Ogo-Ogo

 

The Balinese People have a great Hindu festival called Ogo-Ogo. On this day, they scare away all the evil spirits. Jagaraga, the village of the Oasis is also a Balinese village which is why I experienced it first hand with the children. Every year the people of the village build big paper maché statues and they have to be scary and ugly and sometimes really gory. The scarier the better! These statues are supposed to scare the evil spirits away. After the parade through the village with those huge statues, which is kind of like carnival in Germany, they burn the statues and with them the evil spirits.

It’s a merry festival despite all those scary figures. The kids had been waiting for this day for months and some of them even made their own Ogo-Ogo!

We decorated the Oasis. It was closed on Ogo-Ogo because it is a national holiday.

Most of the decorations are made of bamboo leafes.

This Ogo-Ogo was also made by kids from the Oasis.

This one was made by Ida Wayan, Made G and some of their friends. Ida Wayan and Made G are students of mine at the Oasis.

A very cool Ogo-Ogo fighting a snake.

The scariest one, if you asked me!

Astawa and the mayor of Jagaraga played the drums.

This is a rather modern Ogo-Ogo riding on a motorcycle.

For this special day, the Oasis made a banner for the market place.

Celebrating after the parade.

Help

Bunter (15)

Ani (13)

Pandu (10)

A couple of days ago I witnessed a real tragedy that still upsets me very much. I hope you can spare a few minutes and maybe then you might feel the need to help, too.

Bunter's, Ani's and Pandu's father passed away.

The mother is left alone with six children, the youngest of them 4 years old. She is illiterate, has asthma and doesn't have a job. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like she is in the kind of condition to do any job in the near future. 

Even when the father was still alive and working all day long they had hardly enough money to buy food and on some days they didn't have any at all.

The worst problem right now is for them to get something to eat.

Can you imagine worrying about finding food?

Since there is no way to get money without someone of the family working, Bunter will have to quit school and start working. Child labor is common here.

She is in her last year of middle school and just like her sister Ani one of my students at the Oasis.

Of cause we don't want any of them to quit school and start working, especially not at such a young age!

We already have some ideas of how to support the family so the children won't need to work, for example by rewarding them with rice for every day they attend the Oasis, to make sure they study instead of working.
Of cause we only intent to support them temporarely until the oldest daughter at the age of 18 finishes her school in june and can start working.

Unfortunately those expenses are not in the Oasis' budget!

We really need to find a way to keep the children in school.

And when I am talking about 'we' I include everybody reading this post. The Oasis can only do so much. We are the executives, we figure out what the children here desperately need and develop plans to help. But we need people that support us in what we do!
We can't do it alone.

If you would like to help Bunter, Ani and Pandu, I would personally be very grateful If you would contact me at Lara.Desinger@gmx.net because I would hate to see those three have to leave school and the Oasis and therefore any chance for a better future thy might have had.

Differences

Since so many people enjoyed my 'comparison'-post I decided that I will do a post like this from time to time. It will also help you to get a pretty good picture of Indonesia.

And, believe me, there are so many differences between Indonesia and Europe, I surely won't run out of things to write on this subject! ;)

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 A European and American favorite: Fast Food!

People just love Fast Food. Whether it's McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King or Pizza hut. 

So much to choose from and don't those huge Fast Food buildings look luxurious nowadays??

The Indonesian Fast Food, or more specific, the Lombok Fast Food doesn't have as much variety and clearly isn't as luxurious.

Bakso is probably the most favorite. A soup with meatballs.

These little wagons, like the one on the right, are called 'Warungs' and sell traditional Indonesian 'Fast Food'. That includes not only Bakso but also Nasi/Mie Goreng, Tahu Tek Telur and other dishes.

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We also like to cross a river a little more luxuriously.

No stone- hopping needed in Germany!

Indonesians however don't care so much about bridges.

This is the 'bridge' next to the Oasis. 

Human or animal, young or old, nobody here has a problem with this 'bridge'!

And I bet these three bamboo sticks were much cheaper than those fancy little wooden bridges we have in Germany..

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 Where we store our trash....

  Where Indonesians store their trash...Haha just kidding, Indonesians don't store their trash, this is just a sidewalk.Though there might be a container underneath...we'll never know.

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In Germany everything works with machines. If they fail, we are srewed. And they are expensive, too! Thats why...

