gedewaterfall@

"Never trust a Balinese" said the lovely young Balinese man as he accompanied me on the walk to the waterfall. I laughed. Walking alongside me was such a sincere kind interesting intelligent Balinese man that just happened to meet me along the climbing narrow path to the waterfall. He asked me where I was from, and answered that he has never met someone from Israel before. As we continued to walk the path, chatting, I wondered if there was some ulterior motive in the conversation. But by the end of our hour together, I could honestly say that the man just enjoys speaking English with foreigners and learning about different cultures and sharing his.

When we reached the top of the climb to the "highest waterfall" (in Bali? In the area? In the world?) I stood in awe at the beauty of it and just breathed in the nature. After making an offering at the altar alongside the falls, I suddenly became aware of the blaringly loud call of the crickets that filled the air. It is interesting how it happens all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a sound that has been in the air, and loud, is suddenly noticed. Gede had been quietly sitting on a big rock, patiently waiting until I would also walk down the path and we could speak some more. I went over to ask him if he knows what the crickets are saying in their loud voice. He said that they are acacias and explained how there are actually two different sounds we are hearing as they inhale and exhale, and he demonstrated. I commented that there must be hundreds of them in order to make such a racket! And he said "There are three." "Three?! How can three acacias make so loud a sound? How do you know there are only three?" "Because I hear them! I grew up here my whole life. in nature, so I must be familiar with the different calls of the animals. At night there are many different sounds! People sleeping outside would think there are lions here. But there aren't, just deer, and monkeys and other animals."

He was shocked to calculate how much I have paid in order to live at a resort for almost a year. "Why haven't you bought land and built a house for that amount of money?!" He himself is content with his life… living in nature, where he grew up, and manager of the waterfall site. Today was his day off, but since he loves meeting people, he just does it on his day off too. Once a Dutchman met him at the small stand at the entrance and became such good friends with him that he later took him with him to the Gili islands and also to Holland. "I never dreamt that me, a simple villager living here by the waterfall, would fly on an airplane alone to Holland, in my life!" He now rents out the house that same Dutchman later built near the waterfall, and earns a small stipend from that, together with his salary from the management job, and he is able to support his wife and 6 year old son. "Tomorrow an Englishman is coming to meet me. He came to the waterfall a while ago and began speaking with me at the entrance and after a while he said that he wants to build a house nearby. I told him that he will need a Balinese partner in order to do that," "you will be my Balinese partner!" "No, it must be someone you know and trust." "I know you and I trust you!" "No, that is impossible, we only met an hour ago, and how do you know you can trust me?"…..and now the Englishman is returning tomorrow to meet him, and also wants to find himself a Balinese woman to marry. "I told him that a foreigner should never marry a Balinese woman. It is good in the beginning but after a few years she will suck all of your money. Her grandfather, her uncle, the whole family begins to suck and suck all the money of the foreigner. " Gede was telling me the truth. It was the same as I have heard from numerous expatriates. And he was Balinese….he really did seem so trustworthy! But here he himself is saying "Never trust a Balinese". So if everything he has said until now was true, I guess that too must be the truth. I, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, am learning the same lesson, but without the word "Balinese"….never trust anyone…it is a painful, unpleasant lesson, but there is quite a liberating feeling once it is digested. All that is left is me and God….

Just before I continued off to the bottom of the path to the parking lot, Gede pointed to a narrow dirt path. "This is where I live." And a few meters later I met his wife, tying up a pile of firewood, and his shy 6 year old son who had returned from school. He showed me his "house"….a small arched covered outdoor firepit, connected to a small bedroom the size of a double bed, (without the mattress) beyond which was a small thatch shelter for the lovely cow that another foreigner had bought him as a present so that each time he could sell a calf and have money. He had told me that he is very happy with his simple life. And feels very lucky to be able to do what he does. "All I want is that I will have enough money to send my son to school. When I was 12 my father told me that he did not have enough money to bring me to junior high school in the neighboring village, so I stayed here by the waterfall and met the foreigners and tried to understand what they were saying. I would follow them and listen and ask the tour guides what they had said, and slowly I taught myself English. Later I went to the big city of Denpassar and was a tour guide there and improved my English. But here in nature it is much calmer and peaceful, so I returned to live my life here, where I grew up. I have tried to take care of the nature here, so that it will stay beautiful and clean like when I was growing up here. I care about the ecology and try to educate the heads of the different villages. They all agree with me and join in with my enthusiasm, but afterwards, they just continue in their habitual ways. It is a slow process to change the habits and educate the people."

Before we parted I again heard some acacias calling. "Now there are two, each with a different voice. One is over there and one is here", he said. He said we should stay in touch by email. I laughed! Where does he have a computer?! "I must go into the village now and then to check if people are interested in renting out my friends house, so I check my email. It is easy to remember: Gedewaterfall@....

Thank you Gede.