Plevyaks in Bali

On Monday, the Green School hosted an Education Conference, so I went to school with Ramses to listen and learn.  I sat next to my Mangrove Cleanup partner who lives in the Green School Eco Village in one of the amazing Bamboo Villas.  I asked him if he still loved it now that it's rainy season.  He said he did still love it.  But lately, every night at 6 PM bugs, similar to dragonflies come in, attracted to the light.  They mate and die and the geckos eat them and they are gone before the morning.  That story made me glad I did NOT live in the Eco Village! Tonight as we were eating pizza in the kitchen, Ramses noticed some dragonfly like bugs flying under our doorframes and into our kitchen. They were everywhere, swarming and maybe mating?  We didn't really look closely.   We fled the kitchen and ran upstairs to our movie room (tiny upstairs room with a TV). The video does not do the invasion justice.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/f3YyeA93...

Rams is in a play.  We are super proud! An anarchist, illegally arrested under suspicion of carrying out a major bomb attack, recently fell from an interrogation room window to his death.Dario Fo's award-winning and chaotically comic political satire is full of clowning, bawdy humour, and madness. The play was produced, designed, and performed by high schoolers. Expect a night of fun, laughter, and an invitation to examine the power structures around us.This production will be the most environmentally responsible to date at Green School…•  Everything made or used has been repurposed and upcycled;•  An audience-powered bike generator keeps the lights on: you don't pedal, we don't see the show!

When we got here, we heard a lot of wisdom from parents of teens.  Bali is a relatively safe island and expat teens want and usually get more freedom here.  Rams' friends talk amongst themselves about going to the hip tourist bar 'Old Man's ' and my investigations conclude that their older classmates do, but Rams classmates might be exaggerating a little.  Regardless, tonight we headed down to Old Man's and made an evening of it together!  

John and I got our 2nd Hep A and yearly flu shots here in Bali.  Walked to Potato Head to 'recover'

 Rams is a huge movie guy.  Which makes it difficult that there are no movie theaters in our touristy town of Canggu.  After much discussion and research, we went to our first movie this weekend.  We chose  Level 21 (it's hype, it's happening,) where I had previously purchased Ramses' replacement Casio watch.  WOW, is there a difference between mid day weekday and weekend.  It was a really hype and happening on a Sunday afternoon!   Turns out, in Bali, they show movies from around the world in their original language with subtitles in Bahasa Indonesian.  So we chose American made Hunger Games: the ballad of songbirds and snakes.  I read all of the other 3 books and I have to say, she grew as a author and the character development made this story rather poignant.    Rams' friend Varo joined us and it was a lovely afternoon. After the movie, the kids checked out the video game arcade and we finished the fun with sushi for di...

At Green School, 12th graders do a year long project called a Green Stone as a culmination of their learning.  Green Stones often reflect a passion and give something back to the community.  I was delighted to help Jordan with his Green Stone:  building a blacksmith shop with multiple forges in the Innovation Hub.  Jordan received a micro-loan to purchase equipment and then raised $ to repay the loan.   John and I were happy to be 'Forge Founders'.  Paying to learn to use the Forges to make a hook by hand (and fire). What I lack in skill with a hammer, I make up for with enthusiasm and persistence .It was a hot and challenging 4 hours, but I'm really glad to have tried it, and I love my hook. 

Part of our BeWeGoes was learning some Bahasa Indonesian via Duo Lingo.  After 145 days of Duo Lingo, I felt I was only qualified to take the Beginner Bahasa Indonesian class offered at the Green School Bridge (School for grownups).  After all, I could select words from a multiple choice list, but past 'Thank you' I couldn't speak Bahasa Indonesian AT ALL.   So, when Guru Soma, my Bahasa Indonesian teacher, asked me to be in a Bahasa Indonesian language training video, I figured he and his crew must really be desperate. I said yes, because where could he go from here? The team was very professional.  They shared the script with me, and  I dutifully used Google translate to know what I was saying. It was way past my language level.  I could pronounce the words thanks to Bahasa Indonesian's fantastic phonetics, but I found memorizing the lines impossible. Fortunately for me, as I said, the crew was very profession.  The day of, they had my lines on ...