Waiting for the Rain – #17

hello everyone from calm and hot bali!

as the island gets hotter & hotter and the landscape drier we are waiting for the rainy season like never before! yes it’s nice that our personal belongings are not getting mouldy for a change, our clothes actually dry up after washing and the dogs (and us..) do not stink of wet hair/old castle but still – may the rain come!

since my last writing it has been two months of relatively quiet bali life. still learning new skills daily to cope with asian reality – like carrying a birthday cake on the motorbike, fishing a snake from the pool or getting a scorpio out of dogs’ water bowl to name a few. or removing sea water from the engine..

both dan and i ticked off an item on our midlife crisis list – motorbikes bought. i’m enjoying my snail pace around the town and backroads of ubud while dan rides a bit more on the wild side – volcanoes, beaches, paddies and forests. sounds super ecological to me..  his brand new bike has already gone for on ocean dip – not sure if that was intended ((-; he finally launched his online project and we are all holding our breath to see how that goes!

october has been quite full on for dominik. he celebrated his 14th birthday and swiftly departed into the bali jungle – for a 3-day long rites of passage camp together with his classmates and mentors. what exactly happened there remains a mystery – but what little we know sounds quite intriguing. time spent being active on the river and in the forest, in deep talks around the fire as well as a night in solitude with no shelter.. what an experience for our young man! dominik came home to spend only a couple of hours there – and embarked on another journey, this time to dubai, together with our ‘temporary’ son – to visit his parents, boys’ old school and some of dom’s long time friends – remembering 8 years of his life spent in the sandpit. boys really enjoyed it and came home exhausted. i suppose that’s what city life does to you (-;

school has been pretty cool – dom read lord of the flies and homo sapiens – brief history of human kind – as part of his literacy and social studies respectively. how i love the choices! when i look back at my mandatory reading at school.. don’t think i would recommend that to anybody. he also takes classes on bamboo forestry and learns to play marimba.

lola, given a choice as to where to spend her 11th birthday (and an autumn school break) slightly surprised us – she wanted to go somewhere civilised!!!! as if we were living in a cave here or what.. (-; so singapore it was and we all loved its museums, gardens and especially countless portions of dhal, naan, paratha etc in little india.

our third kid has been such a joyful addition to our family – and a mirror too. suddenly we are nicer to each other, we work harder at bringing our family together, talk more.. it just makes me think that we must have been pretty indifferent to start with! he also sees bali and green school with fresh eyes and enthusiasm that makes us appreciate what we have even more. even though having someone else’s kid is a huge responsibility and some extra work, it is fascinating to see how it is changing the dynamics in our family – i’m really happy to be able to witness it and participate in it. 7 more month to go – let’s see!!!

it also seems like kids have found a new passion – everybody is crazy about skateboarding! i guess it’s dan’s and mine turn to try..

we have celebrated saraswati day once again – honouring the goddess of knowledge with a beautiful ceremony at school. we also honoured our bikes on tumpak landep day – day that traditionally celebrates weapons, metal subjects, machinery.. i always find these balinese reminders fascinating – we take our machines for granted, trusting them with our lives while never even  considering saying thank you. so – thank you bali for the reminder!!!

visitors season is on – it was so nice to see our dubai friends again!!! and we also had a wonderful friend from czech lands camping in our garden 😉 wonderful meaning he let himself be tortured by daily yoga, healthy food and all the weird stuff ubud has to offer (-; we had loads of fun showing him around and discussing the meaning of life (-;

meaning of life – that brings me to the last thing i wanted to add – do you also sometimes feel that the best humans you know are your dogs or cats? 

ok ok that’s a bit too harsh but at least they are honest and you do not have to think/investigate/assume.. you do not have to figure out what have you done to them that they behave certain way.. they have no agenda. they just show how they feel! loyal, happy to see you, do not make promises they do not intend to fulfil – actually do not make any promises at all, that’s even better (-; sometimes i’m just fed up with humans to tell the truth! all those games we are playing.. anyway, hope you are all well ((-;

and.. before i managed to finish my writings the first huge – and i mean huge – rain came. and on its wake a puppy – a very wet and shivering puppy – arrived..

have fun guys and be healthy (-;

jarka

xx