INFO : CANCER

What is cancer?

The organs and tissues of the body are made up of tiny building blocks called cells. Cancer is a disease of these cells.

Cells in different parts of the body may look and work differently but most reproduce themselves in the same way. Cells are constantly becoming old and dying, and new cells are produced to replace them. Normally, cells divide in an orderly and controlled manner. If for some reason the process gets out of control, the cells carry on dividing, developing into a lump which is called a tumour.

Tumours can be either benign or malignant. Cancer is the name given to a malignant tumour. Doctors can tell if a tumour is benign or malignant by examining a small sample of cells under a microscope. This is called a biopsy.

In a benign tumour the cells do not spread to other parts of the body and so are not cancerous. However, if they continue to grow at the original site, they may cause a problem by pressing on the surrounding organs.

A malignant tumour consists of cancer cells that have the ability to spread beyond the original area. If the tumour is left untreated, it may spread into and destroy surrounding tissue. Sometimes cells break away from the original (primary) cancer. They may spread to other organs in the body through the bloodstream or lymphatic system.

The lymphatic system is part of the immune system - the body's natural defence against infection and disease. It is a complex system made up of organs, such as bone marrow, the thymus, the spleen, and lymph nodes. The lymph nodes (or glands) throughout the body are connected by a network of tiny lymphatic ducts.

When the cancer cells reach a new area they may go on dividing and form a new tumour. This is known as a secondary cancer or metastasis.

It is important to realise that cancer is not a single disease with a single type of treatment. There are more than 200 different kinds of cancer, each with its own name and treatment.

INFO : MESOTHELIOMA

What is mesothelioma?

Mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelium. The mesothelium is a thin membrane that lines the chest and abdomen and surrounds the organs in these areas. The lining around the lungs is called the pleura and in the abdomen it is known as the peritoneum.

About 2000 people in the UK are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year.

Mesothelioma of the lining of the lungs, known as pleural mesothelioma, is much more common than mesothelioma in the peritoneum. For every one person with peritoneal mesothelioma, there will be about 12 people who have pleural mesothelioma.

A. Pleural mesothelioma

The pleura has two layers: the inner (visceral) layer, which is next to the lung; and the outer (parietal) layer, which lines the chest wall. The two layers of the pleura are usually in contact and slide over each other as we breathe. The membranes produce fluid, which allows them to slide over each other easily.

When mesothelioma develops in the pleura (pleural mesothelioma), the delicate membranes thicken and may press inwards on the lung. Fluid may also collect between the two layers of the pleura: this is known as a pleural effusion.

Structure of the lungs and pleura

B. Peritoneal mesothelioma

The lining of the abdomen is known as the peritoneum. It also has two layers: the inner (visceral) layer, which is next to the abdominal organs, and the outer (parietal) layer, which lines the abdominal wall.

If the mesothelioma is in the peritoneum it is called peritoneal mesothelioma and causes thickening of the membranes surrounding the abdominal organs and a collection of fluid in the abdomen. The collection of fluid is called ascites and causes swelling of the abdomen.

Side view of the abdomen. The peritoneum is shown as the thick line surrounding the abdominal organs.

Credit cards in Bali

Info :

International credit cards are honored in Bali and in many shops, hotels and restaurants the cards accepted will be displayed in the window. Popular cards are Visa, Mastercard, Citibank and DinersClub.

Bali has a branch of Citibank located on Jl. Teuku Umar in Denpasar and foreigners living in Bali can sign up for a variety of accounts. Local banks charge 3.25% for using their cards. When you get an account at BCA bank in Bali, they will offer you a BCA Master / Visa and plain BCA card.

Mastercard charges 3% for using its card in Bali. Sometimes shops will charge 3%, (as they get charged 3%), sometimes not. If you lose your credit card while in Bali, the best strategy is contact your bank via phone ASAP. I lost my debit card last year and was able to cancel it and order a new one using online banking.

American Express is not so popular in Bali. The vendor has to wait longer to get paid (as in the US) and has to apply to be a vendor. When shopping in Bali you’ll need to use cash for most things in the street, better shops will be able to handle credit cards.

