Puasa

Puasa means fasting in Indonesian. I suppose it's related to the Indonesian puas which means satisfied. Ramadan begins on Monday and that means puasa for thirty days. Not only no food but no water from 6am to 6pm. There will be a Muslim crew here. We'll not put a thermos out with hot water. Will take away the coffee and sugar. I'll ask Kardino, the contractor, if we should remove the water from the outside table too. I told him they should do a modified puasa and drink some water. Nope. 

New project

 To help 30 developing countries tackle marine litter scourge

 - from UN News 

Vaccinations left and right

How great. All our expat friends have gotten the first shot. Now Nyoman who drives us around a lot in his old bemo (like a VW bus with open side) has received the first shot. And two days ago it seemed there was no more in Bali till the next shipment arrived. So he and Kadek our housekeeper and Mudik, Tofiq, and Rahim the electrician/plumbers. And Friday contractor Kardino and his clan are planning on getting it. So they're taking off Friday through Sunday. Things will get quiet here and Katrinka can come home for three days. But our most frequent visitor, monk Moneyya, is anti-vax. Ugh.

Easter in Bali

Like Xmas, Easter week brings a national holiday in Indonesia except it's not Easter Sunday. It's Good Friday. So people get the benefits of that but whatever special is happening is happening in churches. Lots of local people at the beach on Saturday. Lots of kites. Not tons crowded in like in Florida but families or groups of friends sitting here and there. Guys working on the project at our place are Muslims and worked straight through till Saturday at five pm as usual. Islam has a lot of respect for Jesus but not the Jesus holy days.

Vaccine Availability Abroad

 On CNN today I see Frustrated expats leaving Europe to get Covid shots.

and 

This country offers free vaccine shots to foreigners

Hmmm

Katrinka and I just got our first Covid shots here in Bali and they were free. Thanks Indonesia! In this last week a lot of expats and locals we know got shots and it continues. 

Swimming with Bogart

 I get to the beach once or twice a week, usually with Katrinka. We walk there and I go right in and swim and she walks way down and back and goes in for a while. We try to go when the water's high enough, within a few hours of high tide, within two is best, but often the opportunity arises beyond optimum tide time. And then I can usually swim anyway. We're inside the reef and the depth is fairly constant all the way to the reef after gradually deepening from the shoreline. But there are some areas that are deeper of course and that's where I head when it's low, frequently backstroking till I get to a place where I can do the Aussie crawl. It really is like a crawl with me cause my left arm won't lift high  A few days ago we went there and it really was low. Too low. The only place I could swim, the level  was down so that I was swimming in pretty heavy seaweed. But I wanted to get some movement going so I back stroked along in it which was good exercise because the seaweed was an impediment. After a while it got exhausting and was a little creepy so I headed in to shore. Had to walk the last hundred feet or so cause it was so shallow. I was itching all over, like if I'd been in fresh cut grass without much clothes' on.  And there was all this seaweed slime on me, black and gooey. It didn't really wipe off. Had to pick each one off . I started looking at it more carefully and I noticed it was moving just a little and that the pieces moved a little in the water and then I realized I was covered in little black slimy worms. So I picked them all off but they kept appearing on my legs and torso coming off my swim wear. If there aren't many people around which is normal in Covid time, I swim in dark briefs , like some minimal European male swim shorts. Katrinka came up and checked my back and they kept coming for a while but finally stopped. All the while I was thinking of Bogey in African Queen.

Easy Going

Mellow day. Mild reaction to first shot. Perfect for working from bed with frequent get-ups to deal with construction going on, food and drink, sending flowers to Katrinka and our own almond cashew mink and some mixed fruit. Back to bed. So far so good.