Each morning begins with a cup of rich "BaliCoffee" and the smell of smoldering bamboo. Every six months Balinese people celebrate the Galungan Festival, which marks the victory of good over evil. Each village crafts bamboo poles ornately decorated with flowers and ribbons called Penjar. The Penjar are then placed along the road for ten days to commemorate the Festival. At the end of the ten days the Penjar are burned, which explains the source of the sweet but somewhat alarming smell that accompanies my coffee in the morning. To me, the sight of the Penjar along the roadside is emblematic of the gentle purity and pervasive familiarity of Balinese spirituality. Faith is everywhere here, but in a way that is neither proselytizing nor aggressive. It is simply a fact of life.
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