Info Banks and Credit cards in Bali

Here is the contact info for banks and credit cards in Bali

Banks

•American Express Bank (0361) 283973
•ABN-AMRO Bank (0361) 244277
•Bank Central Asia (BCA) (0361) 756283
•Bank Danamon (0361) 757836
•Bank International Indonesia (BII) (0361) 756671
•Bank Lippo (0361) 284158
•Bank Mandiri (0361) 770259
•Bank Niaga (0361) 232969
•Bank Permata (0361) 263373
•Citibank (0361) 255077
•Commonwealth Bank (0361) 237077
•Standard Chartered Bank (0361) 223700

Credit Cards

•American Express (0361) 283970
•Mastercard / Visa (0361) 759010

Banks in Bali have ATM machines that are compatible with foreign banks so you will be able to withdraw money in local currency. There are actually a ton of branches and you can look in the local Yellow Pages for a complete listing, of banks in Bali.

Banking hours are from 8.00 am to 12.00 am Mondays to Fridays, and from 8.00 am to 11.00 am on Saturdays.

BALINESE HINDU TEMPLE

In accordance with the rules of traditional Balinese architecture, the temples are normally built in three courtyards, namely an outer courtyard, a middle courtyard, and an inner courtyard. This division is made based on the religious concept of cosmologies.

In the upslope north direction, higher than the rest of the temple is the inner sunctom, which contains the sacred shrines. It is clearly divided from the rest of th temple by a wall and a huge called the "Kori Agung". If the land is relativetly flat the inner sunctom is often artificially elevated above the other division of the temple, either upon a stone base or upon an earth fill.

The middle section of the temple is called "Jaba Tengah" and is transitional betwen sacred and secural spaces. It contains storage rooms, the structure for arrange offering before they are taken into the inner sunctom. Saparated from the middle area by another wall and a large split gate called "Candi Bentar" is the most south, hence the lowest and least sacred courtyard, it is called "Jabaan", meaning outside. Here secular activities are permitted, food - stalls are set up at festival times, where the people come to eat and chat.

In each of these three temples areas only certain kinds of artistic performance are permitted during the usual three days period of an anniversary festival. Only the most sacred performances of music and dance called "Wali" are permitted in the inner sunctom. Performances are usually limited to those that welcome the deified ancestors who have been invited to attend.

Sometimes passessions of a performer or a spirit occurs and the spirits possessing the person may speak through the mouth of the possessed, who is in trance. Priest listen with a great attention to what is said.

Performances of the middle courtyard of the temples are classified as "Bebali", and are mostly dramatic in nature, more secular than the sacred performances of the inner sunctom, but having considerable religious significant.

In the outer - courtyard of the temples one finds secular performances called "Bali - Balian" that are presented mostly entertainment of the audience, although there is considerable feeling that the visiting deities will enjoy them too.

And in Bali, each village has at least three main temples, and most villages of any size have many more public temples than the minimum, there are in addition, the State Temples, The Regional Temples, The Irrigation Temples that belong to the rice growers association, and every family has a family temple. There are so many temples in Bali, so that's why Bali is also called the island of thousands temples. Someone once estimated that there are about 25,000 temple in Bali big and small.

Balinese Ceremony and Ritual

Bali the magic island. It is said there is never a day in Bali without a ceremony of some kind and if you include all the life cycle rites (baby ceremonies, puberty rites, weddings, cremations,Temple festivals), then this adage is probably true. There are definitely certain times that are “ceremony-heavy” such as the full moons in April and October and the high holy days of Galungan (see below for more info). Balinese religion (called Agama Hindu Dharma) consist of three primary elements: Hinduism based on what is practiced in India but differing substantially from those traditions, animism (where every living thing has a soul) and ancestor worship (the Balinese deify their ancestors after a proscribed process of cleansing has been done).

Temple festivals are held on the anniversary of when the temple in question was consecrated. This could be an annual event, held on a new or full moon or more likely every 210 days, based on the wuku system, a complex calculation of overlapping days of confluence, some being more “powerful” than others (think of Friday the 13th).

