And now for something more serious

So far it has been four days since I arrived in Bali and my Indonesian has surely trebled! I forgot so much when I left, and I have a lot more to learn before I can actually say with pride: Saya Orang Bali! These four days have been bliss; I went to the Blue Ocean beach and within a half hour two of my good friends showed up, I went clubbing and met some new people, been eating all the food I love, and the list goes on! Maybe I should start at the beginning...

My cousin Lisa is here from the states and loving it. I arrived 1 AM on the 11^th and was up and ready to go by 9 AM next morning. I spent the day on the beach with friends, ate my routine bungkus, showed my cousin around for a bit and then hit town with some friends. The next day was pretty similar; great dinner with those I love, beach, and decided to do a last minute trip with friends to the island of Nusa Penida the very next morning. My god what a cool trip!

Firstly we met up early and took the ferry over from Sanur to Nusa Lembongan, and then we had to rent out a smaller boat to take us to Penida. Once there we rented motorbikes and made our way around parts of the island. we were on a quest to find a waterfall, and in the process we found a service track that ran along the outside of a cliff face. From this track you could see the beautiful and crystal clear ocean filled with manta rays! We had dinner in what seemed to be one of the two Warungs (which makes sense considering that its 99.99% locals). And managed to score cheap arak.

Day two was snorkelling, followed by a lazy day around the hotel. And this is where it gets amazing! The local who helped us sort out our boat ride, bikes, hotel etc.. invited me back to his house for a coffee. I spent a few hours with him as he showed me the island and told me a lot about Nusa Penida and Bali in general I never knew, like the seaweed prices (Rp. 2,500/ Kilo), Price of land, and overall how many people still support Soehartos ‘presidency.’

It was so lovely, Bli Haris is a muslim, married to a Hindu woman, and they have two beautiful kids. Upn greeting his daughter she grabbed my hand and placed her forehead ever so lightly on it, recognising my position as an elder member in that household. I was so moved by it (and now I feel old!). After coffee he took me to buy fish, which his wife prepared for us, along with her own sambal sauce and rice. At the end of it all the hardest thing was to get him to accept a gift from me. it probably took 4 minutes of smiling, 1 minute of insisting and another 2 minutes of pleading for him to take my money.

“it costs me one million Rupiah per year to send one of my children to school” he told me. “Many families have upwards of four children, and that makes it hard for most of them to afford schooling. We stay together as a family, we work hard because we hope one day our children won’t have to.” The tip I gave him; 100,000 Rupiah is roughly 12 USD, a tenth of what he needs to send his child to school that year. “The seaweed prices are low but we have no choice. They then sell it for Rp. 10,000+ to Japan mainly for cosmetics products and food.” I mentioned problems I heard of elsewhere from friends; that the fishermen in Amed haven’t set sail in three months, causing them to go bankrupt. These fishermen live off their hauls, and their boats are simple. They leave every morning before the sun rises and is back by nine or ten in the morning with that day’s catch. “Fishermen today (Amed) can’t find enough to even feed themselves, their livelihoods are being taken away from them by the larger commercial fishing vessels which have been spotted in the area. They overfish the migration routes of many local fish, leaving very few alive. As a result many fishermen have tried their luck elsewhere, finding jobs far away from home or renting out boats to the few tourists in the area.”

The thought of this made me sick. I understand haggling is a ‘sport’ f sorts, where you walk away with a bargain, but really, do we need to scrape off another Rp. 25,000 (10 Kilos of seaweed picked, dried, processed, packed, shipped) off an already cheap as hell pair of sunglasses? Do we do that back home? Are we REALLY being ripped off when we pay triple the local price for a ferry? Can we REALLY compare our $10/hour salaries with their $10 a day??? Who the hell are WE to impose our standards, demean them to the position of porch monkeys, so we can go out, get drunk, do drugs and leave behind a massive ecological footprint?

Even worse are those of us who live here, who enjoy these benefits day to day, who live like kings and have so much. Do WE not owe it to this place to do what we can, to help??? It is here and now that I call on those of you who live/have lived here to do what you can. Last year my good friend Luca de Coney said it perfectly: “What is $100 to us? A night out? New clothes? Jewellery? It’s nothing!” All it is, is a minor, temporary absence of unnecessary luxury goods. To these people, it is one year of schooling for their children. If I put $100 USD per month towards a schooling project, I can put in principle 24 kids per year through school!! Between 4 of us that’s nearly 100 kids (and that includes supplies and the like) so I am taking this opportunity to call on all of you, to tug on your moral strings. It is our moral duty as humans to help those around us. I am hereby announcing the commencement of my Project: The Amed Children’s Basic Education Program. All credit to the idea goes to Luca de Coney and Rhys Gondosapoetro, you guys are great! I hope to work with you on this