the day after the new years day of silence, the village staged a 4 day dance and music festival with local artists. this was the second year they were having it in an attempt to allow all the talented musicians and dancers in the village to perform for each other and for special guests to see what a great place tejakula is! (and it is!) i went with mitha (13) and gita (8) and we were among the first ones to arrive for the 10 a.m. opening down by the sea to the site they had set up outdoors with a stage and a partitioned off area with a combination of seating options: the first row was 5 burgundy brocade upholstered sofas, behind that were 3 rows of red and white satin covered folding chairs and long tables with bottled water and little cardboard decorated boxes with food at each setting. behind that were more rows of tables and chairs without red and white satin and beyond that was a rope partitioning off the area...
as we walked on the dirt path past the fast food stands of fried doughy stuff and the cotton candy and the plastic inflatable toy vendors, an official from the city council approached me and pointed towards the satin covered chairs and told us to please sit down,,, who me??! yes you!,,,okay...but why??
and as i sat down with my 2 balinese girls from my "adopted family" that i tutor, a big english speaking american boisterously introduced himself and told me a concise version of his past 10 years of living here. as more and more people arrived, i noticed that all the balinese were standing on the outside of the roped in area, and all the foreigners were being seated in the covered decorated area, along with balinese officials and other elite....
it was meant to be a gesture of honor, but very uncomfortable for me to have that division going on between me and the balinese. i forget that there is still the mind set of caste system from hinduism..,,i asked my neighbor why we got to sit in these seats with the little boxes filled with rice sweets wrapped in palm leaves in all kinds of triangles and rectangular shapes. he said that he donates money to this...ahh...so they thought i was a rich foreigner that was going be a future investor.
i knew this must be very exciting and strange for mitha and gita, who live in a straw hut together with another sister and parents on 2 beds without mattresses, and take a shower by pouring water from the neighbors hose into a bucket and pouring it over themselves in a small area closed off with some bricks for privacy...but riding with them on the motorbike to this show was actually a real eye opener for me i was the last one in the back on the bike, and as mitha drove us the 15 minute ride to the festival i could smell the sweet clean scent from them both after their morning shower...and me....uh...didn't even shower...let alone sweet scent....
i watched them as they kept their eyes on all the villagers that were arriving, and gave a little wave or smile to their relatives and friends from the "elite" chairs...i think even just sitting next to me, a foreigner, is already a very high status for them...and for me,,,,it is a high status to be with such simple sincere happy people. i thought that the first thing they would tell their parents when we got back was where they sat! but after a while when i asked her father if they told him, he said no...but gita was kind enough to save one of the sweet rice treats that were in the box by her and gave it to her younger sister upon arrival home...i on the other hand, took mine and quickly ate it as we got up from our seats at the end of the performance, greedy not to leave any free food that i was given!
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