Some Things Lost, Something's Gained

Four hours later I'm again sitting cross legged on the kitchen floor at the edge of the cloth that serves as a table. There's hardboiled bird's eggs with fish and rice for breakfast and everyone's too sleepy to talk. This morning there's a parade of village women who come to greet me, though most just giggle at the curious bule.

After breakfast Hauri comes with his ojek and takes me to see the beach, pointing to Bali in the distance, then to the post office so I can try to mail my post cards but the post office is closed. He along with Wavi, his wife and Adik, takes me to the local waterfall.

Like most of Indonesia, it's beautiful, but the beauty is marred by the mountains of litter and refuse along the trail, on the rocks and in the pool below. Still, I'm so ecstatic to see fresh water, and the water itself is clean, that when some workers tell us they are cleaning it I shrug. I change from my skirt to sarong and leave my camera on top of a rock before heading straight to the stairs leading down to the pool. I note that the pool is really shallow, which is perfect for giving Adik a swimming lesson, let my sarong drop to the steps and wade right in. My body thrills at the sensation of frigid freshwater against my skin leaving me breathlessly happy.

Watching Adik follow suit I realize I've forgotten about my jewelery so I wade back and leave my rings and meditation bracelet with my sarong on the second step. Adik and I play for a while then I try to get her to practice her doggie paddle. "It's so hard," she protests as usual. I imagine it is harder swimming fully clothed, still I've come to suspect is the most commonly used phrase in Indonesia. I tell her what I tell my students ten times a day. "It's as hard as you tell yourself it is and if you don't practice it will always be hard." But like all people who cannot swim she is terrified of the water so at the end of every lesson I always tell her how proud I am of her for being brave and trying.

This lesson though ends abruptly when Adik realizes that, where she could touch bottom only a few seconds ago, she no longer can. I find a place nearby where I can touch and tell her move over there but she's starting to panic and cries out that she wants to get right now. I grab her arms and pull her towards me but realize that in only these few seconds I can no longer touch here either. Adik looks around desperately for her escape to safety and exclaims, "Kakak, the steps are gone!" I look back and realize they've finished cleaning and have opened the water gates. I pull her to the steps, and once she's safely on dry land, I turn back to play in the falls.

Only when I'm properly pruned and get out of the water do I appreciate that I've lost my sarong and my jewelry in the flood. I wrap my skirt around me and tell Adik my mistake but she holds up my favourite ring. "I felt it under my foot on the step," she says. We both laugh with amazement and I thank her with a great big hug.

Hauri comes to join me on the rock. He is not as jovial today, instead warning me about the dangers of everything from smoking Indonesian cigarettes while he puffs away, to swimming, to Indonesians themselves. "There are many bad people," he says, looking at me worriedly. "It's very not safe for woman alone." I tell him I know. "I am always hati hati." He repeats the words, smiles, pats my arm, then tells Adik he and Wavi must go pray but they will be back in an hour.

While they are gone I look at the day's pictures on my camera and discover Hauri has spent his time documenting the afternoon for me with my camera.

I try out the makeshift water slide before trying to dry off in the sun and when Wavi and Hauri return Hauri asks me to jalang jalang with him. He leads me up the path, wheezing and coughing all the way. In the parts he deems difficult he stops and places my hand on his arm. We stop at various turns to take in the view and when we get to the top he asks if I want to keep going. Of course I want to keep going. I always want to know what's just around that bend, the other side of the mountain, behind that locked door with the danger sign. He pushes through the tall grass then turns and with a distressed look on his face says, "No, no, no" and shoos me back. But I really want to know and try to move forward. "No!" he says, both angry and worried as he grab my wrist and pulls me back down the path before I can see. With the exception of when I ask him if I can take his picture a few moments later, which makes him noticeably proud, he is upset for the rest of the afternoon.

Despite Wavi's constant urging that we stay until Saturday, it's getting late and we need to catch our bus to Bali. But before we go Adik wants to go to a certain restaurant for a local specialty that, "You can't eat, kakak, sorry." So Hauri, Wavi and his wife drop us off in the village and we go for a walk.