in other words
2016
Small Town, Big World:
God Bless Our Motorbike
By Britt Bensen Steele
One fine day, while living six months out of
each year in Bali, we decided it was time we own a
motorbike instead of renting month by month. We
talked to our Balinese friend, Nuadi, and he agreed
to purchase the bike in his
name, as foreigners were
not allowed to buy vehi-
cles. Little did we know
what a cultural excursion
we were getting ourselves
into.
As it turned out,
the day we got the motor-
bike, Nuadi informed us
that we should not drive
the bike until a ceremony
was performed. The cer-
emony was important, he
explained, “to call upon
the Gods and good spir-
its” and to keep us out of
danger. At that time, the
Balinese healthcare sys-
tem wasn’t what I would
call “confidence-building.” So, we figured we should
take all the help we could get, especially given the
Balinese drove motorbikes on the opposite side of
the road (as our brains thought was reasonable), and
generally did so with some sort of intuition as their
guide, rendering turn signals and headlights useless.
Ten days later, Nuadi arrived at our house to
tell us it was “ceremony today” and to get dressed
for temple (aka church). We did so, and then hopped
on the back of his motorbike and headed to his fam-
ily compound. We were greeted by tiny old wom-
en, also adorned in ceremonial dress, giggling and
speaking quickly in Balinese. We went to the cen-
ra
th Health Se
l Pa
r
ter of the compound and sat in the “outdoor living
room” (which also serves as the family’s wedding
hall and funeral home when circumstances require).
There were maybe seven of us. Within an hour, a
priest arrived, with his dog. Within a few moments,
we bowed our heads and were given a blessing in
the form of dried rice on
our foreheads. Someone
pushed play on an old-
school tape recorder, and
traditional Balinese music
began. We sat in “prayer”
while the priest chanted,
burned incense, made offer-
ings and sprinkled some sort
of holy water on our black
and hot pink motorbike. We
watched. This went on for
some 45 minutes or so un-
til the music was turned off,
and Nuadi nodded, put his
hands in prayer position,
bowed to the motorbike,
and to the priest, and mo-
tioned that we do the same.
He said “okay” and began to
undress the motorbike from its own ceremonial garb
and wheeled it out to us and handed us the keys. We
paid the priest for his time and blessings and off we
went.
I doubt we will ever know exactly what hap-
pened that day. What we know is that after that, we
never got in an accident. I’m not going to say it was
because of the long and arduous motorbike blessing,
but I’m also not going to say that it wasn’t. There’s a
lot of things going on that you can’t see, and the way
I see it, “when in Rome do as the Romans do”… and
“when in Bali, find the local priest and get yourself a
motorbike blessing.”
7
Where Do You Read
The Voice?
Randy (far left) and Sharon Parrow (far
right), along with grandkids Allegra
(middle left) and Aidan Poetter (middle
right) took time out from during their
Christmas vacation in Hawaii to read
the Voice in front of the Hawaii 5-0
Headquarters. (wish we could...) Be
there, Aloha!
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