178. | Bali showed the two faces of the world

Yesterday I was in the jungle again.

Oh yes, another adventurous day!

But life wanted to show me something else yesterday.

I try to be a good student. That’s why I’m showing you my lesson from yesterday.

Two things resonated with me now.

I sat down to write, and Spotify picked up where I left off two days ago. This song came on. My throat tightened.

The other thing is that I’m 14 years old. You’ll have to keep reading to understand that.

A few weeks ago, I met a great person here in Bali through a referral. He’s also a Couchsurfer and runs a charity. We met, talked, and on Friday night I attended an event together.

And on Sunday, I got another invitation.

I went to the meeting point by motorbike, the journey was half an hour, there was no traffic in the morning.

I barely slept at night, I even went to fill up at 3 am. I stood in line. It seems that I am not the only one who does not sleep.

25,000 IDR (500 HUF, 1.5 USD) for a full tank of gas. Enough for days. I even thought about how cheap gas is here.

We had coffee at the meeting point. 10,000 IDR (200 HUF, 0.6 USD) for a coffee. We were immediately on the same wavelength. Several of us had slept little. We thought about calling ourselves the insomniacs’ society.

An hour later we were in the Selat area, on the south-southeast slopes of Mount Agung. We filled the minibus with rice, eggs, food, clothes. We took these to those in need.

They offered us breakfast. We ate sitting on the ground. Food wrapped in leaves.

This was a first for me.

Delicious, spicy, real Indonesian breakfast.

The jungle is beautiful!

Everything is green. Behind the trees is the ocean. Above, the mountain peak in the clouds.

Life is palpable.

I ate jackfruit. I didn’t know it existed yesterday. I found out that it is an unripe meat substitute. It smells a bit like durian. And it’s sticky.

Also, that pineapple doesn’t grow on trees.

I saw dragon fruit. Cocoa pods.

Lunch wrapped in leaf. We ate it with our hands.

It was simple. And perfect.

During the tour, we stopped in the minibus at several places and carried food deep into the forest on foot. Three local guys joined us, they led us to the families through the forest. Between the stops, I rode my motorbike, because one of them took me with him.

Our first stop was next to a garbage sorting plant. The area was filled with heavy smoke from burning garbage.

We visited a family of two. The grandmother raised her grandson here. The parents died, the father from lung cancer after working at the plant for years.

The little boy is 11 years old. Every day after school he sorts the trash. That’s his job. Every day he earns 5,000 IDR (100 HUF, 0.3 USD) to survive.

I started counting. If he worked 5 days a week after school, he could buy the gasoline that I thought was cheap in the morning. If he worked every day for two weeks, he could buy a single meal where I eat…

I was 14 when I first officially worked for money. Not to stay alive.

The little boy’s face touched me deeply. I can’t say that I saw a face tormented by life. The quiet power I saw there simply instilled something very deep in me.

My throat tightened then, and several times during the day. I’m still under its influence today.

We visited several families in the forest.

I saw a little boy who was unable to move, whom his mother brought out to us in her lap. His entire leg was as thick as a snake cucumber.

I saw old ladies living alone in the middle of the forest.

We visited houses whose condition is difficult to describe.

When we set off, I had a hard time understanding how the 10 kg sack of rice, the 10 eggs, the grocery bag and a few clothes that I had been carrying around my neck all day could help these people.

A sack of rice. Enough for the lady for three months. 10 dgk a day.

There is no pension here. Many people live off what the jungle gives them. They eat the jackfruit or pineapple that is the thrill for us as a means of subsistence. Not to mention the plants that to me just look like nice green grass…

The people living in the area also help these people, so sometimes the neighbors gave us fruit to take to the families, if we were going there anyway.

At one place they made us popcorn. Those two small plates of corn that they put in front of us meant a lot to me!

Those people I saw yesterday live in a very difficult situation.

Yet they are cheerful. Yet they welcomed us with smiles. It must have meant a lot to them that we were there with them. Because we sat around them everywhere. Whoever could, talked to them. All I could do was be present, respect and smile.

I smiled at them, but at the same time my heart almost broke for them. And at the same time I thought something like, Oh, Lord, is there anything more anyone could do?…

Yesterday I got to see two faces of the world. The unconditionally beautiful and the difficult with a warm embrace.

It was a hard lesson.

I carry the little boy’s face in my heart.