When I looked at it I thought I was going to puke. Then after that we walked through this room with turtles, fish, lizards, and otters. After that you walk though another room and you step outside and there's hundreds of crocodiles,the biggest one my family saw was around 17-21 feet long. The crocodiles were either in the high grass fields, laying on dirt under a tree or in the swampy water. When I was walking around the farm it amazed me, I have never seen anything like Jong's Crocodile Farm in my life.

Kubah National Park (Luke)

      On our first full day in Borneo we started off by visiting a waterfall. We were tired from Japan but, it was only a few miles. Unfortunately for us the walk to the trail head was harder. It was only about 600 meters long but, it was also about 600 meters uphill! My family slowly walked up while I ran up it. We got to the trail head about 25 minutes after we started. We got to the waterfall after a lizard jumped on my mom's neck. The waterfall was amazing. It was pretty big, about 25 feet high. The waterfall ran down to a little pool which Jacob, Maggie, and I played in. We found a rock and splashed water on it to make a little 2 foot slide leading into the water. We got out after my mom was done with pictures and we were tired of the pool. The hike back was refreshing and beautiful. We saw a leaf the size of Maggie and a lot of lizards and plants. I learned a new species of bee, called the "sweat bee". It is the only bee that does not sting and it is also attracted to sweat. Overall we had walked about 3 miles. By the time our hike ended the parents were a little exhausted.