Courage, Strength, Patience, Tolerance...

Whew, I made it!

I'm finally in Bali and I'm finally on the internet proper!  What a challenging few weeks it's been and the challenges continue...

One thing I've learned with all this - dreams are easy - it's the actualisation of the dream that calls for so much strength and determination to keep going that turns them into a reality.

The leaving of my workplace of the past 10years and the wonderful people I have worked with was hard...the packing up of all my worldly possessions and putting them into storage was a huge tiring task...and saying goodbye to my dear reliable Fredie (car) was sad too...however saying goodbye to my wonderful friends and family was so so difficult, especially after the sudden death of my dear Sister-in-law a week out from leaving...it was a torture to leave everyone behind, I felt very torn and just want to be with them...but life goes on and the wheels are turning so keep going I must...

I'm feeling like a fish out of water at the moment.  It's different this time, very different. I'm missing home.  Missing the security feelings of knowing your place - work, house, town, friends, family etc.  I'm sure the familiar feelings will come here in time too, once I'm in a routine and settled in a "home".  It's been a huge change and upheaval, especially with everything that happened before I came away.

Gosh, the things we take for granted - reliable internet for a start!  Being able to speak to anyone and they understand you...drinking water from the tap...even having enough water to drink because it rains!  Little, little things that surely make you appreciate life back home.  We live in paradise and don't even know it...we truly have nothing to complain about in NZ, nothing.

We went to the Yayasan on Monday and met Ketut (the Director) and the children.  It felt very foreign and a bit overwhelming as they are still learning English so communicating is challenging - that's what we hope to change :-)  Ketut is totally overwhelmed with everything he has to do.  He devotes his life to them.  There is much work to be done to make the school more effective and efficient so we hope to help with some planning to help him too.  I haven't met Yogik my sponsor child yet - hopefully today so will post some pictures next time.


The thought of teaching the children in a classroom situation is daunting and scary for me - I'm not a 'teacher' as such and really don't know where to start, we will just 'wing it' and see how it goes - something is better than nothing but boy could they do with some real Western teachers here - what a huge difference it would make.  So, my challenge/invitation goes out to any Western teachers out there - if you want a life changing experience come to Tianyar - we will all welcome you with big open arms!

I had the best experience of manifesting what we think today - it's quite funny really...We took a local mini bus from where we are staying to Tianyar..no air con...spit on the floor...basic...noisy...anyway that's fine, it's only 1/2 hour drive but I said to Brent before we left, "so long as there's no live chickens on board it's cool"...things were cruising along just dandy and about 1/2 way to Tianyar guess what - a woman got on board with all her veges and Temple offerings and her two roosters - fantastic - right by my feet!  They were in a bamboo basket with the top tied so they couldn't get out but still...it was a bit much for me so Brent changed places with me and sat next to them :-)  (for those of you who think this strange - I have a bird phobia!)

Ah the joys of it all...till next time..xxxxx