The temple's birthday

 

Last week was the temple's birthday. For the Hindu's here it is kind of like Christmas, and they celebrate it just as big. For several days there were ceremonies every night and also during the day. 

The kids in the Oasis were looking forward to this for a long time now, because many of the girls get to dance at the ceremonies. Those ceremonies start very late and sometimes last until early morning. 

Even though most of the ceremonies are very similar it is always a very exciting experience for me.

 Especially because many kids at the ceremonies are kids from the Oasis and they are always happy to see me there. And I am always happy to see them in their traditional clothing and all dressed up for the dancing. 

So cute! 

 I am really sorry for how the pictures are organized on this blog.

For some reason I can't turn them and they keep getting distorted.

Watching them in full size might be better.

 Me and Ida Made. Ida Ketut's brother.

If you look closely you can see half naked people holding swords in the middle of the crowd. 

It is actually not allowed to take pictures of them. They are obsessed people. Obsessed by the guardians of the temple. They stab themselves with the swords and dance to the Balinese music. This entire time they are in some kind of trance. In the morning, of the day this picture was taken, they also drank the blood of living chickens. Of cause, I didn't go to watch that!

The next day the obsessed people will claim not to remember what happened.

The little snacks outside of the temple.

Agus actually got to hold one of the big flags during the little parade before the ceremony.

 

I love to see the girls all dressed up like that. Those are some of the SMP kids I teach.

 

Here infront of the entrance of the temple.

Dion. He is our little trouble maker, but cute as can be! Because I am a little shy to go infront of the crowd and take pictures (people stare at me without me having to stand in the front) he had to be my camera-man.

 

During traditional Balinese dancing, the people have to hold an offering like these with an incense stick.

Every family brings a basket of offerings like these.

This is what fresh peanuts look like. They are actually still moist and very delicious!

Of cause I had to dance, too. This is my little offering I had to dance with.

And this is me, dancing next to Ilu and some other girls form the Oasis. Men and women dance seperately. Always in a row, like this, or as you can see in the pictures below.

The men, starting to dance. 

Moni, Itin, Ani and Eka, ready to dance.

Those were the little dancers. But only the 2. and 3. girl from the left are kids from the Oasis...at least I think so, it is kind of hard to tell! :)

Devi, Ayu and Bunter had their own dance.

 This guy is the guardian of the underworld. 

Of cause he has to have his own performance, too!

 

 Kadek and Putu also danced alone. An amazing performance, and I really liked their costumes! :)

I am sorry that the pictures are like that. I just can't get them the way I want. :/

Our new greenhouse!

Finally we have our own little greenhouse in the Oasis!

We have been planting chili for quite some time now and we also have banana trees at the Oasis, but now we finally started growing tomatoes, chilies, and eggplants in our new greenhouse. 

Before, Om Sam and Om Pikal planted seedlings with the kids and then started to build the greenhouse out of bamboo. In Indonesia bamboo is often used to build something. There are houses completely made of bamboo. It’s cheap and sufficient! 

 

There were so many seedlings that the kids could even take some of them home to take care of. 

Because the rainy season already started the plants have been growing extremely fast. You can almost watch them grow from one day to the other. 

 

 

The day before yesterday, the plants were big enough to be set in the flower bed and the kids were busy all day. They had so much fun getting all dirty!

 Finally the scarecrows have a job, too. :)

  

I am looking forward to the time when the kids can harvest their first vegetables!

Recycling- paper

For some months now we have been making our own recycling- paper in the Oasis.

We collected tons of newspapers and other kinds of paper and let them soak in water. After that the kids had to blend the mass in a mixer several times so it is smooth and the paper doesn’t get all clumpy.

 

Together with Om Tut (Panca) they build a frame to make the paper and filter the water.

Yes, we did make lots of paper! :)

We made papers in all kinds of colors by adding batik coloring.

We had yellow, green, red, brown, pink, white and blue paper.

 

After giving the paper the right form by using the frame, the still wet mass had to be put on a piece of cloth.

 

This is the paper- press which Om Tut (Panca) invented especially for this purpose. 

 The cloths with the paper- mass had to be piled up and had to be pressed until most of the water was gone.

Of cause the paper- press was a job for the boys! :P

 Everything dried quickly in the indonesian sun.

 The kids added blossoms to some of the paper. They smelled really good when they were dry! To some they also added leaves so it would have a nice pattern. It worked very well.

 Afterwards the kids were always busy...

 ...making maaaany christmas cards for all the sponsors and friends of the Oasis and...

 

...many more things!

Everybody enjoyed learning how to make paper. It is very important for the children to learn about recycling because Indonesia has a big trash- problem. They are always amazed at what all you can make out of trash. And I am, too! Many things that would usually just be thrown into the rivers or burned can still be recycled and used again. It is good for the environment and it's cheap, too!