Taipei airport Prayer rooms

The prayer rooms: Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, were empty. The Muslim one had a men's and women's section (different corners). It just occurred to me - there wasn't one for Hindus!! Why not?

Mataram, Lombok

6 am. Jan 30 th (the blog may say Jan 29 - that's one difference! It is a day later on this side of the globe.)

It is light in Mataram. This is my second awakening - the first was at 4 am at the sound of the first Muslim call to prayer. Lombok is mostly Muslim, unlike Bali which is predominantly Hindu (kind of an exceptional situation in Indonesia). Our traveling companions from the Gandhi Ashram are: Puji, 18, whose family lives in Lombok, and Mangde,24, who is our driver. Mangde's girlfriend (20?) somehow showed up for the ride - she is a Hindu theology student. Indra has most generously lent us his car for this part of our trip since he is in Jakarta (meeting with the prime minister, etc!) I noticed he packed quite a few white sarongs in his suitcase.
After the 4 hour ferry ride across the ocean to Lombok, Gede joined us. He lives in the Ashram in Bali but preceeded us in order to "prepare" things. I believe this was his mandate from Indra. He has a PhD. in Philosophy from a University in Calcutta, so his English is very Indian inspired. He explains all things Hindu easily and since he has studied other philosophies and religions he can make comparisons. He claims that Nitzsche (sp?) understood Hinduism. The difference is that when Westerners read Nitzsche they think of EMPTINESS as a negative concept whereas the VOID in Hinduism is a FULLNESS. The altars in front of houses and business are largely empty chairs or thrones - meaning that the deity is unknowable, impossible to conceive, imagine or personify.
The pool is the centerpiece of this Indian inspired hotel (Graha Ayu- it has internet, so it might have a website). I don't think we have ever been so glad to see a pool. Last night we got in around 7 pm and we were in the pool by 7:15 pm. The Bats swooped down - it seemed like they were taking tiny flying sips of water from the pool. There was no one but us - first time we haven't had our entourage!

At dawn, the birds are as plentiful as the bats were last night in the central courtyard of our hotel.Our room has a lovely front porch looking out onto the pool, peaceful green lawn and lovely tropical trees. It is truly an oasis. Mataram is as dense and noisily buzzing with motorcycles as Denpasar. The same jumble of shops, the roads a combination of large transport trucks and hordes of motorcycles with one, two, three people aboard. AND driving on the OTHER side of the road (to my western eye = CHAOS)
I just noticed a scurrying creature running down the walk and thought Gecko , but no, it was a mouse.  The cute little gecko is above me on my ceiling.
I feel like a failure in the toilet department. When you think how humans managed without toilet paper for all of history until the 20th century? Half the world still knows how to do it the ancient way, but I haven't figured it out. There are ancient crafts techniques that have been lost, ancient music, ancient architecture, and now this ancient practice of doing your daily business without toilet paper is lost! I can't even image exactly HOW one deals with  it. There is a tank of water and small communal bucket in the bathrooms. Does one throw the water UP from below or pour down from above? And as you might imagine, it isn't the kind of thing you can ask someone to show you how to do...

Yesterday, Gede and his girlfriend joined us.he is a delightful person and is now a teacher of Hindu philosophy. His girlfriend was rather uncommunicative, but she is a local so was very helpful. Yesterday was another too long day of sitting: An hour + to get to the ferry, 4 hrs on the ferry, 30mins to get to Mataram, 30 mins to get to Sengigi. The hotel Gede had chosen for us  in Sengigi (beach town) was a resort that started at $125 DOLLARS, so we turned around and  ended up back in Mataram at the Hotel Graha Ayu (means beautiful house).

