Day 10: Singaraja

Oh no! Our laundry wasn’t done this morning, which means it’s a good thing I washed my skirt yesterday. But more than that it meant I didn’t have a sarong, which was necessary since today we were returning to Sudaji Village to see part of a village-wide cremation ceremony.

Since there really wasn’t much to do, I went to school…by horse cart! We got ripped off for sure, and only got a ride halfway, but it was still fun. A tiny little horse driven by a tiny little man and three American girls all taller than the man. I really need to learn more Balinese as we completely failed to communicate, but nevertheless it’s a true Singaraja experience since I later learned there are only sixteen of these vehicles left in the city.

Actually maybe that makes it a fake Singaraja experience? Oh well, I won't think about this too much.
At school I was relieved to learn our Balinese friends had brought extra sarongs for us! Beautiful ones too. In class we started drafting our group contracts for decision making, etc. Soon enough we were leaving for Sudaji and the brutal heat associated with walking around midday in full sun!

Girls of the Seven Semut: Alessia, Dian and me!

Although we surely looked a mess the ceremony was fairly interested and most people seemed ambivalent or happy at most that we were there. The actual cremation turned out to be not today, but we did walk in a procession of dancers, musicians, children and adults up and then back down a hill. Overall I wasn’t entirely sure what the purpose was, but it did seem almost wrong that we were there as some sort of tourist group. Over 150 bodies are being cremated in this unique ceremony because the whole village came together to help all the families afford this expensive ceremony.

After the ceremony we returned to Singaraja and Cass, Erica and I went to the market. I love markets so I was really excited, but the goods section of the market evidently closed earlier so only food was left. I made do but was a little sad that we couldn’t look at everything for sale.

For dinner/snacks I got some odd but really tasty baked dough things. The batter is placed in an odd half moon cast iron mold and then the resulting cakes are sold in twelve packs. Next I got plantains!! I’ve been craving fresh fruit so I was very excited about that although they aren’t anywhere as good as the platanos islas of Peru. Also got some dried pea snacks. Eighty cents for a giant bag that I surely didn’t need but I wanted to try and I do adore peas. They are pretty good and Trader Joe’s would definitely charge over $3 for a bag!

Dough things!

I love peas.

Erica and I also split a bucket and laundry detergent as we have decided that we can do laundry ourselves that way we will at least have access to it since neither of us have many clothes. I already did a load today that is hanging to dry on the porch but from now on I’ll probably just wash each days outfit after my daily shower.

There were many more communication barriers at the market and most people seemed very intrigued that we were there. A few people spoke some English (beautiful! Hello! What is your name?) but overall we had to communicate through hand gestures. Luckily that is pretty univsal and the pea lady even understood I was trying to ask if the peas were spicy.