Life in the Tropics

I’ve lived in cities most of my life. First, Chicago and the suburbs, then San Francisco and the suburbs. Then Lahore, Pakistan. In between cities, I’ve lived in a mining camp in the mountains of New Guinea and in the jungles of Sumbawa. As much as I loved living in Papua and Sumbawa, I do have a thing for the city.

Why am I writing about the city today? I really don’t know, I was staring at the lights in the hills late last night, and this feeling of peace just sort of overwhelmed me.

I’ve had a love and hate affair with Singaraja for 20 years now. Now that I’m retired, I enjoy living here more than ever. The city is not so big ( around 80,000 according to Wikipedia) that’s it overwhelming like Denpasar. I enjoy little trips every few days with my wife to go shopping for the snacks that I use as substitutes for cigarettes. The easy accessibility to shops with things that we need for the household is welcomed – back when I lived in Sumbawa, it was a 15 minute drive over some steep hills to get to the next town where I could shop.

The kids all have schools that seem to be acceptable. The curriculum isn’t bad, what little I hear from the kids though (who are just like kids everywhere – how was school today? Fine.) makes me wonder about some of the teaching techniques. But I could say the same thing about some of my former colleagues in international schools.

Rain, rain, rain. The local wisdom is that the rain will stop after Imlek – Chinese New Years which is just around the corner. As much as the rains will help the water situation, I really would like to see some blue skies.