yesterday i went to visit ketut, my guardian angel. even our meeting again echoed the intuition i feel with him, as i sat at dinner telling my hosts that he had called this morning to the gardener to ask if i had arrived, just as i had decided to write him an email to tell him i was here. and just as i was telling them in the evening that he had called, the phone rang and it was him, on his way up north from working down in the south for a few days, wanting to arrange tea time together with me for tomorrow. i happily agreed and laughed at the synchronicity.
last time i was here we planned to travel together to singaraja at 10 in the morning, and i, being without a watch, left the resort and walked by foot to his house assuming that it was a 15 minute walk, but when i arrived, he said he though i had overslept since it was already 10:10. i was surprised he was so prompt. so this time i left on time to arrive exactly at 10, and maybe even a few minutes before. i remembered when i went to japan 10 years ago, reading how guests are supposed to arrive at the door of their host at the exact minute, not before and not after....so i was aiming at that this time too.
when i reached his villa, the maid (ahem) said he was home and she gestured for me to sit down at the dining room table. ketut is a strange mixture of west and east. he worked for 20 years on cruises ships so he knows excellent english, has seen the world, and been with wealthy westerners. and together with that he grew up poor in a little fishing village on the north coast and has a high school degree. period. his house is lovely. it is the only balinese house i have been in (not that i have been in so many) that is so beautiful. it is an "L" shape. it has 4 bedrooms on both sides of the "angle" of the L and an open living room and kitchen at the end of the L. so the entire house is open to the garden, with big glass sliding doors for each bedroom. his parents live with him and his wife and 2 children. they have a long narrow built in pool for the kids and another roofed open area for ceremonies. everything is done in good taste.
he arrived a bit after me, coming in through his open sided roofed 2 car garage that also stores 2 motorbikes,. he was hooked onto his "blackberry" and cell phone, and after a few minutes when he ended the conversation we said our hellos with a hand shake. he "ordered" the maid to serve us tea ("tea" is all he said to her) . we sat at the table and inbetween the constant ringing of his cell phone and our staccato words in between he managed to tell me that he is busy investigating an option to export oranges to jakarta. he pantomimed fingers busy sending SMS's. i laughed that that is how business agreements are made these days! meanwhile a friend of his arrived and joined us at the table. i had met him last time, a nice friendly young man that speaks english very well. "do you remember me from the temple?" he asked me, and i said yes even though i wasn't sure which temple and which time, but i just knew i knew him. he and i spoke while ketut continued to handle non-stop business calls.
it was ketuts words of wisdom to me the last time that gave me faith to continue to believe there was a way to come back to bali with my minimal funds. when i had asked him how he became wealthy he said "just keep moving. while i am driving i am looking on the sides of the roads and watching things and getting ideas. then i try an idea and if plan A doesn't work, i go to plan B and if B doesn't work i go to plan C and if C doesn't work i go to D which means dead." so back in yodfat when i kept trying to figure out how to come back here and each time my plan failed i trusted that now we go to the next one, and hopefully not end up at D! and when plan C worked for me i wrote to tell him i would be returning after all (he had known about plans A and B which failed). his response to me then was happy for me and that " god is always with you." that touched me and i was happy that he was my guardian angel here.
i asked him what he was doing now, and he said he had returned to selling life insurance again in denpassar, which meant commuting the 3 hour drive each way several times a week, going to peoples houses and trying to sell them life insurance. he had done that in the past a few years, and had left it in order to return to the village and modernize the north with his western initiative and ideas. so why did you go back to selling insurance? "now is the time to do this, my former boss called to say he has a very good plan. so i believe it is good and i want people to have it, it is hard work, but i am happy." his friend chimed in praising ketut for offering him to be his partner, since he has been unemployed for 4 months already and has a wife and small son (not "child" but SON!) who is the most important thing for him so he must make a living in order to provide for them.
i was disappointed that ketut was selling insurance. he is such a great guy, and for me an insurance salesman just wants one thing: money. and is that why ketut is doing it? why do the balinese need life insurance? they have lived just fine until now, no? they believe in karma, everything is exactly the way it is supposed to be, so why start bringing in these western ideas to warp it all? who needs life insurance? i don't have any and here i am! it's all fear based.
he politely listened to me. and then quietly and patiently explained that the typical balinese needs alot of money for his cremation (which is the height of his life) and instead of that weighing on the shoulders of their children, he is explaining to them how they can put money on the side and not have that pressure. as he spoke i slowly remembered that i myself have several "plans" which i put $100 away for each of them every month for my pension....so why am i so critical of him? i looked at him and said "i know...you want to teach people how to manage their money and plan ahead so that they can live knowing they will be taken care of and not be a burden on their children." he nodded, grateful that i had stopped my attack and could see his positive approach rather than think he was just out there for the money to rip naive balinese off.
"since i was away for 2 months, 3 villas have been built just along this one road! what will happen to all of the forest here? ". and as we sat in his sun lit large open new and beautiful patio in his garden, he explained that most of the villagers live in matchbox houses (true!) and it is very stressful for them. the younger generation does not want this anymore. they are willing to work hard down in the south where there are good jobs, and then come back to the village and build their villa. they want a better life and they are working towards that." He had made his point....it does make quite a difference when you have running water in your house, privacy, a garden, and aesthetics. we were quiet, he asked if i had had my breakfast yet. (it was now 10:45, i had eaten at 8:30) . i decided that this must be the polite way that the balinese tell you that the visit has ended. i said that yes i had eaten and that now i will be on my way and all the best. we said our goodbyes. as i walked back on the pock holed road past the shacks and pigs in their mud holes, and the chickens walking freely around i realized that i still want to hold on to the "old " bali, but there is no stopping it....i can only hope that as the younger generation works and earns more money, that their outlook will continue to be for the good of the community, like ketut claims to be coming from, and not just a selfish materialistic individualistic approach.
his friend had told me earlier "i have many skills. i speak english very well, i am willing to offer my skills to others, but i also want to get something in return. i will offer someone a ride to some place far, just so i can speak english with them and improve my english, but i have also given them a ride to where they wanted to go for free. that is how i live."
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