An Odalan or temple ceremony usually lasts for three days, but larger ones (which occur every 5, 10, 30 or 100 years) can last for 11 days or longer. The gist of what is happening here is that the Balinese are honoring the deities that rule over the temple by giving them a myriad of offerings, performances of vocal music, dance and gamelan music. They invite them down from their abode on Mount Agung to partake in the activities.

The temple is dressed up in colorful golden clothes, the images of the deities are taken to the local holy spring to be bathed and dressed in their best, shrines are cleaned, performances are rehearsed, committees are formed and then the big day arrives. Usually people take their offerings to the temple in the late afternoon, after the heat of the day has gone, and everyone's work and school obligations are over.

The offerings, consisting of fruits, rice cakes and flowers, are brought in on women's heads and placed at strategic points around the temple. These are blessed with holy water by the temple Pemangku or priest. The pilgrims then pray, are blessed with and drink holy water and then take the offerings home to share with their families. The gods have taken the sari or essence of the offerings, leaving the “leftovers” for the humans to consume. In the evenings, there could be spectacular performances of music and dance by local groups.

Since every village has at least three major temples (and often many more than that), there is always some kind of community religious activity going on. Aside from the village temple festivals, every household compound's family temple (mrajan/sanggah) also has its ceremony every 210 days.

Aside from the Odalan, there are a dozen or so life and death cycle rites that are performed throughout a child's life:

1. Gedong-gedongan : this is done in the 8th month (Gregorian calendar/7th month Balinese calendar) of pregnancy to ask blessings for an easy birth. The pregnant woman and her husband wade into the river, where eels and small fish are placed face down on her protruding belly to show the baby the right way out!
2. Birth: Only the husband and the midwife/doctor are allowed to hold the placenta or after birth. This is washed and then buried on the right (if the baby is a boy) side of the northern pavilion or left (if a girl). With it are buried a comb, a dance fan, a pen, a book—whatever the family wishes the child will grow up to enjoy.The parents are not allowed to go into the kitchen for three days.
3. Three Days after birth: the parents undergo a simple cleansing ritual so they can go into the kitchen
4. Rorasin: 12 days after the birth the umbilical cord has usually fallen off. This is placed in a special shrine dedicated to Kumara, the Guardian of Babies.
5. 42-day ceremony: Once a baby has reached this age, a rather large ritual is performed for her/him. This is to ensure that her/his development will continue unhindered. One of the things done at this time is that a baby chick and baby duck are brought in to peck off/dust off cooked rice that is on the baby's third eye. This is to show the child how to use her hands and feet as well as her mouth to gather food, as the animals do. She is placed under a cockfighting basket where she grabs items that have previously been placed into a clay pot. It is said that whatever she grabs is her vocation.
6. Three month ceremony: This is also quite a grand ceremony that all the relatives and neighbors are invited to. This marks the first time a child touches the ground for the first time (he is carried everywhere previously). In some villages, this is when the child is “replaced” by a dressed up eggplant or cucumber. The priest sings the praises of the the eggplant so that spirits of chaos that might be lurking around will follow the eggplant when it's thrown out the front door, while the real baby stays protected.
7. Odalan or six months (210 days) ceremony. This is the baby's birthday and will be celebrated ritually every 6 months. But no birthday cakes here!
8. Three odalans is traditionally when the child has her or his hair cut off and head shaved to represent purity.
9. Menek kelih or puberty. Not all castes perform this ceremony. It happens when the girl gets her period and the boy's voice cracks. They are paraded around the village announcing to all that they are now adults (and in the olden days, ready to marry)
10. Tooth filing: In their late teens, Balinese get the top middle teeth filed; this symbolizes the filing away of greed, anger, lust, drunkenness, envy and confusion.
11. Wedding: the ultimate fusion of male and female
12. Death: within death, there are a number of rites. The first is the ritual cleansing of the corpse by the family and the banjar (neighborhood), then comes the burial or the cremation (if the family can afford to cremate right away, they will choose that option) and then the post-crematory purification rites where the soul becomes a deity that shall be worshipped in the family temple.

