Penybanyan site in North Bali

Hi! So yes I changed websites sorry for the confusion! Its been going well so far here in Bali. I got a bit overwhelmed in North Bali about what I will actually be doing as a manager for this company, but I am slowly understanding more and more and feeling less overwhelmed. Its not only learning to seed oysters and whats involved in the management of the seeding operation, but its learning another language at the same time too! A lot of the files are in Indonesian so I have to spend time translating what data I'm actually looking at. The local staff are all really nice and want to talk to me. All the seeding technicians are girls about my age, so they are all interested if I am married and how many kids I have. Putu, a girl who taught me the surgery procedure, speaks a few English words, but that's it, none of the other techs speak any English. There are four girls in the showroom who selling the jewelry to the tourists and they speak good English so we had a few sessions with them teaching me important words I should know. My bahasa Indonesia is coming along though. Pronouncation is a bit tricky sometimes, but I'm getting it.

I didn't realize how big this company was before I started working for them. They have about 8 sites doing hatchery, growout, and seeding (what I do!) all over Indonesia. Just in one site in Bali where the hatchery and seeding is taking place, there are over 200 people working there every day! And I had no idea how expensive these pearls are and why we take such great care growing them. There is a showroom to buy pearls and jewelry at the N Bali site, and one perfect pearl there is $3,000! Can you imagine a string of perfect pearls on a necklace? Crazy... Its a pretty lucrative business if its done well.

So at the N Bali site I learned how to seed the pearls with nuclei so the nacre grows over the nuclei and forms a pearl. Its a very skilled technique and takes years to be considered an expert technician. I was only doing it for 3 days and I can manage, but I'm not great yet. Imagine its kind of like an oyster surgery, that should be done in less than a minute! I can fill a net of 16 oysters in around 2 hours. Its a really nice facility there though. Interesting Indonesian food... I had a lunch one day and I didn't know what anything I ate was! Turned out it was young jackfruit (its a vegetable when its young?) and livers. Yum...? Another night it was chicken hearts and lungs. Looked like small ears! Gross. I did try a bite but I went for the boiled egg option that night. I went for a dive one of the days I was there to check the oysters out on one of the longlines. Weird to see these nets of oysters swaying to and fro in the current. Later in the week I was able to see a harvest. It was really great to see a small harvest and actually see the end result of production. Opening every oyster was like opening a Christmas present! All different shapes, colors, and sizes. Really fun to see a harvest. All the parts of the oyster are sold too. Shells are polished, the meat is shucked and peeled, even the gills are taken off and sold.

So I am back in Sanur for the weekend, I had to come back here on Friday to sort out my visa at immigration. I've had a fun weekend studying and meeting up with some friends that live here in Southern Bali. Headed back to N Bali on Monday for two more days of training. I think more time will be spent on the oyster cleaning boats to understand proper cleaning technique and what may not be happening correctly out in Alor. I will be back in Sanur on Wednesday and Thursday for a meeting and then finally out to Alor on Friday. I would love to just unpack and get settled already! I'm going here and there and trying to keep tidy and packed up every where I go. Oh and also just as a side note, I may only be updating this on the weekends when I have a chance to breathe! lol! Not really, but its been long hours and a lot to take in and I haven't been able to blog it up as much as I would like. Until next time!!