Troubled waters

When I arrived at Jiwa Damai the pressing issue of a lack of infrastructure to manage the large amounts of waste now being produced here in Bali, was quickly brought to the forefront.  My initial exposure to this was on my first beach walk from Legian to Seminyak when I noted trash scattered beneath my feet.  I was informed here that common practices of disposing trash include dumping it into the rivers or local waterways, burning the trash (plastics included releasing toxic chemicals into the air) or simply creating a trash pile in the backyard.  Each of these methods have both environmental and personal health implications that will surely grow worse as production here tries to keep up with mass amounts of visitors like myself. In an effort to begin addressing this issue, our host here at Jiwa Damai has begun a program to educate locals in the village of Mambal on the hazards of the current methods utilized for trash disposal.  As well, the volunteers and interns here at Jiwa maintain a weekly schedule of picking up trash from the river that runs through this beautiful property.

Troubled waters 1

Troubled Waters 2

Like many systemic problems, this one will take time and collaborative efforts to resolve.   For me, it was important to be exposed to a place like Jiwa where I could become a participant in the solution rather than just taking a backseat, as is easy to do when you are just a visitor.

Troubled Waters 3

Birth of a healthy boy

Recently a very special event took place at Jiwa Damai - the birth of a healthy boy. Our volunteers Miquela and Terry, staying here for 4 months already, are the happy parents. Seems like her child wanted to be born here at Jiwa Damai.

birth

The birth took place in the Health Room with the big bathtub. The parents wanted an underwater birth. The birth was accompanied by the now famous Ibu Robin midwife of Bali and her assistant. Robin Lim received the annual CNN Heroes for 2011 price for her teaching and practice of Gentle Birthing methods. Read more about Robin Lim at www.robinlimsupport.org.

In this type of birth, the child remains for a while underwater before being taken onto the breast by the mother. The placenta remains attached until it dries out by itself and drops off, until about 2 -3 days after.

As you can see, the mother and baby are in best shape possible.

birth (1)

Congratulations and all the best to the little family!

Jiwa Damai feels blessed and honored to have welcomed this soul.

Restoring our pond

Here at Jiwa Damai we have a wonderful pond with a variety of aquatic life and beautiful water lily’s.  The pond covers an area of 200 square meters and has been an integral part of the atmosphere here since the very beginning of Jiwa almost 14 years ago. In recent weeks we realized the level of water is going down; first we thought that was due to normal evaporation.  For several days we let water into the pond with a hose, but the water level continued to drop.  After an inspection by local building company we were informed that pond has countless leaks.

Margaret decided that we had to repair the pond even though the project would be quite cumbersome.  First, all the fishes had to be taken out by draining the pool to a lower level and the Balinese staff had to catch them with nets to move them out.  After that the remaining water was pumped out until it was empty.

Our pond before the drain

The pond after the drain

She then hired 12 local women to take all the stones and mud out of the pond.  They worked incredibly hard and at an unseen pace.

Working on the pond

Lifting the stone

Please visit our blog soon to see what the next phase will bring...

Storms over Bali

Uprooted tree

We had several very severe storms on Bali lately.  This last one has uprooted 7 of our beautiful trees. The storm caused quite some damage on our premise -  one of the entrances to the coconut house was damaged, and also a small bridge was destroyed when a tree fell on it.

Destroyed bridge 2

Currently we are in the process of cleaning up the mess. Soon we'll start reconstruction.....

Roof cleaning the Balinese way

It is rainy season on Bali. Heavy rains and storms are quite common during this time of the year. One side effect of the rain, in combination with the hot and humid temperature is the fast growth of algae, weeds and fungus. The roof of our green house was completely covered with algae. No sunlight would come through the roof anymore, …which the plants down beneath did not like of course.

Something had to be done. Ketut was very creative in developing a tool, a special brush, with which he could clean the roof.

And see what kind of cool construction Ketut made: A bamboo stick, with hair from a coconut shell attached to it as well as a water hose.

Roof cleaning

This construction worked quite efficiently and not before long, the sunlight would shine through the roof again !

Ketut cleaning roof

Roof cleaning2

A trip to the East of Bali

Here on Bali there are many beautiful places and attractions which our guests can visit during their stay on the island. Many of the sights can be reach within few hours. At Jiwa Damai we organize day-trips and excursions for our guests, according to their wishes. We have a privat driver who will be exclusively at your service.

Today we want to take you to the northeast of the island, to a small village called Amed. This is a very calm place, ideal for relaxing  with beaches of black lava sand.

Ahmed beach

In Amed you can find pretty cheap accommodation. We can book a hotel or guest house for you if you wish. The thing to do there is go snorkling. There is a huge ship wreck lying few meters away from the beach, grown over with beautiful colorful corals and plants. Tropical fish are swimming through the corals - an amazing sight !

Along the way up to the north you will pass the famous sight of Tirta Ganga - the ancient royal water gardens. Tirta Ganga was built by the last Balinese king of Karangasem.

It is definitely worth to stop here and take a walk around. The beauty and serenity of the place is astounding.

Tirta Ganga

Tirta Ganga

Ask us for individual excursions and day trips. We will be glad to arrange a trip for you, exploring the beautiful Balinese nature and/or getting to know Balinese culture.

Fish ponds at Jiwa Damai

Fish in pond 2

Our ponds at Jiwa Damai are the home of many fish. Among them are some ten year old carps.

They love to eat Jackfruit and Algae. At night they often jump like dolphins out of the water and land back in the water with a great splash. We do not allow fishing. These carps weigh about 3-5 kg each. They have a gold colored fin on the top and a golden mouth.

Fish in pond 3

The guardians at Jiwa Damai

On our wide-spread premise we house several stone statues made by local Balinese stone carvers. It is a Balinses tradition and necessity to put up stone figures as well as special offering statues/ places on the entire grounds. These statues are meant for protection and to keep away the evil spirits.

The lion is facing to the east,  guarding the entrances.

Lion statue

The elephants, female and male are the guardians of the whole place.

elephant

Elephant in the garden

The water goddess is the guardian of the "Home of the Water Angel", our secluded meditation spot in the midst of lush nature.

Water goddess

Rainy season - overflowing rivers

Downpouring rain

The rainy season has arrived - but these downpouring rains cause us some problems.

Due to the incredible powerful rains, our little river swelled to a ripping torrent. Many trees along the river were uprooted. Those trees which remained standing, lost most of the supportive earth and now their roots are stretched into the air.

river

To prevent other tree losses, the sand bags were placed directly around the roots to prevent possible future torrents from uprooting more trees.

river 2

Balinese tooth filing ceremony

The Tooth Filing Ceremony (Metatah ceremony) is one of the biggest Hindu rituals on Bali. This ceremony is executed by smoothing down the incisor and eye-tooth. The ceremony is performed on young adults. In the Hindu culture when a person turns 18 he or she is to be considered well on the way to adulthood. To help make this smooth transition from adolecent into the first phase of growing up, the young will have to take part in a teeth filing ceremony

Sugik, one of our appreciated team memebers at Jiwa Damai, had his tooth filing ceremony recently.

Sugik

Metatah ceremony is aimed to kill six enemies (Sad Ripu) in people who are often considered the enemy within ourselves. Sad Ripu include:

• Kama (lust)
• Loba (greed)
• Krodha (anger )
• Mada (intoxication)
• Moha (confusion)
• Matsarya (jealousy / envy)

This ceremony is performed on a certain day based on the Balinese calendar.

Sugik

Ceremony Sugik