Puppeteer Sidia kept the essentials of the story with the addition of numerous animal puppets. Rehearsals were held at his studio in Bona, Gianyar. Fourteen musicians, six dalangs (puppeteers), one computer graphics designer, two assistant dalangs and two members of the Paripuna Sanggar's consumption committee were present at all five full rehearsals. The creation of the new puppets was done by all six of the dalangs with additional assistance from members of the Paripurna Sanggar.

Amanda Melville from UNICEF attended a rehearsal with Rucina Ballinger and Cody Schwaiko on February 20th. A number of suggestions were made to Sidia about the content including: making the voice of the child stronger, having more puppets that were children or baby animals, eradicating some of the more "scary" scenes with demons and emphasizing the role of the family, togetherness and unity in diversity in the face of adversity.

Melville also suggested that we hold a therapy session after the performance with the dalangs teaching the children how to use the puppets but using the puppets as a tool for healing. The methodology for this would be asking the children to draw a picture of their family and then naming the one person that played the most important part in their life. That person would then become a puppet. The children, who would be in small groups of eight, would then create their own story with these characters, having to work together to decide on the story line.

Sidia complied with these suggestions, made more children puppets and a score of animal puppets. He is to be commended on his ability to integrate other people's ideas and suggestions and visualize these ideas via the puppets. We decided with the psychiatrists that we would do a dry run with the students at Sidia's studio on February 26, 2003.

We gathered the children (ranging from 8-14 years old) at the studio, gave them paper and crayons and asked them to draw their family. Drs. Reverger and Nyandra were in attendance, as well as Schwaiko and Ballinger. They were then given a puppet each and asked to talk about the person in their family whom they admired the most. The dalangs worked with the children and then asked them to get up in front of all the other children (there were approximately 80 children there) and have their puppet "speak". What was interesting is that the majority of the children spoke about liking their mother or father best because they gave them money or took them shopping.
This probably happened as the first one stated this and the others imitated; a common phenomena in Balinese culture. One girl of 13 had recently had her mother leave her father (and still has not returned home) and began to cry. Dr. Nyandra felt that if we did this exercise at the gathering with the children of the bomb victims, we'd end up with a roomful of unhappy children.

It was also decided to make fifty small animal puppets so that each child could take one home after the show. Originally, the idea was to make animal "families" to assist with the theme of family. But after the dry run, we collectively decided to make 8 different types of animal puppets so that each group of children would have to make a story including all the animals. This story will be of their own creation but emphasizing collective working together in the face of adversity.

As this puppet show had its' premier performance at the COURT KIDS Party on March l, 2003, two of the committee members from COURT KIDS (Sara Pramana and Endrarto Budiadi) requested to view a rehearsal and came on February 27, 2003. They also had suggestions which included eradicating any mention of death, any "scary" demonic characters and making this as positive and upbeat a show as possible. They prefer that the therapy session after the show was more of a workshop to let the children work with the puppets.

COURT KIDS holds these "parties" every three months; the fifty children who have lost a parent in the bomb are picked up, brought down to Denpasar and feted. They have asked that this be a positive experience for the children.

We value all of the suggestions but feel that since this is a party for this specific group of children, that we should keep the tone light within the themes outlined above. As this was a one-off experience for these children (at least for the present time), we all felt it would be in the children's best interest to keep the tone positive.

The March lst party

The performance at BIS was attended by forty of the "orphaned" children, most of them under the age of six. Sidia geared the show towards this younger age set. While the story line was still the same, all of the references to the bomb had been taken out. The thrust of the show was that the animals all work together (including convincing the tiger to become a
vegetarian, not a mean feat!) to fight against the demons who were destroying the world.

The children seemed to enjoy it although it was hard to keep their attention for the entire 45 minutes of the performance. After the show, we gathered the children into three groups of about 8 or 9 children and gave them each a puppet. Two puppeteers worked in each group. They were asked what they learned from this puppet play and which puppet was their favorite. The puppeteers showed them how to vocalize and move the puppets and then they put on a "story" in front of all of us.

During the show and the brief workshop, dr. Robert Reverger, our consulting psychiatrist, observed the children to see who was withdrawn, who seemed sad and so forth. He has already been working with a number of the widows and widowers through IMC and so there was already a level of trust established with the parents.

