Adventures of a Tribe

Rumblings

Posted on September 26, 2017 Updated on September 26, 2017

It has been a busy few days here in Bali.On Saturday afternoon our son, Jordan, arrived from Florida. He’s joining us for a month and it is wonderful to see him.

We can’t wait to take him on our adventures!

Emma made him a lei from plumeria flowers in our yard, and then on Sunday, made some for our friends, Teresa, Daniel and Nico, who flew in mid afternoon.

Teresa and her family are sailing friends of ours. We met them in Panama when we were preparing to head through the canal. They were preparing to sail their boat, s/v Savarona, to Europe at the same time, and we instantly became good friends. About 6 weeks after losing Tanda Malaika, they suffered a far greater tragedy…Teresa’s Sweetheart, who she’d been married to for 25 years, unexpectedly passed away from a ruptured aneurysm in his aorta. We invited them to come be close to us here in Bali, where we could perhaps help them find peace and healing. They will be renting a villa not far from our home for the next month and a half, before returning to the US for a memorial with family.

With them and Jordan here, we are now a crazy group of 9 people, and look like the Bali gang as we make our way around the island on 5 scooters! Speaking of scooters, we have been teaching Jordan how to ride one, and he’s catching on quite well.

All the creatures are enjoying lots of quality pool time together.

Danny has continued to enjoy is work trip and recently flew back to Beijing from Japan and next week will fly to Dubai for a week. He will be gone for about another month.

Mt Agung, the rumbling volcano here in Bali, has continued to groan and grumble like a cranky old man waking unwillingly. We have been told that so far, 60 – 70 000 people have been evacuated from their homes, and are in shelters that have been set up is safe zones. The tragic part is that they left their pets behind, so right now there are thousands of dogs, cats, cows etc that are starving to death. An organization has begun retrieving as many of these animals as possible, and setting up temporary camps in a safe zone for them. Today we went to the store to purchase huge bags of dog food to contribute.
The people that have been evacuated are in great need as well. We will be helping to cook meals and package them up for distribution, and have purchased hygiene products, mosquito spray, toothbrushes, toothpaste and sugar to take to the camps.

A huge problem Bali will be facing when the volcano erupts, is that most of the produce is grown in the fertile soil up against the volcano. When that area is destroyed by lava, a large food supply will be gone, and volcanic ash will contaminated water supplies.
Mt Agung has been placed on the highest possible alert level and todays earthquake was felt all through Ubud, which is 20 km (12 miles) up the road. We have been told that the longer it takes to erupt, the worse the eruption will be, and that in 1963 the same volcano erupted 10km into the air and ash was blown all the way to Jakarta.

Here at home we have prepared well. We keep the scooters full incase of a tsunami from all the earthquake activity, and we loaded up on extra water, food and masks for here at home for volcanic activity. We have plastic and tape to close off necessary areas. We’ve had family council meetings and made plans and are ready to help those around us as much as we can. Please don’t worry about us, just pray for the locals and the poor animals.
Life is exciting and is all one big learning experience. I love it and am grateful for it.