ORGANIC SMARTS
Pak Har came here a few years ago from Java to learn more about the organic movement, and is now teaching visitors, expats and local Indonesians to grow their own delicious organic fruit and veges. One of his dearest passions is that he can help Indonesian families go back to cultivating their own gardens inside their family compounds – something that many have stopped doing a long time ago.
Organic coconut oil is so good for cooking, and for your body. Why not learn to make your own while you are here? Or get some savvy, simple and inexpensive tips for creating and maintaining an organic garden.
Har holds regular gardening classes (500,000 rp for tourists), coconut oil classes (400,000rp) and cooking classes plus dinner (400,000rp). For more info, including ex-pat and Indonesian prices, please contact Hars Garden by phone, on 081337 382 099, or by email: hartonolokodjoyo@gmail.com.
NEW BALISPIRIT.COM
Hey check out the huge community section on Balispirit.com’s re-vamped website. There’s so much information now, including events, NGOs, Balinese ceremonies and blogs covering travel inspiration, conscious shopping and health and wellness.
The website – and Bali – have come a long way since life and business partners, Meg Pappenheim and Pak Made Gunarta, first came up with the idea to revitalize Bali’s global image, in that awful period after the devastation wrought on the island’s heart and economy by the Bali bomb.
The BaliSpirit team has clearly had a big think and done a lot of consultation about this change, so visitors can just search by type, location, price and dates to find exactly what they are looking for across the island.
The vision for BaliSpirit.com remains the same to create an online community to support local businesses and to unite diverse cultures that share a mutual love for Bali, culture, health and spirituality.
BUMI BUY & SELL BOOK DAY
As a confessed read a holic and Bumi Sehat supporter, I’ve got this Sunday, September 17 marked in bold in my diary, for Bumi’s Used Book Bazaar.
They’ll have all kinds of books for sale, from IDR 20,000 on up. Travel, non-fiction, business, self-help, personal transformation, spirituality, non-profits, grant writing, fundraising, fiction, memoir, history, parenting, cookbooks, writing and many more, with a portion of proceeds going to the birthing clinic.
If you really want to support Bumi Sehat’s women’s centre, birthing clinic and youth centres, here in Ubud and in Samatiga Aceh, clean out your own book supply now and call ASAP to donate some books for the event – they could be top quality, or perhaps just good reads but a little scruffy round the edges.
For more information, or directions, please call 0812 3844 6014 ASAP. The Used Book Bazaar will be at the new Yayasan Bumi Sehat complex, next to the footy oval in Nyuh Kuning, from 10 am to 4 pm.
WRITERS FROM 31 COUNTRIES
Check online for info on next month’s Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, which brings us more than 150 of the world’s leading authors, artists, thinkers and performers, from a record 31 countries.
The intriguing range of literary luminaries includes; Seno Gumira Ajidarma, Wild Swans author Jung Chang, New York Times bestseller Simon Winchester, and leading Latin American writer Héctor Abad. Determinedly diverse in its range of voices, the festival also features; ‘wild child’ of South Korean literature Han Yujoo, the woman behind the Philippines’ first sole-author collection of lesbian-themed stories Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz, rising star of Iranian literature Shokoofeh Azar, editor of the first English language anthology of Tibetan fiction, Tenzin Dickyi, and the all-girl Indonesian metal band rocking against prejudice, Voice of Baceprot.
URWF 2017 also brings us the best of Indonesia’s literary and artistic talent, including one of Indonesia’s first feminist writers, literary icon Nh. Dini, one of the nation’s favourite poets, Joko Pinurbo, controversial writer, filmmaker and all-round badass, Djenar Maesa Ayu, and Indonesia’s leading travel writer, Trinity.
Check out the program of 200+ events, including hands-on workshops, fiery live performances, film screenings, art exhibits and book launches, plus Children and Youth Program. October 25-29. http://www.ubudwritersfestival.com/
“ONE WITH THE BELOVED” EUROPE TOUR
Supported by the 6,290 Euros raised for the “One with the Beloved”, Music for Peace Campaign, Bali-based sound healer Shervin Boloorian is currently sharing music from the campaign’s newly finished international album, One with the Beloved, on a huge European tour.
The 2017 Euro tour began at magical Mundekulla Festival in Sweden, where Shervin blended live music with Rumi texts at the One with the Beloved concert and followed with two sound journey programs through the course of the weekend.
So far, he’s presented live sound healing events in: Oslo, Norway; Steinen and Zurich in Switzerland; Edinburgh, Scotland; London, Digbeth and Bristol, in England; and is now moving on to Italy, Spain, Germany and Holland.
600K RUN BY TYR THRONE
Support healing professional Tyr Thorne as he attempts to run all the way round Bali this month, raising funds for urgent operations for two young Balinese children with severe heart defects, and highlighting the great work of non-profit Solemen Indonesia.
The run – roughly 600 kilometres or approximately 17 marathons – is no mean feat for a guy in his 60s who, by his own admission, runs quite slowly. If he makes it, he’ll be the first ever to run all the way around Bali – look out Guinness Record Book!
Tyr is a former professional ballet dancer who used his own recovery from crippling back injury to create a unique healing practice with a range of “youthing” exercises that clearly work.
Find the links to Tyr’s crowd funding site and daily blog on www.solemen.org, and support by joining Tyr for a stretch, or by donating to his campaign.