Health room at Jiwa Damai

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At Jiwa Damai we offer holistic body therapies, individual therapy sessions as well as massages and body care.Our guests enter this beautiful room through a traditional Balinese carved wooden door. Come in and relax!

facilities_health room1_b

facilities_health room1_b

health room

health room

Organic cooking at Jiwa Damai

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One of the activities we offer to our guests is taking part in a cooking class with our Balinese cook. From our Balinese cook you will learn about local dishes and ingredients, pick vegetables in our garden and learn how to prepare the dish. We mostly use fresh organic veggies from our permaculture garden.

This is the recipe for our chicken dish. You'll need the following ingredients: Chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, lemon grass, salt, pepper and oil.

These ingredients are all mixed together and ground. The chicken is plugged into very small pieces, only the white meat is used. The tiny chicken pieces are  tossed into the uncooked herbal mixture and well mixed. Its taste  is utterly delicious. The chicken is served with rice and veggies.

Cooking

Cooking

cooking_2

cooking_2

Organic food

Organic food

Galungan Celebration on Bali

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Penjor_2

Penjor_2

For this years Galungan Celebration our head gardener Ketut built together with two of our volunteers the panjor which is erected at the entrance gate to Jiwa Damai.

A huge Bamboo is cut and then decorate with all details along the stem and the top. A little alter is created to give offerings to the gods. The panjor remains put  for 3 weeks and looks very wonderful.

Penjor

Penjor

Tradition demands, that each house in the village  places one in front of their entrance.

Penor_3

Penor_3

Soul, the Jiwa Damai Baby

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Baby

Baby

This is Soul, the first child born at Jiwa Damai. This picture is taken in Jiwa Damai at age 1 month.

The bay was born in a natural underwater birth, so called Lotus birth, where the placenta remains attached until it dries up by itself, which happened the second day after the birth. The Mom was assisted by her husband and Ibu Robin, a famous Balinese midwife.

In this picture one of our volunteers is taking care of the one month old Soul at Jiwa Damai.

Baby_2

Baby_2

Here, Margret is visiting Miquela and Soul, which had grown tremendously for age 4 months, in upstate New York.

Baby_nyc

Baby_nyc

River bank erosion control

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During the last very strong rainy season lots of damage was done on our premise at Jiwa Damai.  The heavy rainfalls caused lots of erosion, especially at the banks of the small river which is flowing through the permaculture gardens. We had to take care of this erosion and stabilize the river banks. To reduce the powerful impact of the torrentious rains on our lands, we reinforced the borders of the river with sand bags.

Wira, Maha, Suecha and one of our volunteers, Fred from Canada, are doing this extremely demanding heavy work of shoveling the river sand into bags and placing it on the banks. Eventually there will be four layers of sand bags on top of each other.

erosion (1)

erosion (1)

erosion

erosion

erosion (2)

erosion (2)

Our Balinese dogs

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Today we want to introduce you to our three wild Balinese dogs at Jiwa Damai: Salju-snow, Angrek-orchid and Blackie.These dogs do not have the same background like our Western dogs which originate from wolfs.

They are pack dogs and our watch dogs, roaming free on our 4 hectare permaculture garden. Basically they are very difficult to train and they are instinctive hunters. They announce each person coming to Jiwa Damai with barks. They are not like Western pet dogs. Therefore we do not recommend to touch them unless you know them for a few days.

Dogs at Jiwa Damai (2)

Dogs at Jiwa Damai (2)

Dogs at Jiwa Damai (3)

Dogs at Jiwa Damai (3)

Dogs at Jiwa Damai

Dogs at Jiwa Damai

Awakening to the sounds of Nature

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Awakening to the sounds of nature

Awakening to the sounds of nature

After spending my time in Bali's tourist centre of Ubud it was a relief to arrive at Jiwa Damai. Upon descending the stairs into Jiwa's dining area I was immediately overcome by the tranquil surroundings. Smells of frangipani and other flowers abound as do the vibrant colours that go with them; greens, yellows and pinks that one rarely finds outside of the tropics. Terry, one of the resident Woofers, showed me the expansive gardens and led me to a Lumbung situated in the heart of the organic garden.

Awakening to the sounds of nature (1)

Awakening to the sounds of nature (1)

As you can see by the photo a Lumbung is essentially a bamboo hut with no walls. Instead of walls a mosquito net hangs to offer some protection from those irritating, and often sleep-depriving, insects. It was so exciting to get to bunk out in nature, protected from the rain and insects but still able to feel the gentle and often cooling mountain breeze.

Awakening to the sounds of nature (3)

Awakening to the sounds of nature (3)

I awoke the next morning early to the sounds of roosters off in the distance, running water from the river nearby and various birds up in the treetops. It was magical. Another of Jiwa's local residents, Orchid, the cat, had snuck into the Lumbung the night before and was sleeping near my feet. Needless to say I welcomed my new friend.

Awakening to the sounds of nature (2)

Awakening to the sounds of nature (2)

Lying there I felt a deep sense of calm and an appreciation for the serenity that is Jiwa Damai. Of course, there was much work to be done, but it was nice to really take in the environment before starting the day!

Berish Bilander