Dear Mom

We are sitting in an internet cafe awaiting the end of the monsoon that moved in after today's wedding ceremony (part II of III). The rain here is intense - as a great Aussie named Kerry told me, "Sometimes it comes down so hard you can't believe there is oxygen." Sheets of rain, and every few minutes I say to Steve, "Wow, it's really coming down now," and a minute later it rains harder. It's kind of like the waves of an earthquake. Why does so much on Earth come in waves?

The wedding ceremony today was incredible. Tara and Odeck were covered in symbolic Balinese wedding garb - cloths and string and coins and gold and makeup and flowers. I can't wait to show you the pictures. I am so lucky to have been given this experience. I keep meaning to thank Steve and then forget as I dart off to take another picture.

The ceremony was in Odeck's family's compound, and was set up to host 800. There were video screens all over which showed the ceremony, just like a concert. "Check out the JumboTron - they're getting married!" The food was great, and there was a long Balinese dance. We chatted for a good bit with a number of ex-pats, and I have to confess that I'm becoming a bit fixated with the idea. Don't daub your brow just yet - nothing is imminent, but I am feeling an excited twitch in my stomach about the idea.

Note: Steve just pointed out that the rain is coming down harder, still. Amazing. The street is a river. Motorbiking home should be fun...

I'm going to post much of this to my blog 'cause I don't think I can write it all again.

Oh, one other vignette: We went to the Gunun Kawi temple yesterday - you have to walk down 250 steps to get there. It was high noon, and I was kinda bitching about UV rays and melanoma and the like, and when we got to the bottom we realized we just so happened to be there for a ceremony. It was like battle of the bands, Bali village-style: two gamelan bands facing each other (from different villages, maybe?) and dancers enacting something akin to a war dance. I'm not sure, exactly, but it was just amazing, and beautiful and surreal. The setting was immaculate - huge, several-stories-tall shrines carved into the mountainside, a gorgeous river full of bathing (naked) men, brightly-clothed kids and women, and dance, music, ceremony. Really incredible. Steve has rightly said a few times that one of the wonderful things about the Balinese is that they aren't doing their arts and ceremonies for the benefit of tourists - it's truly a part of their lives, and we just happen to witness it.

Okay, the rain is indeed harder now. Coffee, please...

I love you and wish you could experience this, too!

- K