a bit of bali

things have really changed since i am at my new resort...near the village of tejekula...not much drama in my life, and there is more a feeling of being part of an anglo saxon community,then of actually being in bali! at the moment we are 3 women and a man, 3 or which are german, and tomorrow another man arrives until the end of the month too. we meet for our 3 meals together, and end up sitting around the table discussing things for hours...so usually just in between our meals, i go off and do something, like a swim in the nice pool, or a walk on the beach, or to the village or something. since they arranged internet for me here now, my daily walks through the village have ended...they were actually a lot of fun...little kids yelling "hel-lo, what is your name?" and also men that i have never seen before stopping to ask me "where you come from?" "where you going?""are you alone?" "where your husband?" and then walk away...they just needed to put me into some kind of "order" since no one just goes for a walk..

the other day i was walking back from the internet cafe after having arranged the modem and sat there for a few hours waiting for the sudden monsoon rains to end so i could walk back the 20 minute walk through the village to my place. it looked safe, so i left, but after a few minutes the rain began again and was really strong...with no umbrella i decided to duck into an overhang from a kiosk along the way...the whole family were hanging out and laughed and gave me a little stool to sit on. no one spoke english, but no matter, they just laugh, and i just smile and watch the rain. eventually they whipped out a big plastic cloth and "threw" a deck of miniature playing cards on the platform where they always sit around and opened up a plastic bag filled with single rupia bills (90,000 to 1$) and began to gamble ...over a game of dominos, made from playing cards instead of little blocks....the cards were the size of a baby finger in height and the 2 men and 1 women would divide up the deck and give 6 to each and then they would "whip" then out and "flick" them onto the table, landing exactly one next to the other, when it was their turn, and so fast! and if you couldn't put a card to match you pay 2,000...the game was intense with action but filled with name calling and laughter and the most outrageous sounds and voices all the time...everyone was having a great time...for over an hour, i sat there and watched. it made me laugh how the element of gambling gives the game such power...making it no longer a quiet slow kids game, but a quick professional money game for adults.

the rain continued, and i continued to watch these people and their dynamics, wondering why god had me sitting there...meanwhile i saw one man walk by with a huge banana leaf that he had just picked in order to use as his umbrella as he walked home...not a bad idea, especially since the whole street is lined with them.

then suddenly, ketut, my "guardian angel" that always just "shows up" showed up and lives next door to the kiosk, and asked me if i would like to come over, and i happily agreed. 180 degrees .change in environment...now i had just walked through the narrow entrance into his large courtyard that has a living room and kitchen that open up to it with no walls or anything...and there we sat on his baroque style sofa....and spoke...i am very curious about his lifestyle since he is very wealthy and very young, and was born in this village and left to 20 years to the big city and big life, and then returned married to his village girlfriend and with 2 kids, a year ago, beginning a whole new life. i wanted to know what makes him tick? how he made those decisions? why? how does it feel now? any regrets? what is important to him? what did he learn?

he speaks excellent english so it is easy to communicate. and he answered all of my questions, always...then the following day i was again coming back through the village after a visit to a nearby spa, and again was caught in a thundershower, which is quite nice actually, since it is warm, and so i ducked under a black plastic covering that was on the side of the road, protecting a big black new jeep....i wondered who owned this, since it was in the middle of a rombutan field, and no house next door? and as i stood there, ketut again appeared. I laughed and asked him what he is doing here?! and then i stopped and said, "I know. this is your car!" yes...and it is also my rambuton orchard and i came to pick some to give to my sister....and so again we spoke, since it was raining and he couldn't pick any now...

of course he does not pick the fruit, he is a "businessman"! he knows how to make money, and he likes it, and is good at it, and enjoys taking risks...so how do you do that? you call up the neighboring islands: jakarta, etc. and find out how the oranges are, or how the weather is, and what fruit has a big yield, and then he knows whether the price will be high because there is not alot of it available, so then he offers the farmers here money to take over their crop for the season, and then he gets cheap labor and makes a fortune since there is a high demand...i asked him why he does it? and he said, that it allows him to enable a lot of people to have jobs! he can also save money for his 9 year old son for the future, and he likes the risks involved....

since he is called ketut, which means the 4th child (there are only 4 names for the kids, and then you start all over again if you have more then 4, so that way when you tell someone your name, they know which number you were born...what i still need to find out is what happens at school...if you have an entire classroom with 40 kids in it and only 4 names?! how do you call on a child, or how do they know who anyone is talking about?...), and since he is the only son among 5 children, his parents now live with him, the duty of the youngest son...he also has a water purifying business which he has his father running....and he is very kind with his time, information about nice places to see in the area, helping me at the temple to feel part of the community,. etc.
a typical wage for an 8 hour day of a day worker/ builder is $8 (a day!)

yesterdays early morning walk at dawn was along the beach watching the fishermen as they go out, come in, unload, organise, sell, help each other, repair their nets, paint their boats, and then disappear again until night time when they again go out with lights on their narrow hand made boats with their big nets, out to catch the days fish...

last night after dinner nicole put on some great music and i taught them all how to hoop and it was alot of fun! haven't hooped to music in a month! lots of laughs, and quick learners...and lots of sweat, ending up at the pool at 10 for a swim which was nice! i had to keep reminding myself that this is all real, and not a dream, and that it is possible to live like this, very easily and simply with nice people and beauty, and not expensive and warm weather, and the sea, and and and...

this morning i decided that i need to get out a bit a see some bali and not just be having great and interesting conversations and meals with these 3 germans no matter how fascinating that all is with everyone sharing their ways of healing and health and spirituality....so i thought i would wander off to the right and see what is outside the wall of the resort, and within a minute i was outside a temple surrounded by tons of dragons and beautiful sculpted guardians in every direction...i have seen this being done on small scale by a young man with a knife and a block of wet cement, which he carves free hand, but here were murals and entire walls with these intricate designs, i remembered passing by a big government building that is being built and seeing a man sitting on some scaffolding carving away at a big wall of cement, and realized that this is how they do it. as i photographed all of the faces that were carved out, i started to realize that these were the exact same images that i had seen on the masks for the ramayana temple dance. and the positions were also exactly what the dancers did with their fingers, feet, shoulders...and i began to understand that there is no "individual" involved here, no personal expression, we all have the exact same demons and devils to deal with as we walk the path to god....there is magnificent craftsmanship, but the innumerable facial expressions and types are all taken from the ancient texts and internalized and then beautifully carved or painted or crafted into a mask, so that the symbols are all well known and tell the stories of the path of life and the battles that will need to be fought and the one god that is running the show....with all of these hundreds of "helpers" in the shapes of guardians... so that the people know that it is all ONE...the dark the light, and the constant intention that needs to be made at each moment.

so that was a fun hour getting an in depth dose of bali, a minute away from my room....