Gusti Raka and the other Bali Men

There is a man in the village who designed a sun & moon face. He has samples of his sun and moons at a local shop. He receives orders from America. Recently they ordered 600 sun moon faces (to stock up Walmart no doubt). And Gusti draws, carves and polishes each one individually. Face after face. Day after day.

It gives new meaning to that little sticker 'Made In Indonesia'.

The idea of expending that much energy on one sun moon face has me exhausted. But the idea of doing the same one over and over just breaks my heart.

What one must do...

And Gusti, unlike the many men you might meet in the street, did not want to get something from me. He became my friend. He gifted me in about five minutes.

Gusti gave me a jigsaw pig to 'hide my gold'. Not something I would ever think to buy, but as a gift, from the designer himself, it is alive with new meaning and story.

I printed photos for Gusti to have.

And then Gusti took me on a scooter ride through rice paddies and coconut tree lined streets. He barted for a durian fruit and I had my first taste. (It's the texture that is the culprit for me, smell and taste were fine!)

And Gusti asks when I'm coming back to Bali.
(We'd only just set off on our scooter ride.) This question is common between those that are already worried about missing you. They wear their heart on their sleeve.

Today two men said they would think of me every day. I am 'interesting as well as beautiful'. That's the gist of it. Another lady said she wanted some of my nose, and I laughed saying I just wish I could give her some. It would be much better for both of us on average. It's probably the first time I've genuinely laughed at a nose-comment! Sigh.

So, I've been having some pretty amazing 'eat pray love' style experiences in ubud... that is, when I'm avoiding the American laiden yoga precinct!

I don't have photographs to tell my story, so some words will have to suffice.

The Yoga Man - My unique one on one lesson in his yoga styled compound. He was shaking my hand mid pose and saying 'You the best!' and 'Success!' at every pose's completion. He IS the most excitable 80 year old man I've met and more amazingly, his knowledge is purely divine inspiration. In Bali, no one reads up on their shit, they just channel a god. Much more sensible really.

Then there is Driver Man - sweet aviator glasses thin man who I enjoyed sitting with at street stalls and eating prawn crackers and drinking tea. You can't explain how with minimal language so much other communication happens. I shed a tear today when I said goodbye.

Healer Man - Yes, I found an authentic healer in a village. Another old old man with electric eyes. He proded every corner of my face in a frenetic finger dance. He discovered some really sore points that meant 'past sadness' and 'bad memory'. Too true.
He lay me down and used some wood to press against different edges of my left foot's toes. He found the intense pain that is my gallbladder. He looked at me and said I have sadness in me and I instantly started crying. Yep yep, so much sadness still there to release!
He drew on my body with his fingers, he created chakra-like shapes around my front and then fed me a bitter leaf from his garden. He said my organs are fine and that I should look in a mirror, smile and then grab my smile and eat it.

I have been practicing and it has had an instant effect of permeating joy.

As soon as I walked out of my room today (after extreme mirror smile eating) and I saw Driver Man he looked at me and said 'you look very beautiful'. Happiness is perceived as beauty. A constantly recycling epiphany for me.

[current mood] PawPaw & Gamelan Percussion

Comments

[Nicky]

beautifully written nat. almost felt like i was there.
i agree that a smile does radiate beauty, no matter what.

i saw this quote the other day,
"If you are not using your smile, you're like someone with a million dollars in the bank and no check book".

there's so much to bali that most people don't discover, sadly because they are not interested. i especially found the people gorgeous!

see you soon, we can eat our smiles together. ;-)

x

[Simone]

Good beautiful stuff :)

I recently read 'eat pray love' on a 10hr bus journey in Thailand, finished it in 12hrs. Usually I fall asleep on a bus within half an hour!

I haven't had many experiences becoming friends with locals, but I'm moving around too fast. And I probably need to relax more and realise not *quite* everyone is trying to sell me something.