Introduction to the House and Indonesian Culture Pt 1

On my first morning in the Denpasar home I was given an “Australian Breakfast” which consisted of white bread, margarine, and chocolate sprinkes! I told the children that in Australia we call that “Fairy Bread.” ;)

The Denpasar home has 8 bedrooms, all with their own bathrooms, a large kitchen, and a spacious dinning and lounge area. We were told last year that this is the optimum design for DM orphanages.

In Denpasar I was confused on what I did with my rubbish as I couldn’t find a rubbish bin anywhere so I asked my trusty partial English speaking friend who lead me to a lot of land directly across the road where we throw all rubbish. I explained in Australia you get fined from the police for this. J

One of my favourite chores in the Singaraja home is washing the dishes! It’s so different from how we do it in Australia, as majority of the other daily chores are also. All the dishes get taken into a room and sat on the floor, they get rinsed and washed on the floor and all the water is thrown over a ledge into a drain which leads straight out to the road drain. When inside the room you can look straight out to the road by looking down this open drain. Only cold water is used when washing dishes, but somehow, with the awesome washing powder, they come out squeaky clean! J

Showering and toileting is also very different and a big culture shock to start with. In the bathrooms there is a squatting toilet and next to it a big tiled basin full of water. This water is used to flush the toilet with and also to bathe with. There’s a jug that sits on the side of the basin, and you tip it down the toilet to flush, or pour it over yourself to bathe! When I arrived at the Singaraja home I was very excited to see this shower on the wall in the girls room! YAY! J