Last week Hindu Bali celebrated the holiday of Galungan, honoring the creation of the universe, rather like Rosh HaShanah. Galungan is also a celebration of the victory of good over evil. The Balinese calendar is on a 210 day cycle, so Galungan occurs about every seven months. I have paid close attention to the Balinese calendar for many years as the entire island closes up shop and there is no chance of any of my workers paying attention to my projects.
A strongly visual aspect of Galungan is the placement of a penjor outside of every home. A penjor is an extremely tall bamboo pole decorated with dried palm leaves and a variety of other adornments and, somewhat like Jacob’s Ladder, signifies the connection of the holy and the earthly by going up high into the sky, then arching downward from the top. It was a great pleasure on Galungan Day to take a joy ride on our motorbike through numerous villages, appreciating the creativity and the variety of penjor.
Before Galungan the Green School children had their own celebration. All of the students dressed in their best Balinese ceremonial clothing. Each classroom spent a couple of weeks designing and constructing their own penjor. Sofia and a friend were the designated penjor holders for their grade, carrying in the long pole for their assembly. The first grade explained and acted out the basic ceremonial duties for Galungan and the second grade, dressed to the nines in ritual costumes, performed a Balinese dance.
In the midst of Galungan we also celebrated the eight days of Chanukah. On the first night our Indian neighbors, who last month had invited us to share in the Diwali lights with them, now joined us in lighting Chanukah candles. A couple of teachers asked me to talk to their students about the meaning of Chanukah. Sofia loved having me address her class and helped with the explanations. The first graders listened attentively, active sponges they all are, and became fascinated with the Hebrew language, something new for just about all of them. They drew pictures of their own version of a chanukiah and asked me to spell each of their names in Hebrew. They got a kick out of the letters going from right to left. Multicultural Green School at its best.
Galungan is a school holiday; even though the end of the semester and winter break are just a week away, we had three days off from school this week. When there is a break, we are on the go. Another vacation! What a joy! After years of travel primarily for business, we have been deeply appreciative of our (increasingly frequent) real holidays.
This time we set off for Nusa (island) Lembongan, a small island to the south of Bali, only 30 minutes away by boat. Along with several other Green School families, we jumped into the shallow water of Mushroom Bay and walked across the sand to check into our hotel. Sand and water were our life for the next four days. Ocean water, pool water, outdoor shower water, more ocean water.
We did a good bit of exploring by motorbike. Cars are not allowed on Nusa Lembongan and, though we did encounter a few trucks and some other motorbikes, the roads were mostly open and clear. Clear of other travelers, that is; the bouncy, rocky, pitted roads of Lembongan make the Bali roads look smooth, but busy.
A high metal bridge painted bright yellow connects little Nusa Lembongan to its even more diminutive neighbor, Nusa Ceningan. The bridge is just wide enough for one way motorbike traffic, but as the only bridge it is, of course, two way, making for some interesting moments of instant non-verbal communication. The bottom of the bridge, the part you drive your motorbike across, is made of wooden slats. Some of the slats are missing. The bridge sways. For those who are able to look -- that is, those not driving and needing to concentrate straight ahead, or those with a fear of heights and eyes scrunched tightly closed -- the view from the bridge is of tropical jungle, beautiful bays and numerous seaweed farms in the shallows. Nusa Lembongan is far less developed than Bali, and Nusa Ceningan is even less developed than Lembongan. It’s worth braving the bridge to discover Ceningan’s hidden beaches in pristine coves.
We came across promontories overlooking see-through turquoise waters. We found perfect white sand beaches strewn with cowrie and other shells, tucked between steep, rocky cliffs. Body surfing, frisbee throwing, sand castle building, shell collecting (later donated to Grade 1 for use as eco math manipulatives) and ocean gazing took up our hours until all the snacks were gone and everyone was starving.
Alas, even the mildly trodden, nearly pristine beaches of Lembongan, Ceningan and Penida have bits of trash and plastic bags caught in some of the rocks. It washes up from...?... bigger islands...?... cruise ships...?... The Green School has its work cut out for it educating a generation about natural living.
Asher and I shared romantic moments snorkeling hand in hand, allowing a gentle current to pull us past some of the biggest schools of fish I have seen. The ever social Sofia, who took to snorkeling with natural ease in Flores, chose to stay on the boat with her friend who is not so keen on snorkeling. Our outboard vessel dropped us at a stretch of beach difficult to reach any other way on sparsely populated Nusa Penida where we spied a piece of natural sculpture/furniture in the form of a gigantic driftwood tree root and took turns lounging in its arms.
A highlight of the vacation was some scuba diving magic, making worthwhile my recent uncomfortable, sometimes scary scuba certification process. Our first dive, at a spot called Manta Point, was ho hum. No mantas. Not worthy of its name. As the boat bounced over choppy water to our next dive location we spotted something floating nearby. Is it a car hood? A manta! The boat slowed, the driver and the dive master excitedly training their experienced eyes on the nearby cove. More mantas! Many of them!
Fully loaded with gear, I rolled backwards over the side of the boat scuba style. As I bobbed up, two mantas were just before me and moving right towards me. My initial reaction was to want to get the heck out of there, but as the giants passed on either side of me I sensed their gentleness. For the rest of the 45 minute dive the curious mantas circled continuously around us; I was completely fascinated and completely at ease. Mantas dance through the water, elegantly flapping their wings like space ships from another dimension. Usually while diving we are hovering over coral looking down but, with the mantas feeding near the surface, we mostly dove underneath them looking up. Each manta has distinctive markings on their underbellies and it became easy to distinguish them. My favorite looked like an abstract painting of strong black lines and circles on a white canvas. My new intelligent, dreamlike friends helped me find comfort underwater. Swimming with mantas is like being touched by an angel.
Poolside, back at our hotel, all the way out on this tiny Indonesian island, one of my favorite India Arie songs is playing on the hotel sound system like a soundtrack to my life:
Freedom is mine today
I found
Strength, courage and wisdom
It’s been inside of me
All along
I close my eyes
And I think of all the things
That I want to see
Cause I know that
I’ve opened up my heart
I know that anything I want
Can be
So let it be
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