Galungan Celebration on Bali

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For this years Galungan Celebration our head gardener Ketut built together with two of our volunteers the panjor which is erected at the entrance gate to Jiwa Damai.

A huge Bamboo is cut and then decorate with all details along the stem and the top. A little alter is created to give offerings to the gods. The panjor remains put  for 3 weeks and looks very wonderful.

Penjor

Tradition demands, that each house in the village  places one in front of their entrance.

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Soul, the Jiwa Damai Baby

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This is Soul, the first child born at Jiwa Damai. This picture is taken in Jiwa Damai at age 1 month.

The bay was born in a natural underwater birth, so called Lotus birth, where the placenta remains attached until it dries up by itself, which happened the second day after the birth. The Mom was assisted by her husband and Ibu Robin, a famous Balinese midwife.

In this picture one of our volunteers is taking care of the one month old Soul at Jiwa Damai.

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Here, Margret is visiting Miquela and Soul, which had grown tremendously for age 4 months, in upstate New York.

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Jiwa Damais Guardian

Margret

Margret at Jiwa Damai permaculture and retreat center, where she takes care of all aspect of managing, running and expanding the gardens as well as supervising the teamwork .

River bank erosion control

During the last very strong rainy season lots of damage was done on our premise at Jiwa Damai.  The heavy rainfalls caused lots of erosion, especially at the banks of the small river which is flowing through the permaculture gardens. We had to take care of this erosion and stabilize the river banks. To reduce the powerful impact of the torrentious rains on our lands, we reinforced the borders of the river with sand bags.

Wira, Maha, Suecha and one of our volunteers, Fred from Canada, are doing this extremely demanding heavy work of shoveling the river sand into bags and placing it on the banks. Eventually there will be four layers of sand bags on top of each other.

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erosion

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Our Balinese dogs

Today we want to introduce you to our three wild Balinese dogs at Jiwa Damai: Salju-snow, Angrek-orchid and Blackie.These dogs do not have the same background like our Western dogs which originate from wolfs.

They are pack dogs and our watch dogs, roaming free on our 4 hectare permaculture garden. Basically they are very difficult to train and they are instinctive hunters. They announce each person coming to Jiwa Damai with barks. They are not like Western pet dogs. Therefore we do not recommend to touch them unless you know them for a few days.

Dogs at Jiwa Damai (2)

Dogs at Jiwa Damai (3)

Dogs at Jiwa Damai

Awakening to the sounds of Nature

Awakening to the sounds of nature

After spending my time in Bali's tourist centre of Ubud it was a relief to arrive at Jiwa Damai. Upon descending the stairs into Jiwa's dining area I was immediately overcome by the tranquil surroundings. Smells of frangipani and other flowers abound as do the vibrant colours that go with them; greens, yellows and pinks that one rarely finds outside of the tropics. Terry, one of the resident Woofers, showed me the expansive gardens and led me to a Lumbung situated in the heart of the organic garden.

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As you can see by the photo a Lumbung is essentially a bamboo hut with no walls. Instead of walls a mosquito net hangs to offer some protection from those irritating, and often sleep-depriving, insects. It was so exciting to get to bunk out in nature, protected from the rain and insects but still able to feel the gentle and often cooling mountain breeze.

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I awoke the next morning early to the sounds of roosters off in the distance, running water from the river nearby and various birds up in the treetops. It was magical. Another of Jiwa's local residents, Orchid, the cat, had snuck into the Lumbung the night before and was sleeping near my feet. Needless to say I welcomed my new friend.

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Lying there I felt a deep sense of calm and an appreciation for the serenity that is Jiwa Damai. Of course, there was much work to be done, but it was nice to really take in the environment before starting the day!

Berish Bilander

Balinese temple ceremony

A special highlight at our first week volunteering here at Jiwa Damai was an invitation from the staff  to attend two temple ceremonies. We left here late afternoon with 2 cars, but in order to attend we had to dress in traditional Balinese clothes.  Our guide for the evening and the President of Lagu Damai Foundation, Wira, brought sarongs, udengs (headpiece for men), ribbons and a blouse for us to dress in.  Finally, Astri picked some beautiful flowers that we wore behind our ears; now looking a bit more like the locals, we were ready.

Intaba and Daniel with Balinese hosts, dressed and ready to go

After a good hour drive we arrived at the first temple, Pura Ulun Danu Batur, the main sukas and water temple in Bali.  Out of our car windows we could see myriads of people with offerings on their way to the temple.

Locals making their way to bring offerings to the temple

We walked through a stunning carved gate to find ourselves in a big courtyard where a band was playing music.  A group of mostly older men performed a warrior dance with symbolic spears.

Traditional Balinese dancer inside the temple

It appeared we were the only foreigners that were welcomed to the inner- temple, which we can attribute to our Balinese friends.

Once inside we watched as offerings were presented to the Gods.  We kept a small box made out of banana leaves containing flowers and incense in front of us.

Various offerings presented throughout the ceremony

Sitting on the floor we meditated for brief periods throughout the ceremony.  At the end of the ceremony we took some rice out of a silver bowl, put it on our forehead and then ate a bit.  Afterwards, we were blessed with sacred water.  The sun had already set while leaving the temple and the full moon came up behind Mount Agung; the scenery was just breath-taking.

We set off to the second temple ceremony at the Mother Temple of Besakih.  The Besakih Temple is the largest and most important temple in Bali and is at the base of Mount Agung.  We had the honor of experiencing a second ceremony there as well before heading back.

Beautiful Mt. Agung with moon rising up as we were leaving

We were very tired after the adventure and slept in our car seats the whole way back to Jiwa Damai.

New rooms at Jiwa Damai

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These are the new rooms, that we recently built here at Jiwa Damai.

The rooms are quite basic, with a beautiful stone floor and lots of light.

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Come by yourself and check it out !

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Congratulations and all the best to the little family!

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