I told this story last Thursday at a Mass Mouth Story Slam. I won second place and went on to compete in the semi-finals. After winning there too, I’m now performing this at the Big Mouth Off on April 17th at the Coolidge Corner Theater. Join me! In 2010 I went to Bali Indonesian to volunteer for a birthing clinic, and from the second I stepped off the plane, I...

Part I. New Surroundings: I got the call at 4:35AM. After another night of restless sleep I was actually grateful to have a reason to get up. It was Robin: there was a birth, would like to attend? “I’ll be right there,” I said and hung up the phone. I threw on a pair of yoga pants, a t-shirt and my flip-flops. I paused before leaving and looked fearfully...

I. The Invitation I had no idea what to expect when I came to Bali, so one of my plans prior to coming here was to make as few plans as possible and let the experience itself guide me where it thought I should go. In that was an unspoken understanding with myself that I would say yes to as many things as possible. I looked at it like reading my life to myself,...

My first full day in Bali was positively overwhelming. Jacinta, my housemate and a volunteer midwife from Australia, has been here for 8 months, so she took me for a tour of the clinic, and then rode into Ubud on her motorbike to get lunch and do some shopping. The first thing I noticed was that I don’t know a lick of Indonesian. Despite studying for weeks before I...