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| Phyl & Michael |
P- 6:15am
G- WHAH!!!!! I need to sleep! I'm not sleeping well at night because I'm sticky and hot. In the morning, when it's finally a little cooler, the damn roosters start and the sun is beating through the windows. Whah!!!!
P- No whining, Agnes! I feel your pain. Let's close the curtains on all the windows and take off the mosquito net and see if we can fall back asleep.
G- Whah! Ok.
We did manage to fall back asleep for a little while, but by 8:00 am it was warming up and the wasps, which we only see in the mornings, had started flying around the room. We got up as a gecko ran across the floor and back into the bathroom where it's wet and cool.
G- I am very proud of the way your handling the bug and gecko situation.
P- I am doing well. At home I would have freaked out and we wouldn't have gone
to sleep until you had captured the gecko and gotten it out of the house.
G- And now you watch them run along the floor and walls without batting an eye. It's not as though you have any choice, but you've come a long way in a few short days. Desentization is an amazing thing!
P- I'm dealing with them, but one of the bastards had better not run on me or I'm gonna freak out.
G- Did you hear the frogs and crickets and cicadas last night? It is amazing! I had no idea that frogs could make so much noise.
P- You think it's all frogs?
G- Not sure, but I think it's mostly frogs. And maybe some critters we've never heard of or seen before.
G- Ooooooh!! Thunder! Look how dark the sky is over there.
P- Good! I hope it rains for a while and we can cool off a little.
Ayu watched the clouds and frowned. She had just put the laundry all around the courtyard (on laundry racks, on the cement, hanging from the tree) to dry.
G- Looks like it's gonna rain.
Ayu – I don't like rain.
P- We love it. Especially the rainstorm we had the first night we arrived.
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| Wayan |
G- Maybe it's because we grew up with fantastic thunder storms in New Orleans and then we moved to California where they get little rain showers, and we really miss good storms.
Ayu – It crazy.
While it poured we sat and talked with Ayu. She explained, in her really good, but limited, English about the 4 names of the upper caste in Bali: the first child is named Wayan, second is Made (sounds like Ma day), third is Nyoman, fourth is Ketut. Then it starts over with Wayan again, preceeded by a word that means something like 'the second one'. So, Maday her husband has one older brother. She said that she is from the poor caste, so she did not get a name like that. It seems most people have one of these 4 names, but we've also met some people named Gusti, which we think is from a different caste level. It's all very confusing and trying to translate this in discussion was impossible. Also, the caste system is not rigid in Bali, so there is marriage among the castes.
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| view from our window |
Ayu and I spoke about raising only sons. She lamented the fact that although he had once worshipped her, he was now moving away from her and more to his friends. I told her that was normal and he'd come back one day. She seemed genuinely happy to know this. We talked about how she and Maday had married 15 years ago, purchased this land and gradually built the 6 rooms they rent to tourists. Only days before had they hired someone to help, a guy named Wayan, but previously she had done everything herself. It seemed they had really done well for themselves, especially by Balinese standards. She asked questions about living and working in America and we learned about their life in Ubud.
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| sunset from our window |
P- I wish we could've understood why Maday's parents don't talk to her, because I've seen his mother walk through here to see Maday, but she never talks to Ayu.
G- It was funny when she passed at exactly the time Ayu was talking about her. I made a face at Ayu but she said it didn't matter because the mom couldn't understand a word of English. We could talk as loud as we wanted.
P- She does have a lot to do around here, but I think she thinks it's worse than it is. How many women do we know in America who work, take care of kids, take care of the house and there is so much more to be done.
G- It does seem like a simpler existance here, cook the breakfast, laundry, clean the rooms, but the pace is much slower. And by Balinese standards, they are making a fair chunk of change on a daily basis. She said the place is usually booked. Michael lives here full time and has for the last year.
G- True. People are all the same, aren't they?
P- Yes. They are.
G- I'm sure we're going to find that everywhere we go.
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| Ayu & Maday |
