The Ibu Chronicles

The Ibu Chronicles are blog-like snippets of the daily life of an Australian woman and her Dutch husband doing business in a Traditional Balinese village in Bali, Indonesia. Rachel shares her honest accounts of this couple's unusual life, including funding a primary school, managing traditional Balinese staff, and being nagged by their hilarious Balinese mother, Ibu. Ibu means mother in Indonesian. Ibu is blunt, Ibu is demanding and Ibu makes sure working in Bali is never boring. The Ibu Chronicles is book one in the Ibu Chronicles Series. If you like to learn about unique cultures and the benefits of stepping outside comfort zones, then you'll love Rachel Bergsma’s personal anecdotes about living in Bali, Indonesia. This blog turned into a book, is not only a great light read but a wonderful insight into the Balinese culture.

The Continuing Story in the Ibu Chronicles - Life is Funnier than Fiction series. The Measurement of Wealth is part 2 of the prequel. This book continues the story where The Epiphany left off. In this book, the writer shares her memoir from 2008 until 2015, managing and running a tour company in Bali, Indonesia, a culture so removed from her own, on an Island where Gods and Demons are intertwined with the people's daily lives. Rachel and her husband knew that conducting business in Bali as Westerners they would be faced with some major challenges, however, Rachel soon realised she needed to deal with her own demons first. This book is an enthralling account of her regrets, and how she realised her initial good intentions were not always for the good of the people, on an Island she quickly called home. The book is also a great insight into some of Bali's challenges and how the writer adapted to the local daily life. Follow the writer's honest account of making mistakes, her constant frustrations, her realisation that tourism in Bali was becoming a problem, and that she was part of that problem. In these compelling, poignant, and sometimes humorous stories, Rachel shares how she discovered the measurement of wealth from a Balinese village of simple farmers. This is the story of how learning these lessons helped her eventually accept that Life is Funnier than Fiction, especially in Bali.

The prequel to the popular 'The Ibu Chronicles, life is funnier than fiction; well, it certainly is when you live in Bali'. The Epiphany is book two in this series, it is the true story of an Australian woman who travels to Bali, Indonesia, in the late 1990s and vows never to return. After an Epiphany in Rome, Italy, she finds herself ten years later, back in Bali, Indonesia, living and running a business in a very traditional village in North Bali. This book in the series follows her travels and travel mishaps over ten years, including meeting her Dutch husband and being adopted by a Hindu Balinese family. This is the story of how they met Ibu, their Balinese Mother (Ibu is the Indonesian word for Mother) and how their new life in Bali, Indonesia began.

Part 1 of the Prequel to The Ibu Chronicles - Life is Funnier than Fiction Married and divorced young, Rachel Bergsma had no desire to marry again or to have any children. Her desire was to climb the corporate ladder and live a five-star lifestyle. It was 1998, Rachel was working long hours in a law firm in Melbourne, Australia, and like many Australians, she had an obligatory two-week break over Christmas and New Year. Like many Australians before her, she went to Bali, Indonesia, with her boyfriend. However, unlike many Australians, Rachel was not won over by the Island of the Gods and vowed never to return to Bali again. Five years later she found herself on an unexpected backpacking holiday in India, again, vowing never to return, unless to a five-star hotel. Rachel finally settling on Malaysia and Thailand as her preferred two-week South-East Asian holiday destinations, five stars preferably. A few years later, now the Director of a Property Development Company, she walked out of her office one day, booked a one-way ticket to Europe, and was in Rome, Italy one week later. After travelling Europe, discovering the cities and herself, she returned for one last visit to Rome, where she had an Epiphany that turned her values upside down. Returning to Australia she found she could no longer fit into the five-star life she once strived for. Ten years after that initial Bali holiday, Rachel finds herself back in Bali, but this time it's not five-star. This time it is starting a business and funding a school in a traditional rural village in the mountains, with no electricity and a lot of ceremonies. She also finds a Dutch husband, a Balinese child, numerous rescue animals and Balinese parents. Rachel shares her story of how she came to live in Bali, she also shares her numerous travel mishaps along the way, how she met her husband while travelling, and how sometimes the best things come when you are not looking.

This English translation of Glassner s Chroniques Mésopotamiennes (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1993) collects all chronicle literature of ancient Mesopotamia from the early second millenium to Seleucid times. The volume, which incorporates revisions and additions by the author and a transcription of the cuneiform, includes every example of Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian historiographic literature, and magisterial essays on the genre and on Mesopotamian historiography in general.Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

Talking plants, evil scientists, and mobile book vans—Maizey doesn't know where to start! Imagination loss has hit everyone over 35, but 11-year-old Maizey Lee has bigger problems that that. Her life is turned upside down when her father disappears in a fire and mother decides to take them globe-trotting in a library on wheels. She has to get back to Singapore in time to sit for PSLE, or she'll be stuck in primary school forever! But with her mother determined to visit the world book capital to keep her Imagination alive, her plant friend Curie causing havoc with her powers, and an sinister pharmaceautical company chasing after them, will she ever be able to get her normal life back? In this first foray into the world of travelling libraries, talking plants and scientific espionage, it's up to Maizey to save Imagination. As she goes swimming with turtles, plucks coconuts with monkeys and races across Bangkok on a far-too-small scooter, Maizey is about to learn that every encounter she picks up along the way will guide her to understand the power of stories and the importance in keeping Imagination alive.