Sari Organic

Today we went to a maternal health clinic called Bumi Sehat (Healthy Earth) which promotes a philosophy of peaceful birth for a peaceful life. Women can come to the clinic for free to get prenatal care and deliver their babies. I love the ideology of the clinic, which is based on a gentle birth: water births, no separation of mother and baby after birth, breastfeeding, etc. (Thank you Laura for telling me so much about midwifery this past year so that I could fully appreciate visiting this clinic) We saw a baby that was only 1 day old...that's the littlest baby I've ever seen. It was so small... An American couple just had their baby there too! It was beautiful to see a new dad holding his brand new little baby all swaddled up in his arms. This is probably the coolest organization we've visited so far; it has such far reaching effects on the community, promoting maternal health and ensuring safe and healthy birthing practices.

After the clinic, we went to an organic restaurant for lunch which is located in a field of farmland and cannot be reached by car. We parked half a mile away and walked down a small stone path through beautifully scenic rice fields to get there, smiling and saying hello to men and women working in the padis as we passed. It was sunny and hot as we ventured down the windy path, and I eagerly welcomed the shade of the billowy tent ceiling of the restaurant. We sat on fuschia and violet colored cushions which were placed on raised-up platforms surrounding a low wooden table. The placemats and menus were made out of wood and reeds, and just about everything on the menu is grown organically (without chemicals) right there in the field surrounding the restaurant. I had lemon fruit tea, which had big pieces of pineapple, papaya and watermelon floating in the delicious mix of cinnamon-y lemon sweet tea, a bowl of to-die-for pumpkin soup which tasted like the perfect blend of sweet potatoes and curry, and the house salad which was tomatoes, red pepper, baby corn, avocado, onion, beets, carrots and sprouts all over greens with olive oil, garlic and lemon dressing...OMG food heaven. Everyone was expressing their infinite appreciation for the amazing food and drinks as we ate, and then a perfect breeze came through the open sides of the restaurant, cooling us off to just the right temperature and we all proceeded to splay out on the cushions and go into food comas.

It was glorious.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching some men and women make flutes, bamboo instruments, weave baskets and paint. They taught us how too, some of the more focused people in our group coming out with fruits from their labors; a small flute they hand carved or a wind chime they put together with help from the instrument maker. I on the other hand was too distracted by the family that lived in the housing compound we were visiting; a divorced American man with 3 beautiful young children born of a Venzuelan woman who now lives in Bali teaching at the international school. He's been all over the world teaching in similar schools where people living abroad such as diplomats send their kids to school, Pakistan, Taiwan, Indonesia...how incredible. Future career potential? Me thinks yes. He also owned the only "pet" dog we've seen thus far in Indonesia; the rest are feral strays or merely guard dogs who don't like to be pet, so obviously we took out all of our repressed animal love on Bonita, the pregnant golden retriever. I think she loved it. : )

That's all for now; it's been an eventful day and I'm still full from blissful organic food.

Peace & Love from Bali,
Jill