Saturday, October 29, 2011

Short vacation in Senggigi!

Hello everyone,

Inge and I decided spontaniously to stay in Senggigi for two nights. Great hotel with a great pool. And a warm shower, thank you Jesus!  We even got a massage which was simply amazing. It is great to be a tourist here. I think I could get used to this!

Greetings from a very relaxed me!


Saturday, October 22, 2011

My Saturday routine


My Saturay routine includes washing all of my clothes. I heard that there were some missunderstandings about why I wash my clothes at Inges house every Saturday. To clear this up, of cause Inge does NOT have a washing mashine! The reason why I go there is because I prefere washing my clothes in a beautiful backyard rather than in my tiny bathroom. Sadly it takes me forever to wash my clothes...for some reason I just can't figure out the right technique. I had to sleep naked last night because it took me so long that the clothes didn't have the time to dry properly!

My tiny bathroom

My 'washing mashine'- two hands and two buckets

After all the hard work! Finally time to relax!


Friday, October 21, 2011

Floppy ears

Looks like I am not going to get the floppy ears I wanted but there is still one left that I am going to put all my hopes in!


My home in Lombok

Hello semua,

I thought you might be interested in my living-situation here. I live with Panca, a man who works in the Oasis, his wife Sulis and his daughter Tia. They are pretty wealthy compared to the most people here because Sulis has her own business. A Spa! How great!
When I arrived in Lombok and we were driving to Panca’s house we had to pass through many poor villages and I was always thinking “Ok guys, please keep driving…” -fortunately we did and when we finally arrived at the house I was so surprised at how big and fancy it looked between all the little run down houses. I was happy that it didn’t look like I had to bath in the river! Well it turned out that the big white house only looked fancy from the outside. From the inside it neither has ceilings nor did it have a lot of furniture. The living room consisted of a matrass, a small table, and a TV which runs 24/7.
When I asked Inge about why the houses here are so spartaniously furnished, she told me that it is normal for the people here. They usually don’t have the money to effort more comfort and they just don’t find it necessary. Inge and Ade, too, keep arguing about the coffee table in the living room. Ade finds it completely unnecessary while Inge thinks it helps to create a cozy atmosphere.
But hey, I was happy anyway because I got my own clean room with my own bathroom!!! Isn’t that awesome? And the non plus ultra was the WESTERN TOILETTE I had in my bathroom! Of cause I still have no toilet paper, but you can’t really wish for more here. I am already really glad that I don’t have to put up with a pit toilette at home, too!
So in my room I only had a cupboard and a matrass. It looks a little bit cozier now, after I hung up a big map of Lombok and my mosquito net, bought a trash can and so on.
fortunately I was spared from this at home
Oh I forgot two persons of the household, Fakur and Dina. Fakur is a very skinny guy that studies English in Mataram and has been living with Panche for quite a while now because renting an apartment would be too expensive. à who now thinks, ’Oh good, that means Lara had someone to talk to in the beginning’ is wrong because Fakur started studying English without being able to speak one word of English. Makes people wonder…
Dina moved in after me. She works with Sulis in her beauty salon and I have never seen her real face under the tons of make-up without which she never leaves her room. While it is fashionable to be tanned in Europe, all women in Indonesia try to stay as white as possible. That explains why there are so many people wearing jackets, long pants, hats and hand shoes while it is 100° Fahrenheit (ca. 40°c) in the sun.
That would make 6 people and two dogs (Ipang and Upin) in the current household. I quickly discovered that this is not close to the truth; since many of Panche’s and Fakur’s friends are here so often that they could just as much move in. Mina, the babysitter is also here all day and takes care of the house chores too.  It is always extremely busy here!
Luckily Panca learned in a hotel and can cook very well. So it happens that sometimes I wake up and he surprises me with delicious apple pancakes. Apples are extremely expensive here, so it is a very special breakfast. Even though I have to get up at 8 o’clock during the week I always wake up from the buzzing of hot fat at 6 o’clock.  The Indonesians usually cook in the morning and eat whenever they are hungry. They always fry tempei, tofu or meat and make rice.
So this is where I live now. I hope you all got a good idea about this place. I like it here and I am pretty happy about having a full house all the time.
Love,
Lara



Panca and Tia


Not yet tidied up. But hey, not bad right?


