Bali Intern Day

A typical day during my first two weeks of a design internship with John Hardy, the bamboo company and Kul-Kul School near Ubud in Bali, Indonesia, August 1-14, 2007.

Wake up with the sunrise around 6am, get out of tent.

Make my way down to John Button (Australian permaculturalist living on-site for five weeks)’s place to take advantage of his composting toilet.

Head back to my in-progress guest home along the terraced path.

Get some reading and/or contemplation in until Ibu arrives with breakfast: rice, tahu (tofu), tempa (fried been curds), tomato, cucumber, fish, sayur (vegetables, usu. spinach and bean sprouts) and teh (tea).

Head down the hill and across the new Kul-Kul School bambu bridge over the Ayung river…

…to where I park my bike every night, which I ride up the short hill, passing some incoming workers at 7:45am.

Arrive at the bamboo factory just up from the river.

Check in with Aldo Landwehr, designer, and work with him on a new building model. Then four hours learning to work bamboo with a knife, such as whittling pins for construction.

Wash hands at noon for the provided lunch: nasi bunkus.

Head back home to check on progress of construction. Draw up plan and dimensions for next stage: windows. Get some hands-on time in with the workers installing the new pinned bambu floor and digging the ventilation out underneath.

Head back to factory to do some quality control rounds with Aldo, such as checking on the new office progress.

Afternoon meeting of the Kul-Kul School team and a tour of the grounds to assess progress and ideas. Check in on my team of workers at the house again.

Official end of work at 5pm. Head down to the river with the locals for a bath. Dinner arrives around dusk at the home.

Get in some reading (The Humanure Handbook) and idea sketches (bamboo steadycam?).

Regular ‘step-by-step’ English/Indonesian 8pm session of candles, coffee, fried bread and a dictionary with my friends and workers Pak Tono and Pak Nyoman. By 9:30 brush teeth and head back to the tent .