Campus Happenings

Shame on me!  It's been a week since my last post and I had planned to post 2 blogs per week.  Shame!  It's also 4 weeks since I left Adelaide.  Time is slipping by rapidly.  I suppose I could split this posting and claim 2 posts this week - but that wouldn't count.  So ...  it's a biggie.

 

In some ways it's been just another week and although full, not necessarily full of things which are especially newsworthy, so I've bundled together something from last week with the news of this week.  Most readers wouldn't know, those pictured would, and they might think that I've lost track of a week, so I'll confess now to "bundling" the weeks.  Our "base load" is taking the "Matriculation English" classes for the new students before they can start the new Semester, and encouraging staff and those students who are around before classes start to engage in some English conversation. Laurel has distributed dozens of little "Can we please speak English for 5 minutes?" signs around the office work places and where students gather, and for many it has "broken the ice".  That's our regular and ongoing activity, and what follows is news of what is out of the ordinary for us.

 

Two weeks ago I and Laurel, my English teacher colleague and fellow Adelaidean, went to watch two of our University students compete in a cooking completion.  They are not "Food Preparation" students, they are studying a B.Ec. degree in Hotel Management, but cooking is a passion.  There was a "theme" to the competition - all dishes had to be based on "bean curd" (tahu, tofu etc).  I could not see this being particularly interesting, but I was wrong! 

 

Yustina and Adji in action, and their winning 4 course dinner.

Their presentation matched the food quality, and they won the prize (no pix - presented at a later date).  Well done.  Yusti and Adji were behind the farewell barbecue arranged and catered for by several students last year.

 

Just to show me that their "bean curd" dishes were edible as well as attractive they came to our communal kitchen and prepared 3 of the 4 courses for us.  Laurel and I, Yusti, Adji and Vivi enjoyed a banquet (compared to our usual fare) of Thai style Tom Yang soup with tahu, a "cordon bleu" with tofu in place of veal, and a strawberry fruit pudding.  It was a wonderful, friendly gathering and I hope they will treat us to another such occasion (hint, hint!).  Thankyou Yusti and Adji.

 

 

Vivi watches on as Adji (left) and Yustina prepare the "bean curd banquet"
Someone always manages to sneak a "V" salute into the picture.
We manage in our kitchen, but it won't make it into the "life style" magazines.

 

We salute our cook - Yustina.  She's rightly
proud of this attractive and delicious dessert.

Whilst on the topic of food, I should mention another "food related" change this week.  For years the "student canteen" with simple "warung"-style food vendors has occupied the ground floor space below the classrooms.  It was quite simple, and, for me, there wasn't much variety.  Now the space is under conversion to IT service area and Physiotherapy Laboratorium (see photo in last blog; work almost complete). 

 

Look, no students - a rare sight, even on weekends
(photos from previous visits)

The old motor bike racks along the eastern fence line have gone and the space now sports a long block of shutter-fronted "lockups".  At the end closest to the main gate and lobby (for those who know the campus) is the new photocopy and offset print shop.  It's currently very busy as students about to graduate print cpies of their now-approved theses, and staff prepare course notes for the semester which starts in August.  All the other spaces hold small warungs, eating spaces, and a little store.  It's already starting to get busy.

 

Look, up in the sky: it's a bird ..... etc.  Well, no "Superman" but an increasing number of kites are appearing now that the winds have started blowing steadily from the east as is normal for this time of the year.  In the past month there have been many days with no kites visible, but now they are taking to the skies again.  Many will stay aloft for 5 or 6 weeks, perhaps longer.  When the winds drop they may fall down, but in past years the east wind blew for a couple of months and the kites stayed up there.  Mid-week a huge black "eagle" appeared high above the rice field just to the west of the campus.  Because of its height it's hard to estimate its size accurately, but I'd guess it is more than 2 metres across.  It's an impressive sight.  Each week more will appear and on weekends I'll again see trucks carrying teams of villagers holding on to their large communal kites as they travel to the kite grounds to launch them. 

