The terraced rice fields are astounding! Every square inch of ground is utilized!And this dear old guy has charm oozing from his pores! He kept coming up with more poses ... Jim bought his hat for $2 -- a very high price for this region! (The guy has more, by the way.)
Workers in the heat of the sun ...
Look closely, those are rice terraces near the top of those hills!
My favorite part of the trip, I believe! Going off the beaten track, walking on the outskirts of the village dumping site so that we could get to the area where a group of families have, for generations, harvested sea salt.
Such poverty.
All of the rise is sales from the sea salt boom hasn't brought a bit of increase in profits to these dear folks who slave away in the heat day after day ... year after year.
The process --
--bring leather buckets full of salt water to the raked sand fields
--scoop up the wet sand and carry it in baskets to the pit
--let the salt water drain through the sand into open bamboo shoots that run into wooden bowls
--sift the salt water one more time, into another bowl
--pour the now-very-dense salt water into shallow wooden dishes that are out in the sun
--allow the water to evaporate for the rest of the day
--bag up the salt
The leader of the group ... so gracious with time and generous with his salt, giving us two huge bags of it! He was so touched by the money we gave him as a thank you that he kept wanting to hug us (with his sweaty skin and all!) and almost cried.Then, I almost cried.
Such a tough life. I brainstormed with him a bit (with our driver helping with the translations!) as to ways he could increase his income. Option 1: get his two (living, out of 3) children educated well enough that they could get a proper business license and begin exporting the salt, directly! Option 2: have Made (our driver) and other drivers begin to bring vans of tourists (just small groups, not big buses!) to view the work -- I assured them that everyone would be willing to pay!!!
Where's Jimbe?
3 comments:
Well, I've just been on a trip to Bali - thanks for the ride! What an amazing experience. Truly, I want to go now.
Questions - with all that standing water in the rice fields, is there a problem with mosquitoes and maleria? Is the main religion Hindi? Any significant Christian outreach there? What kind of government did you find? Fab haircut - will you have to wear a hijab in SA? How much cooersion did it take to make you rest on the edge of the edgeless pool and gaze at the ocean? Sigh. That was lovely.
Thanks again for sharing.
wow! Looks like an amazing trip! Couldn't see all the pics cause our internet didn't quite bring all them up. But looks like some great new experiences!
Hi, Karissa and Zona!!
I'm glad you enjoyed the "trip," Zona. Here are some answers:
Very little Christian outreach there at all. Jeri has a YWAM friend who is there with a little team. The main religion is a Balinese mix of Hinduism/Buddhism/animism ... which leads to a very strong fear of evil spirits ... which leads to temples everywhere -- 3 large ones per village plus each family has one plus each car and work place has little offerings in a small basket. They visit the temples 3 times/day, usually, to pray to ancestors, etc. A lot of bondage to ritual. Yet, there is not the oppressive and depressing feel that I often sense in Thailand. And the people are the most happy folks I've seen in any country. This could be a survival technique because they do depend upon tourism for everything! The terrorist bombings caused starvation all over the island for many months afterwards ... no tourists, no work, no buyers for the veggies, no shoppers for the clothing, ...
Not a big mosquito problem and not much malaria anywhere in Indonesia but Dengue Fever is everywhere. A contractor for Schlumberger, here in Kalimantan, lost his 7 mos old daughter to Dengue just a couple of months ago.
Local gov'ts are getting more and more honest. Elections 4 May for local leaders. Indonesia has a "democratic" gov't everywhere, but at the state and federal level it's quite corrupt. And the local police are very corrupt
Thanks, Zona, for the haircut comment -- I'm really liking it a lot! It looks like I'll be wearing an abaya in public in Al Khobar but probably not a head covering. Abayas, there, are black and cover neck to toes and all the way to wrists. Don't know why heads don't have to be covered for expats but it sounds like they don't!
I felt very safe on the edgeless pool but I wouldn't have walked there, that's for sure! It was sooooooo relaxing!
Off to teach English! :-)
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