Monday, October 17, 2011

Ipang

Hello again,

I just wanted to give y'all an update on Ipang.
He is doing very well...getting a little cheeky. In fact, just when I started writing that he ran off. -.-
All this time I was hoping for a cute dog with floppy ears, but it seems like he will get the same boring streight-up-street-dog-ears as all the dogs here have.
He also gained weight and got a lot bigger, which is a good sign here. :)

Greetings from Ipang



While we were eating our first young coconut out of Inge's and Ade's backyard

Showing off how big he has gotten

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Earthquake

Hello everyone,

Yesterday there was an earthquake in Bali. It was 6.8 strong and lasted for about 1,5 minutes.
We were in the oasis when it happened. Since several people already asked me whether everyone here is fine I want to assure everyone that we are all save. We didn't feel much of the eathquake and it was very short.
When it happened everyone went outside. Some of the women started banging bamboo sticks together and screeming some stuff to chase off bad spirits so that the earthquake would stop sooner (if I understood correctly :)).
It was suddenly very loud. But I don't think anyone was seriously worried. There are usually no tsunamies or major earthquakes in Lombok.

So I hope I could set your mind at rest with this comment! :)

Wednesdays in the oasis!











Every wednesday, after my german class, I play games with the little ones. They love to try out new games!
Yesterday we played a lomba lari (a running race). The kids had to pair up in two teams and line up behind a starting line.
10 meters away were two stones. Each runner of the two teams had to circle one 10 times and run back
to their team so the next teammate could start running. The team that finishes first wins.
It was hilarious because the kids got so dizzy that only a few made it back to their team.
 It was a lot of fun!
Me, cheering them on while drinking tea :)






  
Just a little collateral damage

 

 




 




Some of the SMP students I teach. (SMP: 7th-9th grade)

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Yayasan Anak Oasis (Children's Oasis Lombok)






Hello everyone,

 I am going to tell you a little bit about the reason why I am here. As you already know from the discription of the Blog I am a volunteer in the Yayasan Anak Oasis in Jagaraga. After three weeks in this project I think I know it well enough, to say what a great place the Children's Oasis Lombok is. Even though it is nothing like a school, the day in the Oasis starts officially at 2 pm with a one hour lesson for everyone. According to their class grades they are put into small classes in which they learn playfully, whether it is English, German, Computer- class or cooking. After this one hour of studying together they can play tons of games, sew or learn traditional dancing.  
So it officially starts around 2 o'clock, but most of the kids come right after school. That is sometimes around 12 or one, and on fridays or exam-days even earlier!
The kids love it here, and that's enough to know that it is a great project!

In these three weeks we had several projects in the Oasis. The kids made recycled paper, planted chili and made scarecrows for each flowerbed. Next step is building a greenhouse and I am going to make a cookbook in my computer class.

I started teaching this week. I teach English, German, Math and computer- class. It went pretty well for my first time. *a little proud*
The cookbook is going to be in English, so anybody interested in Indonesian cooking? It could take a while though. :)

Greetings from Lombok!









 
 






Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Learning about indonesian fruits

 

Selamat malam!
On the weekend Pance and Fakur closed off a little area behind the house, so Ipang can’t run off while everybody is gone. Even though all dogs here run around freely I don’t want Ipang to do so.
Indonesia ist the country with the biggest muslim population world-wide. You can imagine that dogs are not very welcome here. They get beaten by many people, If not killed by poison or by other cruel methods.
Thats why I don’t want Ipang to leave without me.
Ipang and I love to visit Inge and Ade at their house. They have a huge backyard, perfect for playing and running around!

Ade with Ipang

Inge's and Ade's house


It’s a beautiful garden with many trees that I have never seen before. It is interesting to see all the different fruits and I was especially surprised by the Cashewtree. Everybody knows cashews but does anybody know where and how they grow??
So I thought it might be interesting for you to see some oft the exotic fruits. Here some pictures:



The cashewfruit on the tree

And the Cashewfruit on the ground.
The nut is inside the little thing on top.
It is extremely hard to open though!


Mangas! They are everywhere!




Forgot it's name. I'll ask again.


Pace-fruit on the tree

Pace-fruit on the ground. It stinks like feta cheese!






Unfortunately no Ananas this year.
This is where it would grow.


Maracuja! Delicious...

  
Coconuts