Aside from these major rituals, there are also honor days which occur every 35 days and are made for

1. Anything out of metal: daggers, knives, gamelan instruments and now cars and the like
2. Any fruiting trees
3. Any domesticated animals, such as pigs, cows, chickens, goats.
4. Shadow puppets and dance paraphenelia
5. Literature (Goddess Saraswati)
6. Kuningan : the end of the l0 day cycle of Galungan

Then we have Nyepi, the day of Silence, when one is not allowed to cook, light fires, go outside the home, drive, have sex or make a lot of noise. It occurs in March or April and one can palpably feel the energy in the air diminish for 24 hours.

Galungan is the day when the victory of Dharma or Justice/Truth wins over Adharma. It is when the family ancestors descend into the family temples, led there by seeing the long curved bamboo pole (penjor) that are erected in front of every Balinese house. For ten days, the ancestors are feted in the family temples; many temple festivals occur at this time of year and there is great feasting. On the last day, Kuningan, the ancestors are seen off with a flurry of yellow offerings and yellow rice.

There are also days to honor Dewi Sri, the goddess of rice, within the rice-growing cycle and other agricultural products.

Yes, nearly every day is a day to celebrate something in Bali! The above essay was written by Rucina Ballinger, founder of Dyana Putri Adventures.

Hari Raya Saraswati, the Goddess of learning, science and literature - Jan 3 & Aug 1, 2009

In accordance with Balinese Hindu belief, knowledge is an essential medium to achieve the goal of life as a human being. This day celebrates Saraswati in Bali, a special day devoted to the Goddess of learning, science and literature. Saraswati rules the intellectual and creative realm, and is the patron saint of libraries and schools. For Balinese Hindus, she is celebrated as she succeeded in taming the wandering and lustful mind of her consort, Brahma, who was preoccupied with the goddess of material existence, Shatarupa. On this day no one is allowed to read or write, and offerings are made to the lontar (palm-leaf scripts), books and shrines.

Saraswati Day is celebrated every 210-days on Saniscara Umanis Wuku Watugunung and marks the start of the new year according to the Balinese Pawukon calendar. Ceremonies and prayers are held at the temples in family compounds, villages and businesses from morning to noon. Prayers are also held in school temples. Teachers and students abandon their uniforms for the day in place of bright and colourful ceremony gear, filling the island with colour! Children bring fruit and traditional cakes to school for offerings at the temple.

Hari Raya Nyepi, the Silence Day - March 26, 2009

The month of March brings us Nyepi - Bali's official day of silence (24hrs) on Monday, March 19th. Nyepi marks the first day of the Balinese Saka calendar (1929) and is practiced island-wide where the Balinese dedicate an entire day to introspection and spiritual cleansing, embarking on a new year based on the Balinese lunar calendar.

This is the only place in the world where the government will shut down an airport for meditation & introspection!

Nyepi is my favorite day of the year. The night before the silence begins, there is an island wide parade of paper mache monsters (Ogoh-Ogoh) sent about making a rukus to scare evil spirits off the island, back to where ever they came from. Starting from approximately 6 a.m. on Monday, March 19 and continuing until 6 a.m. the next morning, EVERYONE will stay in their family compounds (or hotels) and silence will overcome the island. There are no cars, no tv's or loud radios, no lamps or fires and no airplanes overhead.

Healthy Eating in Bali

Bali is experiencing a new revolution in organic growing! Local farmers are increasingly aware of the impact & costs of using harmful chemicals and are choosing to return to traditional farming techniques. A wider choice of healthy organic foods is flowing into Indonesia's markets, inspiring new restaurants and health food shops in Bali and Jakarta.

The reasons for going organic are many, including health, compassion, preserving natural resources, and making better use of water and farm lands.
Serious vegetarians won't go hungry in Indonesia. To help the preservation of Indonesia's environment, see Bali's list of non-profit organizations.