After this initial performance, Sidia then worked on a new show which would be broadcast on TVRI Denpasar. This performance would be recorded and the resulting DVD taken into the schools with a team of Capacitar relaxation trainers and a psychiatrist.

Method: the making of a VCD of a Wayang performance created by dalang I Made Sidia of Bona in which messages were embedded about stress, anxiety and disharmony and how to bring things back into a balanced state via cooperation and tolerance.

This VCD was then taken into various venues, including primary and secondary schools, scout meetings and dance clubs and shown to children aged 10-18. Prior to the VCD screening, an Indonesian psychiatrist talked to the children about their emotions and how to handle them. A group of CAPACITARS then taught a variety of relaxation techniques to the children, followed by the WAYANG screening.

This was followed by a session with the caregivers (parents and teachers) given by the psychiatrist and Capacitars.

Three live performances of the Wayang were done in the Badung (Br. Dukuh, Tangkas Kepaon and STSI Denpasar) and Buleleng (Lemukih village) regencies. These performances (except for the one in Buleleng) were preceded by a talk by dr. Made Nyandra. The show in Kepaon was also preceded by a session with the capacitars.

Activity 1: Wayang Development

YKIP staff, including Balinese psychiatrists and puppeteers, and UNICEF staff worked to refine the wayang story line to be suitable for a broader audience of children. It was also agreed to focus on children aged 10-18 as this age group is particularly vulnerable to long-term behavioural changes in such situations, and can most easily understand the Wayang themes. The storyline was developed to explore more extensively the different reactions to stress/trauma and ways to deal with them, while retaining the core messages about intercommunial tolerance and cooperation in overcoming adversity. The performance was recorded on VCD and Betacam on May 2 at the Denpasar TVRI studios.

The basic story line of the wayang is as follows: earth, humans and animals are in a state of harmony ­ farmers are working merrily with their cows in the field, animals frolic in the forest with plenty to eat. This is until the god, Siwa, lonely for his wife Durga who has been transformed into a demoness and exiled to earth, transforms himself into the demon Kala Ludra, and together with a band of demons he decides to wreak death and destruction on earth. As a result we start to see changes in the behaviour of the animals ­ the tiger is hungry, and begins arguing with a dog over food, the cows start to be fed up with being ordered around by the farmer, animals are angry with humans for ruining the environment, two deer start to fight because one of them wants to be alone all the time, horses complain because there is no food, a wife and her husband are seen arguing, and an old man is sick. The animals come together to discuss the lack of food and how to deal with it, and start to become aware that the demons are creating these problems. The situation gets worse and the demons burn the forest. Despite the chaos, and in the midst of it, characters are seen working together ­ a baby deer who has collapsed is helped to walk again by her father, and two servants of a just king discuss the three elements of harmony (generosity, service to others and self-control). Coming together the community prays, and the gods appear. The demons, inspired by the presence of the gods disappear, and the Gods Siwa and Durga transform from demons back to gods. The story ends with a discussion of how the 10 elements of peace must be nurtured, cultivated but also controlled ­ an allegory for how each of us must both recognise and control the forces of good and evil within us. These form the basis of differences between us that must be respected and cherished.

After initial 2 screenings of the VCD it was determined that while the children understood the core messages, 52 minutes was too long for them to concentrate. It was therefore decided to edit the VCD to reduce it to around half an hour duration. While the core story-line as outlined above remained the same, some of the scenes were shortened, and other non essential scenes were removed.

At the same time, supporting materials for the wayang were developed. YKIP and UNICEF worked collaboratively to design the procedures of the parents/teachers meetings (see details below), and the activities to be conducted with the children following the wayang. We also worked together to design a study guide that could be used by teachers to further process and reinforce the themes of the wayang with the children, either after the performance in the schools or after the TV performance.

Activity 2: Live Performances of the Wayang

For this project, 3 live performances of the Wayang were done, to reach Bali¹s three major population centres - Kuta, Denpasar, and Singaraja - with a total of 1,000 participants in total of which approximately 400 will be children. These areas were also chosen because many of the victims come from the Buleleng and Denpasar region, while many people who worked or lived in Denpasr were injured, or involved in or viewed the aftermath of the bombing. The performances were preceded by a discussion by psychiatrists about the main themes of the performance, emphasising reactions to and ways to deal with stress.

