Just saying, right now I have more readers in Russia than in the USA. And my Latvians have disappeared and as of a few weeks ago this blog is not blocked in China any more. Am I going soft or have they figured out that I am not important. I could have told them that. Always change.
So, I have been in lousy health since the Dengue. Still getting headaches then feeling like I have a fever, (I don't) and then feeling like I have a sinus infection, then feeling fantastic... a sort of weird cycle. Doctor says it takes a long time to recover from big viral infections. I am proof positive.
That being said, things keep happening that make me so happy I am here. This is on top of the amazing beauty, the endless religious and social discoveries, the sweet kindness of the people who always have time for each other and for moi. I have not seen one person who looks destitute or hungry. If Bali is poverty, it is the good kind. Families live in the family compound. The woman moves into the man's compound when she gets married. Or stays home when she doesn't. Muslims and Hindus seem to live in harmony. Respect for ancestors and belief in re-incarnation assure a social equanimity. The president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, was a farmer not a billionaire or military as were past presidents. But this is Ubud, Bali, not Java. I don't know how life is for the other hundreds of millions.
About the Bali magic. This after the headache came again with a bit of a wobbly stomach. "What the fuck! Sinus infection, Dengue, ATM ate my debit card, now Bali belly. What life is this? The Russian woman who lives in the next cottage and talks LOUD on the phone a lot had stopped by me this morning and invited me to come hear her guru tonight at some ceremony. Big ceremony. Hundreds of people. He is the dude that was in "Eat, Pray, Love". I went to her veranda to tell her that I couldn't come because of the unstable stomach and this headache. I really wanted to go, but hole in the ground toilets had me intimidated.
She said the guru would heal me. I said ya but with 1,000 other people there , what were the odds? She is organizing this whole event and it was about one hour ahead of the beginning. In spite of that, she rolled up her sleeves and said, "I just better heal you myself, then." She pounded my head and rubbed my arms and neck, head and muttered some things in Russian and then said, "you sick". Then she punched and pounded a bit more and then got some heavenly oil and massaged my hands and then said "You better". I felt great again and almost decided to go, you know the Julie Roberts thing and then my stomach grumbled and she told me "You go next time".
I can't get over that she took the time and gave me this healing and then told me to come tomorrow morning for a tuneup. She has been studying with the guru for 5 years and before that she studied in China with someone else. I think she is a little bit famous in Russia. (This has nothing to do with my Russian readership) but I will drop her name when I learn it.
I forgot to mention that I am busting my budget and staying at an incredibly beautiful place because I want to and it is as healing environment as I could imagine and I am discovering that I am so over the backpacking $9 a night places. I miss meeting some of the kids, especially the European ones who travel at that level.
But not that much and this years crew in this town all seemed to be into competitive yoga and incredibly clean colons and no gluten. I can only take so much.
That being said, I met another amazing person who stayed in the cottage on the other side of me. He bounced right over while I was having breakfast and gave an introduction to himself that was witty and masterful. He was also handsome. Did I mention that? He said he was one of the last living fossils of the British Raj. That got my attention. I read "Jewel and the Crown" about 10 times and same for the BBC movie. He certainly had the accent and the "to the manor born" thing going.
His family had been tea planters in Ceylon for 300 years, although the ones who stayed in England hadn't been merchants, just odd squires and heads of Sandhurst and various members of this and that. So when the English plantations were expelled from Ceylon, he became a wanderer. No home, no roots, couldn't stand living with relatives in Sussex. He had had enough of that when he was sent to boarding school in England when he was 9. This makes him sound like a proper snob, which in fact, he was not. He lived in many countries starting peasant co-operatives and getting local businesses going and moving on. He is an intellectual who has read everything and more and can quote from it all (move over Noam Chomsky). We talked books, and amazingly strange spiritual practices he grew up with and flying saucers and big conspiracies. It was great fun.
So, Bali. I want to be more proactive about my life, but there is something wonderful about sitting around drinking coffee and having the world come to me.
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