Beautiful Balinese

Ketut with her mom and dad

January 4..... The day started slow of course with breakfast and coffee.  In the afternoon, we went to visit Putu, the child we visited the day before.  He still very shy, but I got few words out of him.  Mother was there but dad was working.  It clear to me that Indonesian government sometimes had no clue how to provide social assistance to people, especially those who actually needs it.  I asked Nyoman Bagiada, our local friend, if there's such thing as social assistance in Indonesia.  He said, absolutely not, because it is difficult to determine eligibility due to the poor income tax return system.  Indonesia's economy largely cash based, so many people, earn cash and not paycheque.  Due to this, it is naturally difficult to determine how much exactly people earn.  Nyoman said there was government initiative to build house for free, but only if the person own a land.  This does not make any sense because when people own land in Indonesia, that itself shown that the person is not poor! Another government's stupid initiative is building free toilets, but the person has to own a house..... hmmm... anyone seen anything wrong in this initiative? Seems like Indonesian government tried their best to look generous to its people, but failed miserably because this is nothing but a waste of money! We hung out with the family for a bit, then we head back to our hostel for lunch.  We definitely cannot wait to see Putu again!

Family's kitchen

Family's bedroom, here, all three sleeps
together on this old matress

Later on in the evening, we visited one of the girl who was also sponsored to go to school, her name is Ketut and she's 9 years old.  Her house was far.  We had to go on the motorcycle, the roads were steep and windy. After around 20 minutes motorcycle ride (without helmet 0_0... eeks....I thought about my workmates at Emergency Department and what they would say about this ... :( ) we had to go up a very narrow and steep path on the motorcycle, up to the house of the girls that supposed to guide us... very pretty Balinese girls.  From then we had to go on foot up hill some more on a dirt path and surrounded by bushes and jackfruit trees.... very beautiful place.  After about going on foot for 10 minutes up the hill, we finally reached Ketut's house, where she lives with her parents. She has no electricity at her house, so at night they uses kerosene lamp for lighting.  The problem with kerosene light is kerosene more expensive than gasoline!  They had 2 rooms in the house, bedroom where Ketut sleeps on the same old matress as her parents, and the other room where her mother cooks with woodfire stove.  I felt really humble when they prepared us snacks and coffee :( Ketut also very shy girl. Only spoken when asked questions... politeness of Indonesian kids (^^) We hung out there and tried to figured out what could we do to help the family.  Ketut already gets sponsorship to go to school, but obviously the family needs a lot of things... such as a means to get electricity. Shinji thought of small solar panel, strong enough to power a lightbulb, so Ketut doesn't have to use kerosene lamp to study.

Ketut's family provided us with little snacks, simple food but
I felt greatful and humble of such hospitality

We hung out there for sometime then we said goodbye, and to my suprise the family followed us to see us off below at the guide girl's house.... awwh :( such sweet family.  Again.... I see a lot of love and happiness in them.... in fact in a lot of the Balinese I met in the village.... they have so much less than any of us living in Canada, but they have the richest heart and life as human beings.
 The local 'boys' (our friends, Nyoman... another Nyoman... and ... another Nyoman) delivered us right to our hostel, and yes..... I was tired and sad but at the same time enlightened by the beauty of the hearts of the Balinese villagers.