Bio Tank for our Balinese Lumbungs

Working on the Lumbungs

Here at Jiwa Damai, we are currently in the process of adding to the retreat center with the construction of two Balinese lumbungs. A type of traditional Balinese housing, lumbungs are small, two-story bamboo huts that are open to nature. Ours sit on the hillside and have a scenic overlook to the jungle and swimming pool.

The first floor has of the lumbung will feature a couch, living area and patio with large hammock. The second story is a bedroom. The lumbungs are for guests who want to be closer to nature. Here, you will be sleeping open to hum of cicadas, singing of frogs and croak of the gecko. The patio provides a perfect place for meditation and yoga.

In our efforts to be the forerunners in environmental friendliness and to pioneer energy efficiency in Bali, we have installed a BioPro, bio septic tank for the lumbungs. We considered a solar water heater but ultimately decided that it was not worthwhile - too many rainy days here! Our bio tank is one of only two pieces available on the island.

Bio tank

The pipe runs, as pictured, from the lumbung bathroom into the bio tank. From there it goes through a treatment process. Clean, recyled water flows out at the other side.

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The outflow of the tank will be used to water the upper garden. This will be particularly useful during the dry season, when every drop of water counts.

Family day for our team at Jiwa Damai

  We invited all our workes with their families to spend an afternoon at Jiwa Damai, to explore the grounds and enjoy a careless afternoon with games and food. This was such a fun day !

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With the kids we played all kinds of games, like 'baloon walk', balancing an egg on a spoon while walking or sack race.

The Balinese families had lots of fun and also our wwoofers took part in the event and enjoyed the day.

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Learn Legong, a traditional Balinese dance

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One of the many activities you can take part in while visiting Jiwa Damai is being a guest at a local dance class for children right here in our local village! Our guests and wwoofers enjoy watching the talented children learn and perform traditional Balinese dance. Because the dance is beautiful and unique one of our volonteers inquired about a private lesson with the local dance teacher.

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What a special experience! She was so lucky to have this lesson because she was getting a genuine traditional dance class. She loved it so much she has been continuing her classes! This type of traditional dance is not as easy as it looks! The low squat and many intricate movements make this dance very beautiful and also very hard to learn in just one lesson! New movements are introduced such as eye direction, winks, hand twirls, and hip sways! Once you start its hard to stop! The gracious dance teacher enjoys it very much as well as having visitors to her class in the village.

Living in nature, in the Balinese Lumbung

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40 kids explore the nature at Jiwa Damai

School visit kidz

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This Tuesday was busy at Jiwa Damai as 40 students from a local Balinese school visited for a field trip. It was such a pleasure teaching the young children about many of our plants, the importance of organic gardening, and the many different animals and organism we have at Jiwa Damai! The show started with coconut tree climbing, followed by descriptions of different trees and flowers. During the tour the children taste cocao, coconut, and sugarcane while exploring. The children also walked around the Mandala Garden identifying different vegetables, and tasting herbs. We also teach them about the importance of composting and recycling, and end the tour with each child planting a sprout in the earth with their hands!

After the tour the children enjoy lunch made at Jiwa Damai with food from the garden! We served them Taro, a root vegetable, which they see before it’s cooked and also when its in the garden. The children enjoy their lunch by the lake enveloped by nature all around them! Butterflies, fish, frogs, and lizards join the kids at lunchtime!

Building a Water Tower for the Lumbungs

Building the water tower

We are also hard at work building a water tower for the lumbungs. The water tower will stand about 7 meters high. The purpose of the tower is to provide water for the bathrooms, taken from a well about 30 meters below. Water travels from the tower, down into the pipe and up into the showerhead. The tower’s height is necessary to give water pressure for showering.

Inside the tower we install a floating device; if the water goes below a certain level the pump starts. The water tower ensures that in the event we lose electricity, there will be enough water for the lumbungs’ bathrooms. The tower will hold 1,000 liters, or about 400 gallons. This would provide a sufficient amount of water for two or three days.

As pictured, these incredibly strong little women transfer cement bricks for the water tower from where they are stacked outside to inside the compound.

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One man slowly and painstakingly straightens each piece of iron for the tower. Lots of time and great care go into the marvelous quality of work done here. We are very excited about the pending completion of the lumbungs.

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Bamboo, known for its strength and durability, forms the frame for the water tower and is often used for scaffolding in Bali. This worker diligently separates strands of bamboo.

