Day 19 - 20 (Mar 24-25 2013): First Days in Bali—We’re Not In Kansas Anymore!

The Quick Facts:

* Landed in Bali after taking a quick ValuAir flight from Singapore
* Made our way to the Slukat Learning Center in the village of Keramas, where Carrie and I will be living/teaching for the next three weeks
* Despite knowing exactly what we were getting into, still experienced a minor “adjustment” freak out on Day 1

The Good:

* The people of Bali are incredibly nice
* The children at the school are adorable and eager to learn
* Having fellow volunteers who have been around a while and therefore know what life is like on a daily basis

The Bad:

* Having fellow volunteers who have been around a while and therefore know what life is like on a daily basis (not a typo)

Day 1 in Bali was an interesting experience. We landed in Denpasar (after flying ValuAir (a budget Asian carrier) which, despite being owned by Qantas, required at least a dozen hail mary’s and four or five “praise jesus”…all before we took off, and I'm not even Catholic!) and were greeted by representatives of the school where Carrie and I will volunteer as English teachers. The journey to Keramas, the village where the school is located, involves the "major" two lane roads in Bali that are teeming with motor scooters--they are, by a factor of at least 5x, the most popular way for locals to get around the island. This makes for an interesting driving experience, as the well-honed system of beeping (which alerts cars to the presence of scooters and vice versa) keeps everyone on their toes. After 45 minutes, we arrived in Keramas and were shown our accommodations for the next few weeks. Because of the surplus of volunteers currently at the school, we were placed in dorm rooms connected to a yoga studio near the school, instead of living at the school itself. This was a bit different than we expected, but the room is more than adequate and even has air conditioning which is a huge bonus:

Then we were shown the school, and met some of the other volunteers who have been here a while who immediately conveyed stories of food poisoning, rats in their living quarters, and even a snake having been spotted in the kitchen at the school. We were then informed that the coming week was a major Balinese holiday and that the school would only be open on Monday. With no means of transportation or access to food when the school is closed, this was yet another obstacle to overcome. The most immediate obstacle, however, was the fact that neither Carrie nor I had eaten that day, and didn't have any access to food. I could tell Carrie was a bit shocked because her response to everything we were told was "perfect"--she must have said it 20 times and was the only word coming out of her mouth. I think if someone had told her that they would be removing one of her teeth without any Novocain her response would have been "perfect"! And this, of course, was the only clue I needed to know that everything was in fact *not* perfect.  I think the snake in the kitchen put her over the edge...where is Samuel L Jackson when you need him?

We eventually heard of a place for food at the beach, which was a manageable walk but for the fact that we had to cross the major highway we rode in on from the airport to get there. With patience and our old Frogger skills at the ready, we eventually got to the beach after walking through some classic rice fields:

 

We got some food for breakfast/lunch but that did not solve our dinner problem, which became a granola bar from the stash we each packed from the US in anticipation of situations just like this.

 

At bed time we met our other roommates, the Gecko lizzards that share our bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom with us.  They are omnipresent in Bali, so we quickly learned to welcome them into our space and pray that none of them crawls over our face while we sleep.  And thus ended our first day in Bali.

 

Day 2 brought with it a trip to the grocery store, our first classes with the children, and plans to take advantage of the break to visit Ubud and then Lombok and the Gili Islands (all stories to come).  The good news is that our second day went more smoothly, and we are now fully adjusted to life in Bali and can’t wait for the next three weeks.

For now, here is the chicken that roams the "halls" of our school. He gets chased by a puppy every now and again which I hope to capture on video at some point, as it's quite hilarious.

 

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