I'm taking pictures but am not having luck uploading them to this blog or to Picasa. I was able to upload the one you see, so I'll tell you about it!! That is PUJI our lovely guide and her dance partner, Gede (this is DIFFERENT Gede from the one who is with us now). On January 28th we attended an art opening for a venerable Balinese artist. it was a BIG event - first snacks and later dinner was served. At first there were several groups of children performing, then French and Japanese consuls got up to speak as did the artist.
there was sort of a ribbon cutting ceremony at the door ( but the ribbon was a large lei of marigolds) and in we went to the gallery. His interesting introspective rather dark work (Balinese monsters coming out of the mist) was upstaged IMMEDIATELY by Puji and Gede's "yoga dance" which they had choreographed themselves. Maybe you can see in the photo how they are dressed Indi an style - she is wearing a sari. They danced slowly and smoothly through yoga poses which they then HELD - perfect for photos if you have a decent camera- It was mesmerizing. I also have pictures of us acting up afterwards - but only this photo was willing to be displayed (you now how willful photos can be..)
I love you ALL and appreciate hearing from you as well!

BALI

Dear friends and family - It is 7:15 am and mercifully cool in Denpasar. Although it is the rainy season, it hasn't rained since we arrived. Indra took us to the ashram in Denpasar, the busy, gritty, traffic clogged city of Bali near the airport. He recently installed airconditioning in his own bedroom (maybe Felicity's idea?) and insisted we stay there. It WAS a good idea because we were pretty out of it after 22 hours of travel.
Our tour guides are young people who live in the ashram: Yuni, Puji, Gede and Mangde. They are all between 18-29 years old and live, work and worship here. We  could hear them chanting at 5 am when we awoke this morning.
I'm not fluent yet on all the gods - but Puji keeps reminding me there is ONE GOD in Hinduism and there is Tri Murthi - the Hindu trinity: Brahman, Vishnu and Shiva. Every house and every businppedess has an altar and many are wrapped with gold and white cloths.
Yesterday My dear associates started to take me to the Safari Park - expensive and full of foreigners - They could tell it wasn't my cup of tea though, so they took me to the bat cave temple that faces the sea. It sits at the mouth of a cave and the guardian snake - VERY LARGE - was slithering its  way up one of the altars. Yup, between the hundreds of thousands of bats and the  HUGE boa-like snake - I'd say the temple is pretty safe from your average human.
Today we head for Lombok, a mostly muslim island. puji is from there. See you next time.

LAST MINUTE GLITCHES

Gee- why does the phone decide to die two days before we leave? Why does the bank decide to change from Visa to Mastercard in April? At least we found out by CHANCE so that we will know WHY our cards suddenly won't work.
Why does the car need to be smogged in April when we will be in Turkey?
Why did the guys working on the sewer in front of our house just cut our water off without telling us - right when I have two paid housecleaners helping me leave the house spotless?
Why did my tiny little dog escape and decide to go up to Telegraph Ave. alone yesterday?
DEEP BREATH - things will be fine...

San Francisco, I'm leaving you!

A view of San Francisco from the East Bay by Satya Loeb-Caldenhof done in 1995 when she came from Brazil for a visit (daughter of our dear Brazilian friend, Alexandre). If I get homesick, I'll look at this watercolor!

INTENTIONAL UNSETTLING

It is Sunday morning, so I'll quote part of a prayer attributed to Sir Francis Drake  which sums up my feelings about living life: (Thanks to Wes Charlton for sharing this at his wedding)

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

I want a chance to shed some of the programming I have been exposed to since living abroad last time. Inevitably I have absorbed an American  (Californian, Berkeleyan) world view. But it isn't enough for me. I want a WORLD view. I realize we all have to have our vantage points, but I want mine to be more inclusive. I want to look out of other windows and see what other people see their views.

Yesterday I attended the reunion of my China trip. It was held in a historic Chinese Methodist church in the heart of Oakland Chinatown. The entrance is through a moon gate and in the courtyard is a fountain with a large ceramic dragon spewing water. Being with all those lovely people and seeing all the amazing pictures they took reminded me that the company you keep is really important. Every single moment of the trip to China was pleasant and it was due to the consideration and companionship of the group.

Right now I am definitely unsettled which is making me spacey. I took my dog to the groomers and forgot to pick him up!!!! What's next?

Too many little boxes

17+ years of books, office supplies, clothes.... This is a great opportunity to lighten up!