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Water conservation plays an important role at Jiwa Damai. A large pond surrounds the main buildings and guest rooms. The pond is home to many different fish, microorganisms, and splendid white and purple lilies. Three different pipes drain excess water to separate ponds. Another drains water to our extensive permaculture garden. Our beautiful swimming pool is fed from a spring located underneath the pool.

We employ lots of structural thinking. Every drop of water gets reused!

Cleaning the pool

The pool is one of our key features here at Jiwa Damai.Of course, such a pool requires a lot of dedicated maintenance. It needs to be cleaned daily - its mostly leaves, fallen from the trees,  that have to be fished out of the water.

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Responsible for this task is Wira, our general coordinator. Looks like he is enjoying his work ;-)

Pool cleaning

The pool is filled with natural water from our spring, located on the grounds of Jiwa Damai. Since we want to keep the water as natural as possible, we only use a minimum amount of chemicals and only when needed.

The pool cleansing takes place early every morning, so that our guest can always enjoy a refreshing swim in a nice clean, blue-shimmering pool.

Have fun!

Tropical fauna on Bali

Experiencing the tropical wildlife in our extensive permaculture garden is quite a spectacle. Jiwa Damai is inhabited by different animals crawling, flying and jumping around in the huge garden. Today we want to introduce you to some of the little creatures.

The Tokes you'll hear as soon as it gets dark. They like to crawl around under the open roofs, looking for insects. They make that nice sounds: tookeeee, tokeeee.....

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Our other noise-makers are the little froggies, quacking and quacking.

At nights, just sit back and listen to the beautiful concert !

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Going for a walk in the garden , right after a heavy rainshower, I noticed some spiders weaving their nets.  - What incredibly talented  artists these creatures are !

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But we have way more cute little animals in the huge garden. Beautiful animals..... butterflies, colorful birds, snails, ... ( it's just so hard to take pictures of the birds and butterflies.... but we'll keep on trying ;-) )

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It is a pleasure walking through the garden and you can be sure not to be bothered by too many mosquitos and flies.  The ponds and water have been exposed to EM-Technology and as a result the breeding of mosquitoes has been significantly reduced.

Come visit us and see for yourself!

Jiwa Damai's team

Today we want to introduce you to our staff here at Jiwa Damai! All our employees live in near-by villages. In this way we want to contribute to the local communities by supplying employment.

Jiwa Damai's Balinese staff, from left to right and from top to bottom :

Wayan, our night guard; Lana, responsible for all maintenance issues; Ketut, our head gardener; Astri, our cook (probably the  best chef on Bali); Wira, our coordinator; Wayan, our second gardener and last but not least Sugik, our junior administration manager.

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The team gets complemented by Philippe from Switzerland, our guest relations manager, who is living on Bali for quite a while now and Simone, responsible for Marketing & PR, working from Germany. Watching over all is Margret, Jiwa Damai's caretaker and guardian.

.... and not to forget our 3 dogs, Angrek, Salju and Blackie !

Nous souhaitons vous présenter le très sympathique staff de Jiwa Damai !!

De gauche à droite et de haut en bas :

Wayan, notre garde ; Lana, l’homme de la maintenance ; Ketut, notre jardinier ; Astri, notre cuisinière (la meilleure chef de Bali); Wira, notre coordinateur; Wayan, notre jardinier et Sugik, notre responsable administratif.

Coconut harvest on Bali

Do you know how our coconuts are being harvested? Bringing down the nuts is not an easy task! Only few local men know how to climb the coconut tress and harvest the nuts. I've seen them climbing up the high trees, sometimes up to 30 m, without a rope, without a safety net, just the machete in the back of the pant, .....like a little monkey.

Made Sueca is a real acrobat. He is climbing to the top of coconut tree just with his bare feet and hands. It’s impressive !

Made Sueca climbing a coconut tree

His work is to clean the trees - cut the leaves and harvest the coconuts.

When he finally made it to the top, when he reached the crown of the tree,  he is simply 'sitting' there, supposedly very comfortable, cutting off the nuts with his machete.

For me it is amazing how a person can climb up a tree like this and then, without effort 'sit' there for minutes until all the coconuts and dead leaves are cut off. What an incredible strenght is needed for this kind of work! Respect.

Made Sueca est d’une agilité déconcertante. Il grimpe dans les cocotiers à 30 mètres de haut et à l’aide de ses bras et ses jambes, il se retrouve au sommet en moins de deux minutes. C’est impressionnant !

Son travail consiste à élaguer les arbres, en coupant les feuilles un peu trop encombrantes. Et bien sûr à cueillir les noix de coco.