BIBA MAGA'HAGAS!
The world says "no," but my God gives me the strength to say say "yes."
I was told BULALALALALA (many many many) times in so many different forms throughout the month of March not to do this hut. "You shouldn't be doing this a week before Bali," "You have too many things going on," blah blah blah. Those are excuses. If you're a GW Alumni you'd know, "losers make.. EXCUSES!" HAHAHA. Sometimes, excuses are okay but in this case, it wasn't for me. I had a vision! I envisioned a hut without coconut leaves. I didn't want to contribute to the destruction made by the Rhino Beetle! So, what did we do? ADAPT just as our people did. Heather aka Kush (girl in the white top and cute purple skirt), Alyssa (girl in the last picture on the right), Amber (girl in the jeans and black shirt) grabbed machetes and went left hunting. (Side comment: Shoutout to my former Tåi neighbors for letting me borrow their machete!) We covered out roof with banana, taro and lemmai leaves. This was definitely not traditional like all the others, yet like our anciestors & women across the globe-- we were adaptive, resourceful, and above all believers. Si yu'os ma'ase to Kush's Uncle Ron, Uncle Ken and her nin for lending a helping hand with out foundation. Si yu'os ma'ase to Hill & my sister C'Lita as well for helping us with our final product. Si yu'os Mia for the water and endless words of encouragement. I greatly appreciated every effort to make this happen. For the love of culture! I am ready to submerge myself in the Balinese culture, dance, explore and get some research done.
We didn't place, but we placed elsewhere- in people's hearts!
This was basically an elaboration of my Instagram Post:
