GAHP 2008 slideshow from Dan Wunderlich’s blog

This slide loop is from Dan’s blog.  Scroll down to the bottom of the picture to click play.  Then scroll back up to view slideshow.  The music is traditional Balinese gamelan.  Enjoy!

Go With The Flow

Our second day of treatment, the day we were turned back due to governmental interdiction, we were bound for Kiliki.  This village is close to Ubud, and therefore inland and mountainous.  Here, villages are tucked in amongst rice fields and nearly invisible to spot until you are upon them due to the lush vegetation.  Last year we worked with several villages in this area, thanks to the efforts of Victor and Kemur Van Praag, and we planned to return this trip.

We were on our way to the village of Kelusa when I received an emergency text from Frank to stop all operations.  I spoke with Vincent and he directed us to return to his house to await further information.  “I’ll send someone by motor bike to direct you,” he said, so we drove around a bit asking for directions until we ran across a young woman on motor bike who beckoned us to follow her.  Following her through what would have been undecipherable lanes in the jungle, we pulled into Vincent’s home, only to leave minutes later under the next directive: return to the village to explain to the people there what had happened and apologize.

That was a memorable and heartbreaking experience for the team, to see the smiles and friendly greetings of the village elders even as they understood we would not be able to stay and treat.  Such a situation was not too foreign to them, unfortunately.  We assured them that as soon as possible we would try to return to this village to fulfill our promise to provide aid.  There had been 200+ people signed up that day, and we were sad to load back up into the van and wave good-bye.

We were consoled by the fact that we had an hour or two to rest at Vincent and Kemur’s beautiful home before driving back to Sanur.  The team happily took in the scenery while we came to terms with our disappointment.  Staying in the moment, realizing that as we had come with open hearts to help, so we also had to respond with flexibility to the situations arising.  “Go with the flow” had been our motto at the orientation, and it was for sure becoming the theme of the trip.

Beauty of Bali

One thing I have neglected is to share scenic photos of this magically beautiful place.  In part because we are usually way too busy working to take such pictures, in part because the people and the culture tend to gather my attention, I haven’t focused on this aspect of my trip.  But it is an omission completely rectifiable: here are some beauties to share with you.

Sanur is a coastal town close to the capital city of Denpasar.  It is quite cosmopolitan and yet retains the sleepy feeling of the small fishing village from which it grew.  There is a long stretch of beach paralleled by the main road which winds and bends and generally follows the contours of the shore line.  One of my favorite features of this beautiful village was the “bei-mus” that traverse the main road.  They are a cross between private taxi and public bus: a small green minivan with two rows of benches flanking the sides, a permanently open door, a driver who collects the equivalent of .40 cents from each passenger—these vehicles drive up and down the lane.  You can flag one down, hop in and share a ride with school kids, foreign tourists, local workers and shop owners until it is time to shout to the driver to stop “dici ni” and hop off again.

bather

The sky in Sanur was always changing, with stunning red and orange sunsets.  There was a shifting cloud cover running through every possible shade of gray.  My last morning in Bali, I woke at 5:30, awake and humming with energy.  I went out to the beach and was greeted with one of the most stunning dawns I have ever seen.  The ocean, all the way to the distant coral reef, was still as a mountain lake, reflecting the low-lying clouds all along the horizon.  The sky was a soft, pre-dawn lavender, and the air literally pulsed with energy.  I hadn’t brought my camera, so committed the scene to memory and responded as appropriately as I could: by practicing my qi gong and standing in “bear” to soak up the magic.  I returned later with my camera and snapped this photo of a majestic volcano dominating the horizon—one which until that morning I had no idea was there due to the perpetual cover of clouds.

Offerings

All aspects of life are marked by ceremony in Bali.  A constant interplay of human and spirit, corporeal and ethereal.  One imagines that in such a culture there is less division between what we consider to be (two) very different states of being.  This year we were not in the center of a village as we were last year.  I saw less of the daily activities of prayer, heard less of the gamelan, and yet…  there were many opportunities to experience the texture of the culture in which we were immersed.  One morning I snapped this photo on the way to our first day of treatment.

It’s one of several Taxis—all getting ready to go out for the day’s work, being blessed with an offering.  It reminds me of our translator Agus honking the Kejang’s horn as we made our way up the island, beeping for temple spirit, bridge/water spirit, dog or cat—a conversation of sorts between the automotive and supra-human … The humans don’t get that particular type of acknowledgement.  But they do get the courtesy of a face-to-face encounter when asking directions.  The time to step out of your car, let go of your momentum towards an as yet unreached goal, walk to greet this human being in front of you naked of your vehicular shell.  It’s a greeting to the spiritual aspect of what resides amongst us, within us.  A constant swirl of activity, repeated endlessly from preparation, to offering, to trampled remnants of flowers and leaves.  A kind of re-enactment of the basic truth that all is constantly being transmuted, despite any illusions or fantasies we might harbor about permanence.  And yet the flow of it, the beauty of the offering up to impermanence, embraces this truth with such sweetness, such livedness. It embraces one like the warm ocean embraces the swimmer: buoyantly and caressingly.  One hopes for this letting go, this meeting with the essence of what is…

Obama in Bali

So I brought my old beat-up computer to Bali so I could blog (and, as it turned out, write emergency letters to the Indonesian government…).  On the back of my mac was a moveon.org sticker from the election (background info).  There was one hotel in Sanur where I could actually get internet access at their outdoor bar and so I sat there to blog, wondering how in the hell foreign correspondents manage to send anything out with the slow spotty dial-up connections abroad and getting generally frustrated, when the man working behind the bar starts grinning at me and giving me the thumbs up.  I looked at him with what must have been a puzzled expression and he said one word to make it all clear: Obama!  Then I remembered my sticker and we had a conversation in which he told me that Indonesians love Obama (remember, the president-elect lived there for several years) and that he is “a man for the world.”  Wow.  How amazing to be in another country and feel so proud of my country.  A huge difference from when I was traveling in India and Europe in 2005 and people could only sadly ask “why?” how could americans be so misled as to elect Bush again?   It was a sweet moment indeed.

2009

Happy New Year, everyone.  It has been good to be back in Brooklyn, decompressing and writing and resting.  I’m looking forward to adding to this blog as I have time to write more about our adventure in Bali, and also to update you on new and continuing projects with GAHP.

Thanks for your support, and blessings to all into the New Year.