...Indonesians rely on pure muscle strength to till the rice fields. These cute little animals are the Indonesian version of a tractor.

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For the transportation of goods, we have these big trucks. They are fast, safe and can hold tons of goods.

In Lombok people seem to have almost as much to transport, unfortunately the distances are way too short and the streets to small for big trucks. Turns out that little trucks work just as well.

And of cause the most important thing when transporting something is security! Load is not secured? Sorry, no can do in Germany.

 But then again, people in Indonesia don't really care. I've seen so many scary things on Indonesian streets, you wouldn't belive it. Unfortunately I don't always have my camera with me. This one time, I saw a man transporting a fully grown goat on his moped. Safety distance! Thats how you survive Indonesian traffic. No garantees...

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Singapore

Singapore is right next to Indonesia. 
A very small, very clean, and very rich country; so basically the complete opposite to its neighbour Indonesia. 
Last week I had to leave the country to get a new visa and I decided to go to Singapore. I couldn’t have been more surprised by an Asian country. Singapore is by far the most western city/country I have ever been to and I did a lot of travelling already, even though I am only 20 years old. 
The population is very multicultural and hard working. Everything is expensive but the people can effort it, everybody owns an iPod, iPad and some European luxury car. Of cause there’ve got to be some very poor people, too, that can barely effort their living, but for some reason, you never get to see them. The city has a beautiful skyline which looks just amazing at night time. Attractions like Universal studios, the biggest ferries wheel and the biggest fountain of the world, huge laser shows at night and skyscrapers that seem like masterpieces of architecture and so many other breathtaking things should lead people to believe Singapore is situated somewhere in California instead of Malaysia.

Even though I can’t imagine Califonia to be as clean as Singapore. People literally mop the sidewalks every night.  The reason why this country is so clean is fairly simple.

Fines! 
 Singapore is not called a ‘fine‘-country for no reason. Littering will cost you 500 Singapore Dollars, eating in the subway also 500. For Spitting it’s 5000 Singapore Dollars if I remember correctly. And those are just some examples. I almost had to ‘donate’ 500 Sing Dollar because I ate in the subway without knowing it’s prohibited. Fortunately someone warned me before I was caught!

In Singapore everything is extremely expensive. A beer is usually between 10 and 15 Sing Dollar, books between 20 and 30 Sing Dollar and I didn’t have the courage to enter any of those Louis Vuitton, Gucci or Prada places that you can find everywhere in Singapore but I bet clothes are also extremely expensive.

People in Singapore shop in malls. I would guess there are probably up to a hundred malls that are big enough for people like me to get lost in. Craziness!!!
Everything in Singapore is just so impressive it seems almost a little unreal. And when you walk around downtown it's a little like a scene in some cheesy movie,  probably because of the background music.
There are speakers on the street that actually play classical music while you are walking in some pretty park or passing by a war memorial. Gives the City a nice flair! :)

Singapore was a very interesting experience for me, but after 5 days there I probably spend more money than I spend over months living in Indonesia.

However, I got my new visa and now I’m glad to be back in Lombok and at the Oasis

There are so many prohibiting signs, it's impossible to remember everything...

An amazing laser show at Marina Bay.

The skyline is breathtaking!

The Merlion, Singapores symbol.

My backpacker hostel was in Little India. Lots of Indian people and beautiful little flower shops. The Indian food was also pretty good, and cheap...which is hard to find in Singapore!

The biggest fountain in the world. Also a light show. It was beautiful!

The Universal Studios in Santosa. I would have loved to actually enter...too expensive!

There is something to sight-see on every corner in Singapore. This reverse fountain is right under the Marina Bay Hotel and underneath another giant, fancy mall.

Part of the lazer show is a movie projected on water. With music and all kinds of cool effects.

Just a muffin shop in a mall. Please, take all my money!!! :D

Shopping Tour

 

Last week we went shopping with my class. Everybody whose grades got better over the last year got a new school uniform as a reward. Since almost all of the kids got better grades than before almost all of them got a new uniform. We also bought new books for the SMP kids and ate Ice cream afterwards. The kids are always happy when we go on trips…even if it’s only for shopping.

All of us in the Mataram Mall

This was probably the most disgusting looking ice cream on the planet...they loved it ! :D

 

The Oasis rented a Bemo, a little bus that is usually used for public transportation.

 

It is actually smaller than it looks like with all the tiny indonesian kids inside. :)

This is them in their new uniforms.