have a dream

The first day I arrived in the village I am living in, a man passed me on the road and stopped his motorbike. He asked me if I speak English. I said yes. And then he told me that he has a 12 year old daughter that asked him if he ever sees a tourist that speaks English, to please ask if they will speak English with her, since she wants to practice. I agreed, and within in a few minutes already met his daughter who was returning from school, and we went together to their house.

On the palm leaf shack there was a simple sign written in English that said "the miracle bamboo resort". This was their house; a simple room made of palm leaves an earth floor with a double bed, a single bed and a desk. No window, no door, just an opening where you can enter. The kitchen was the same but half the size and with some plastic containers with food and an open fire. The bathroom was outside with just a palm leaf wall separating it from the yard, a hole in the ground for a toilet, and a hose with water coming from their neighbors house.

The family of five lived there on a plot of forest that a cousin owned and was willing to let them live there until he sells it to someone one day. The father would help people build or paint houses when the opportunity arose…a position that could earn him about $2 a day. The mother sewed sequins on little straw boxes on commission and received ten cents for each one, requiring a few hours of needle work, in between cooking, cleaning and tending the cow and pig. They were happy simple people. They became my adopted family.

I asked them about the sign on the house. They said that a Canadian woman had befriended them a few years previously and told them about positive affirmations and creating your own reality through visions. So the sign was their vision, along with many others on pieces of wood written with a black magic marker and placed above the childrens' bed saying " Have a dream but do not expect" and "happiness is what you make in your life" along with others. The twelve year old knew English quite well already and she was my connection to the Balinese lifestyle, since she spoke English, and I was her connection to the western world.

One time I remember the neighbor was getting married. I excitedly asked if I could join them at the ceremony. They hesitated and then agreed, and only later did I realize that they did not have the $1 needed to buy the rice and cookies and sugar and glasses for the wedding present, so it was my treat.  As poor as they were, their clothes were always clean and ironed, the grounds were spotless, and they were happy. She was top student in her class, and wanted to become a tour guide or English teacher when she grew up. On my previous visit she told me that she did not have the necessary money to continue her schooling for high school, but hoped to receive a scholarship.  

When I returned to bali this trip, and went to visit here as usual, she was already in high school. I asked her how it was and where it was. It turned out that she was one of 600 applicants that had applied for a scholarship for a relatively new school that had opened and was funded by the government. There were 75 children from all over bali in each of the four grades, and they all lived in dorms on campus. The school was built in order to teach leadership skills to children of low income families, and was entirely in English! She had been one of the 75 accepted, and was now attending. I was so curious how she felt to finally have a bed of her own, without her two younger sisters snuggled up next to her in the single bed, and a place to put her clothes, and three hot meals, and all day long in English, even though everyone was Balinese, and what it is like not to see her family for months, and isn't it difficult to learn Japanese too, and which English novel is she reading in her mandatory free reading time from the library there?

We spoke for a few hours, and she shared how the best book she read so far was by Dale Carnegie called "The Magic of Speaking". She is naturally shy, and although she is smart and speaks excellent English, she wants to be able to feel comfortable standing up in front of an audience and speaking. I was surprised that she had decided this is something she must do. She shared how all 4 years of high school are geared towards making them leaders at an international level, and her dream is to be one of the four children in the graduating class to receive a scholarship to study abroad at an English speaking university. She is interested in economics.

I just sat there in awe. This is a girl that has never had more spending money than a few cents from babysitting by the neighbor that she would save up in order to have a few minutes once a month to go to the local internet café in order to write me and her Canadian friend. She hopes to achieve what the school is aiming towards; educating leaders at an international level for the future of the Balinese government. As we spoke my eyes returned to the sign above the bed that said "have a dream, but do not expect". I told her that I too have put out visions that at the time seemed impossible, but over the past seven years that I have been doing it, they have all manifested, eventually. She knows this. She had a vision to be able to speak English with a tourist, and is now on a full scholarship teaching her the skills she will need for her next vision, of studying abroad. "Have a dream, but do not expect."