There is a main traditional market in Bondalem, just opposite to the Pura Desa , the village centre temple. The market starts around 5am in the morning until 8am. At the market you will find local fruits, vegetables, spices, meat, fish and local dishes. The girls and I got up at 7.30am this morning and headed to the market. I was pretty grossed out by the way they sold their meat and fish. It was not kept refrigerated or cold. It sure didn't look safe to buy. We had a quick browse around with all the local Balinese owners pounding us to purchase products from them, we walked out with 3 bags full of fruit.
After arriving back home, the girls did some cleaning whilst I treated myself to nasi goreng for breakfast and tried to catch up on some blogging. The nasi goreng was bought from one of our favourite warung just less than 2 minutes walk from our place. Did I mention that the nasi goreng is less than $0.75? Bargain !! Ridicously cheap and extremely tasty and satisfying. Nasi goreng is a very typical Balinese breakfast. I was content after breakfast. :)
After breakfast, we chilled till about 1.30pm. Today is the first day of school and I am really looking forward to meeting the kids and teaching them english. The Saraswati Mandal School is located next to the Bali Mandala Resort. Currently there are 11 classes throughout the week and each class has about 25-30 students. From Mondays through to Wednesdays, classes starts at 2pm and each class is about 60-90 minutes long. Thursdays and Fridays, classes starts at 3pm till 4.30pm. So I am told that we teach no more than 2 hours a day, therefore I have the rest of the day to do nothing whatsoever, besides go swimming or tanning at Bali Mandala Resort. What a life huh? The Balinese school system is broken up into three main level, SD, SMP and SMA. SD is the Indonesian equivalent to primary school (6-12 years old). The level of english for these classes are very basic and the teaching material should be mainly simple vocabulary and basic sentence structure. The next level is SMP, the equivalent to junior school or middle school (12-15 years old). By this time many of the students have only bass foundation in english and our job is to help them most by improving their vocabulary and grammar. It is also important that we practice their listening, comprehension, pronunciation and conversational skills. The final level is SMA or senior high school (15-18 years old). The students often speak english at a fairly advanced level and the classes generally focus on more advanced topics. The main focus in these classes is specialised vocabulary and advanced grammar. They are to be encouraged with discussions and conversations to give the students a chance to practice speaking in english. The Balinese teacher - Komung Eddie dropped by our place and greeted me. We spoke about what teaching is like at the school. Instead of walking to school, he gave us a lift to school on his motorbike. Potok (our neighbour), gave Julia a ride as well.
First day in class, I was introduced by the Komung Eddie to the class. He spoke in Indonesian so that the kids will understand a little bit better. I told them a little bit about myself as to where I am from, what I did for work and how long I will be in Bali for. Kids being kids were really curious about my life, so they started asking questions in english such as how much money I make, how many siblings I have etc. I found it very odd when they asked me how much money I made, but Komung Eddie explained that they thought being in property - I would be earning lots and lots of money. I just laughed. The lesson today was about habitats of animals. It was broken into - in the sea, in the forest, the ranch and in the house. The students were asked what animals lived in the sea, the ranch and so on. The students were very intelligent as the were able to shout out where each animal lived accordingly. We wrote the names on the board as they yelled it out. Mondays to Wednesdays we have 2 classes, and both classes are taught exactly the same thing. The reason why there are two classes is because there are too many students to fit in one class. I was once introduced to the second class and then we on focused the habitats of animals. I got the gist of things and was able to lead the second class on my own. My first day teaching was a lot of fun and it was not intimidating. The girls were right, it was not one big hard at all. I really enjoyed it and I'm really looking forward to teaching tomorrow.
After school, we decided to treat ourselves with ice-cream. It was a really warm day today and an ice-cream was perfect. Walking back, we also grabbed dinner. Julia has informed me that her favourite nasi goreng is from a warung (side street food stall) that opens from 6pm every night and that I must try it, she cooks it with an awesome spicy red sauce. The daughter of the wrung is apparently one of our students as well. Because I had already tried nasi goreng this morning, I decided to order the mi goreng. While we were waiting, Potok was driving past so he stopped and said hello. It was rather a very long wait for 3 orders, because as the locals came to order their food they would get first priority even though we were the first ones there. I didn't find that very fair. We waited for 45minutes for 3 meals. On the way back home, our neighbour makes local Balinese sweet cakes, the girls decided to stock up on some. I am amazed by how much Julia can eat. Being the size that she is, she looks absolutely amazing. I really don't know where she stores it. She loves food just as much as I do, but I tend to store all the fat in my tummy, ass and thighs - thats not fair.
The mi goreng was so good and the cakes were even better. My favourite one was a pumpkin sticky rice like thing wrapped in banana leaves. It was divine. After dinner, I met my Potok's dog - Moonchen. He came wandering into our courtyard and hung out with us for a while. He is 4 months old and a very playful dog. Seeing Moonchen makes me miss my babies back at home so much.
Life in Bondalem is very relaxing and by 8pm you can literally hit the sack. There is absolutely nothing to do at night and there are no street lights, so it is not possible to go wandering around the village. By 9pm, I was in bed sorting out my photos and preparing them for my blog. I haven't been quite motivated of late. I am still trying to catch up on the blogging. Wish me luck.
Good night world.
XOXO
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