Two of these performances were completed by the end of the contract period ­ one in the Denpasar area (East Denpasar) and the other in the Singaraja area (Sawan, Buleleng). The first performance was attended by five hundred adults and children. The attendance at the second performance was severely limited due to the fact that it was during exam week for junior and senior high schools. The final performance was done in the village of Kepaon, where eight victims¹ families reside and approximately 500 people attended this.

This performance could not be conducted before the end of June due to the difficulties of coordinating between the large number of performers and the psychiatrists who all have heavily booked schedules.

Activity 3: Screening of the Wayang on TV and in Community Centers and Schools

Thirty performances of the VCD version of the wayang, 2-hour sessions with children and 2-hour sessions with parents and/or teachers ('caretakers') were supported. These performances were conducted throughout Bali, reaching 1,500 school children, mainly aged 10-18, and 600 teachers and parents. By the end of June ten caretakers meeting had been conducted which were attended by approximately 250 caretakers, and eleven wayang performances and sessions with the children had been conducted, reaching approximately 500 children. From July 15 ­ August 11, 2003 twenty caretakers meetings and twenty wayang performances/children's sessions were conducted in schools through out the island. Schools were chosen on the basis of where the victims of the deceased (from the bomb) went to school.

The wayang was also broadcast on Balinese TV on Saturday May 2 at 7pm (primetime), reaching an estimated 500,000 viewers, including children as part of this project. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the wayang was well-received. Parents were heard to say that they appreciated the messages about tolerance and that they discussed how the animals dealt with the demons with their children. Children (and adults) thoroughly enjoyed the innovations (computer-generated images and puppeteers on skateboards) in the Wayang, which is a "hook' to get more people to watch it.

UNICEF and YKIP determined the content of the children's sessions and the parents/teachers meetings. The 2-hour session with parents and teachers ('caretakers') was conducted to discuss with them signs of psychosocial distress and basic techniques of dealing with these problems, including relaxation techniques. The first 60 minutes was led by Indonesian psychiatrists and was a participatory discussion with the caretakers, addressing how to recognise signs of stress in children and adults and then helping caretakers describe and identify the main stress-related problems they face with their children. The psychiatrists then facilitated a discussion about how the caretakers could deal with these problems, explaining the process of stress, encouraging discussion among the participants and giving advice as appropriate. While the problems covered varied from session to session, the following problems addressed were: sleeping problems such as bedwetting, nightmares, fear of dark; fears and anxiety such as fear of noises, strangers, separation from parents, clinging or overly careful; aggression and moodiness; rejection of authority, rebelliousness and risk taking behaviour; sad, passive, and socially withdrawn (depressive); psychosomatic issues including eating problems; the grieving process. The most common problems addressed in these sessions were fears, aggression/moodiness and depressive problems. Much of the discussions focused on how to identify the cause of these problems ­ some parents were pleased to hear that such problems were more likely the result of the bombing than of 'black magic or curses' on their children, others realised that these reactions could come from family stress and not only or necessarily as a reaction to the bomb. At the end of the session, the psychiatrists discussed when and how caretakers should access professional mental health services. The next 60 minutes were conducted by local 'Capacitors' ­ community workers trained in traditional and innovative relaxation techniques. These capacitors gave a practical, participatory training to the caretakers or basic relaxation techniques that they and their children can use in dealing with stress. Techniques taught included breathing control, visual imaging, a form of 'tai chi', and body tapping, thus covering a range of physical and mental relaxation techniques. The caretakers were very responsive to these simple techniques and in some cases had taught these children them prior to the children's session. YKIP also distributed the study guide for the Wayang, which outlines simple activities that caretakers can do with their children to help them further process the wayang themes.

Even though this activity was done only once in each venue, and could be called superficial, one of the things that it does do is stimulate communication between children and their parents as they talk about what went on in their respective sessions and continued to teach one another the relaxation techniques. One of the problems that the parents voiced about their teenagers was not knowing how to talk to them (a typical problem world-wide!). Therefore, the techniques we presented to them are one small step in the right direction.

At each venue, a copy of Membuat Anak tersenyum Kembali (a UNICEF publication), a cartoon booklet on PTSD (from IMC), a brochure on PTSD and the Wayang performance (jointly produced by YKIP and IMC) with the phone number of IMC for further assistance/information and a photocopy of the Buku Panduan Workshop Capacitar tentang Trauma Healing was presented to the head of the school or organization.