A Tale of Two Pembantus

We've got a housekeeper, Kadek, who comes M-W-St and a subsitute, Ketut, who's also coming Friday's now, at least till she gets more work. She needs it. Someone asked me to compare them and I wrote them this.

Ketut's got one day a week here - and is substitute for Kadek which meant twice this week cause it was Galungan in Singarajara where Kadek's husband's from and there was work going on that made a mess and Ketut's a super cleaner - better than Kadek. But Kadek is great in the kitchen and she's so smart. Ketut is sweet and simple and has done lots of guest house work. Katrinka who's managed hotels loves her for bed making and cleaning. Kadek figures things out and knows where everything is and fixes things and does shopping. And they get along. Kadek likes to talk on the phone to her daughters and Ketut never stops working. She's our deep cleaner. Kadek and her two daughters joined me Saturday going to Ubud to a poetry slam, almost all locals and me and one other bule and all fairly young and a lot of wild stuff and singer songwriters. They loved it. Then we went to Riviera on Jl. Cemara to join Katrinka and friends to hear Kim Patra and band. Kadek and her husband and I have meditated (Vipassana) in Semanyak at a Buddhist temple there and with Merta Ada. Ketut puts up wanna be sexy stories on Facebook and Instagram I guess trying to lure some male. Kadek puts up Facebook stories with her husband and daughters. We love them both.

Doubts about a Survivable Future

 From Job One for Humanity website

We're on our way to Venus.

No Bummers

 Here's the poem I read at the poetry slam on Saturday.

Poetry Slam tonight

Heading to Ubud to this poetry slam tonight with our housekeeper Kadek and her two daughters, Lina age 19 and Nopita age 22. After that we zip to Riviera in Sanur to join Katrinka and others and listen to Mama Kim play her guitar and sing with help from Gus Suteja, Baliyuga's lead guitarist. 

How appropriate for Sariswati day in Bali. She's the goddess of education, wisdom, books, etc. Kadek has a uijin on her forehead for the occasion, a grain of rice at third eye level. 

Russians in Bali

There are many Russians in Bali. Due to the sanctions some of them can't access their funds via ATM etc. We hear that alternative methods have been developed for at least some of them. It's really not good to be in a foreign country without money. Hope it works out for them. 

Climate change

 'Madness' to turn to fossil fuels because of Ukraine war - UN Secretary General

Sunbathing at the Poles

 The Arctic is now experiencing temperatures 30 degrees above normal and the Antarctic 40 degrees above normal in astonishing heat waves. Lots of reports on it in the news. 

Beware of the Ides of March Hare

World Suicide on the March Hare. In the human race's race to destroy itself and as much else as it can, the possibility of nuclear war has gained momentum recently. Escalation of hostilities between the US and Russia is the fast track to putting an end to civilization etc. It's the hare in the race. Global environmental destruction through the simple process of moving carbon dioxide from the earth to the sky is the turtle, slower, but sure. What an exciting race. Which side will win?

 World Suicide Club

Bali Opening Up

After two years of being somewhere between almost closed and closed, Bali is starting to open up. Foreigners still have to be vaccinated and tested and quarantine in a hotel in Jakarta first - now for three days - but it's not the week it was two months ago when Katrinka returned. We hear more planes overhead. Still just a dribble but it's slowly opening. Our beach is still almost entirely locals coming for ceremonies and in the cool late afternoon. Frequently almost empty. Places that can't hang on any longer are still closing and others with new cash and optimism opening. Will it ever be the same as it was? Hard to wish for that and, seeing so many hurting, hard not to. 

Noam Chomsky on Climate Change

 I saw a quote from Noam Chomsky today that read something like rather than call it Climate Change, call it for what it is, Global Environmental Destruction. I wanted to link to it but I've forgotten where it is. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Just search for Noam Chomsky and climate change and you'll find plenty. Doesn't matter if it's this year, last year, the year before that. He thinks we shouldn't count on politicians to deal with climate change, said only a popular uprising will work. 

Amazon Destruction

 Approaching Point of No Return 

another milestone in the human race's rush to world suicide

Unite against climate change - Ukraine scientist

read at BBC - She says the invasion is helping to close the window to preventing the destruction of civilization and that the world should unite against that enemy as the Ukrainians have against the Russian invasion.

Climate change - from BBC

 Five things we've learned from the IPCC report

1- Things are way worse than we thought

5 - The small window is closing fast.

Nyepi Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Nyepi, the day every year that Bali turns off and tunes in. For 24 hours no lights, no wifi, airport closed, can't leave your home. It's New Year's day in the Bali calendar. The night before there are Ogoh Ogoh statues paraded about. That was canceled in 2020 and 2021 but this year they're allowing each banjar, neighborhood, to have their Ogoh Ogoh. But there won't be the central meeting places where many banjar's Ogoh Ogoh gather. They don't want those crowds. See we'll walk down to the end of the street and watch our Ogoh Ogoh go by. Then return home. Nyepi rules begin the following morning at 6am and last for 24 hours, ending on Friday March 4 at 6am.  

It's a day of fasting and meditation. Home's got to be dark and you can't leave, but people cheat and watch films they've downloaded, snack, and so forth.

Read about Nyepit here and search for Ogoh Ogoh images - there are many many.

Listen to today's Nyepi Ogoh Ogoh podcast.

No Cuke posts or podcasts on Nyepi.

Chocolate

There's a lot of good chocolate here in Bali and there are some chocolate factories one can visit. We've several times stopped at the Pod factory in Tabanan and tried out little individual samples of their extensive selection, like over 50 different chocolate bar varieties. We also visited a small, obscure chocolate works run by one person, an Australian who showed us the steps the coco bean went through to make the chocolate he kept in a two-glass-door cooler. Really good stuff. Some of the bars in stores are quite expensive. There's a nice little French bakery near here that has a rack of quite reasonably priced chocolate bars - 85% and 70% and an almond option. They have coconut in them too. We like them and the price so that's what we're getting these days. I zipped in there yesterday and got two croissants and two chocolate bars. The croissants we're saving for Nyepi, the silent dark 24 hours coming up on the 3rd. Tonight we opened the 70% bar and each had a square - like less than 1" square. Sometimes we'll splurge and have two squares each. And tonight we remembered being young and eating a whole chocolate bar. Wow. No more.