Bert Vierstra
Last Friday I got more or less drunk with another expat. We had to tell a lot to eachother. We had dinner in Cafe Lumbung, in Lovina, the cafe turned into a Dutch food joint by Jeroen. We had "biefstuk met patat en sla". Outide I saw one of the village boys, wet from the rain like us, and when he smiled at me I felt guilty going to eat in a restaurant. I know that his beatiful girlfriend was "stolen" by a rich tourist. The next day the hangover was bearable, and in the afternoon I could'nt help going back to the restaurant to try a Dutch sandwich. I got a reasonable one, and the Balinese girl serving it, did her best to speak some Dutch. Sandra, the wife of Jeroen put on some Dutch music, "Het Goede Doel". She was talking with another Dutchman. I didn't know what to think, somehow I liked it, somehow I didn't. But the Dutch sandwiches are an alternative to the Dunking Donut sandwiches, so I'll be back I guess, for a "Broodje Bal" with mosterd. The sea was rough that afternoon, the sky grey, after all this Dutch today I couldn't help thinking about the North Sea, and Scheveningen, a Dutch tourist place. I went in anyway and gulped a lot of very salt water. The waves were about 1,5 to 2 meters. The sampan had a ball on the waves and I reached it, tired,. The way back took longer, because I was tired and there was some current. The waves breaking on the stairs of the concrete "beach", made me worried about surviving this swimming trip unharmed. Komang came by earlier, again with family, again uninvited. I told about my meeting with the expat, and told her that she has a hotel and much money. I am an arrogant beephole, I thought, too late. I hope she got the message anyway.Telkom Internet has been terrible slow the last few days....http://bali-information.com/forumpics/gepeng.jpg[/img]This is a picture of Gepeng. ("No, its "Desak Kadek!""), she is 11 years old. Once we were with some other villagers near the village were her mother lives, and I took her to see her mother, she is waiting for her here. She is raised by an aunt and uncle, for some reason I don't understand. Probaly married again, new children or something. There are many strange "families" here. But everything is taken care of. Children raised by grandfather's. Even the new baby of a father that has left two of his daughters to the grandfather is cuddled by the left daughters. We didn't find Gepengs mother that day.