 

See my blog of August 2011 "What's up - kites, of course"

http://paulinbali.blogspot.com/2011/08/whats-up-kites-of-course.html

 

Whilst Laurel and I are volunteers and support ourselves here, we are each provided with a comfortable large room and occasionally we enjoy "fringe benefits".  Last Monday evening we enjoyed one such benefit when we joined the "cultural night and dinner" provided to honour the visit of a team from the "EMS" (Evangelical Mission Solidarity), a Stuttgart based organisation representing many German churches.  The EMS and its constituent churches is a partner of the GKPB (The Protestant Christian Church in Bali), as is my own denomination, the Uniting Church of Australia, and has given a great deal of support to the GKPB.  The German guests,  the Bishop and many members of the governing Synod, many staff of the university, and some associates, assembled in the training restaurant.  After some welcoming remarks we were treated to 2 graceful dances performed by girls from the nearby Widya Asih 4 Orphanage (many of the girls are present or past scholars of the University and training college).  The first was a dance of welcome displaying the characteristic Balinese dance elements and the second was a recent liturgical dance representing the angels announcing the gospel ("good news") to the people of Bali.

 

Dancers welcome guests in traditional Balinese style

The Rektor, Dr Nyandra (rt), presents a momento to EMS
delegation leader Rev Jurgen Reichel and Hans translates.

Our "angels" spread the good news of the gospel across Bali



The graceful welcome and "angel" dances were performed to recorded music.  The final dance, the "Janger", was the longest and most vigorous, and it was accompanied by the wonderful sound of a gamelang band in full flight.  It was the first time I've seen such an energetic, foot-stomping dance with a band really "belting it out".  It was sheer excitement, Balinese style!

 

The 6 male and 6 female "Janger" dancers file in.  The foot-stomping
of the larger male dancers really rocked the building!




The girls show some of the more graceful moves whilst
 the men at the rear keep up a steady stomping rhythm




The male "Janger" dancers slap out the rhythm.  Our dinner waits in the background.

This was an exciting and colourful start to our "cultural night".  The dinner which followed presented another aspect of Balinese culture.  Around campus it's almost a case of "food with everything".  It was a wonderful evening.

On Thursday evening (18/7/13) whilst in our rooftop garden just before sunset I saw something I've never seen before.  Usually tropical haze, low cloud, or just plain smoke obscures everything more than a kilometre away.  Not on this night.  Gunung Agung (Mt Agung), the highest and 'chief' mountain in Bali, was visible to the north east.  In about 11 months spread across 4 visits I've only once caught a glimpse of it first thing in the morning, but never in the evening.  It's over 30 km away and usually well hidden.  Not only Agung, but also the two smaller mountains to its north-west were also visible.  And if that was not unusual enough, far in the west, the setting sun was lighting up a mountain most of the way to the western tip of Bali.  We had to consult a map to work out what we had seen, and it was almost too difficult to believe, but we had indeed seen something amazing.



Gunung Agung, Bali's highest mountain, seen from the rooftop garden,
Universitas Dhyana Pura.  The power cables just could not be avoided.



In my blog of last Friday I noted the arrival of the new "access points" for the University Wifi.  During the week the plain  covers of the devices were replaced with customised covers and I suspected that the new service would soon arrive.  Well, it's here!!!   Laurel and I are "trialling" the system to ensure it is working properly prior to the official commissioning, and for us it's a labour of love.  What a relief it is to have a service which operates a bit faster than a carrier pigeon with a broken wing.

 

After years of slow communications, this is a beautiful sight



That's been weeks 3 and 4 at Undhira Bali.  We are looking forward to a weekend outing, and then another week in our wonderful world of English conversation where we try explain some of the peculiarities of the English language and demonstrate to our staff and students how to pronounce sounds unfamiliar to them - especially "th" and "v" sounds.

 

Best wishes and "sampai jumpa"

Paul in Bali

 

PS

Although it's not "campus activity", I should acknowledge the enjoyable dinner of home-prepared "spaghetti marinara" I shared with my friends Hans and Imelda Mbot on Wednesday.  Imelda lived and studied in Italy for several years and knows a thing or two about how to prepare good pasta.  Thanks for the meal, the company, and the long but extremely cautious motorcycle ride from and back to campus (I didn't shut my eyes, scream or gasp once).

 

After a home cooked dinner with Hans and Imelda.  Note my
"casual crouch" so I'm the right height for the photo frame.