Balinese Families

Our next stop was in one of the community meeting halls. Every community has a leader who works to keep the community working together and running smoothly. There are many celebrations and festivals each year (the island is primarily Hindu) and the leader identifies who should do what so that everything is ready. We saw a number of communities getting ready for a holiday that was coming up – men and women were out decorating the gates, meeting halls and cleaning up everything.
Families are very close and live together in a single compound. The son will live there all his life, bringing his wife to live with his family. The compound is not very large, but will house 2 or 3 “houses” with outdoor verandahs, a cooking area, a garden area and the family shrine.
Naming your child is very important in Bali because it identifies the caste you are from as well as your birth order. Some of our guides on the trip were named Wayan, in fact, almost everyone was named Wayan. Turns out the first born is always named Wayan – doesn’t mater if it’s a boy or girl. Madi is the 2nd born (we also had 2 guides named Madi). There are other given names and nicknames but the order name is important here. It sure confuses the heck out of me.
We ended up at the home of Wayan, the owner of the business. There his family had created the most fabulous lunch – including delicious vegetarian options! We sat on the open verandahs of the various buildings, visiting with our riding buddies and enjoying the relaxing atmosphere and great food.
You do need to take a look at the shot that includes Jeff sitting at the table. It’s not a great picture but…I have to share a story about the people with us. The two men were both from Portland, OR, in fact, there were 2 others also from Portland. The woman is from Hokkaido, another teacher at an international school. The thing is…she is a good friend of one of our teachers at school as was supposed to meet us all in Nagoya when she was on her way to Bali….small world.