Yes,
I know, I am so far behind in posting. So here’s a really long one! (And now, I’m another week behind. Wifi is far and between here.)
Our last three nights in Kerambitan were spent with our homestay family. Each student had a different family, but all located relatively close together. I was neighbors with two other students and their familys.
My family consisted of the ibu (mother), bapak (father), and two daughters. My homestay fathers’ parents also lived with them. In Balinese culture, it is normal to eat your meals alone, and to be social the rest of the time. This is quite a change from the states where socializing goes hand in hand with food.
In addition to this, the structure of the houses are very different. At home, everything (the kitchen, living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms) are all located in a single building. Here, each one has its own. Many bedrooms are also located in individual buildings, as well. My bedroom and bathroom were completely separate from the rest of the house. The bathroom, which they are currently building is an “open-air” bathroom. I had never seen one of those before!
My area also had a great lookout area on the upper floor that was great for studying. The breeze felt awesome and the views were fantastic! In the evenings, my homestay family took me to local events. The first night, there was a traditional dance ceremony to welcome some important visitors from Japan. The night after that, one of the other student’s homestay sister had a dance recital. I went with my bapack and the other student’s family. The events were really interesting, and were centered around many of the traditions that exist in Balinese culture. In addition to attending these events in the evening, I was also getting up pretty early to conduct research.
We started our first field study project during our homestays. It was about fruit-eating birds in suburban settings- namely, the amount of traffic of birds in fig trees which are a keystone species, to indicate seed dispersal and biodiversity within the city landscape. Figs are sacred in Bali and have been left mostly undisturbed even in urban settings.
Our projects / papers were due as we were heading out for Bedugul.
Bedugul is located in the mountains and was waaaay cooler than the
lowlands. The weather was great! we stayed in the botanic gardens, and I
was able to start collecting data for my individual research project
over Eco-Tourism. We spent three nights in the gardens, of which the
highlight was definitely us
attempting a four kilometer hike that turned into fie miles and ended
with us being so lost we scaled a cliff face for about 400 feet to make
it to the nearest road.We all had some pretty heart-stopping moments on our ascent, but our Indonesian guide for the trip (Yudi), did the whole thing barefoot! It was really impressive. He also won the contest for collecting the most leaches (so happy I lost that one!). We also visited a famous temple in Bedugul, located right on the water.
Afterwards, we headed for our current location, Pemutaran. Located on the coast, we are staying a couple of blocks from the beach. We have been snorkeling for the past couple of days, collecting data on marine biodiversity for our current FSP. This project looks at coral cover in relation to fish communities. We have been spending lots of time in the water and have the sunburns to prove it! Ouch.
Today I will be working on catching up on everything (like this post!), my field journal, writing my research paper, etc. And just maybe if I have enough time, I’ll be able to treat myself to a massage.
Yay for motivation!
Until next time. (Which will probably be really soon, since I’m already behind again).
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Claire Beach will be traveling to several countries during her International Service Learning Program this summer. Her ultimate destination will be a seven-week stay in Indonesia where she will be observing and conducting research for her project, Community Nature and Conservation, through the Honors College.
Beach is studying economics and international business in Walton College. She is observing and conducting research on the profitability of ecotourism business and environmental preservation in other parts of the globe, particularly developing countries. She will be attending the School of International Training. You can read more from Claire at hogtrailsandtales.wordpress.com.
Find out more about the SIT Indonesia: Community Nature Conservation in Bali (Summer) program at http://studyabroad.sit.edu/programs/summer/summer-2016/abe/
