Pembantu Pembantu - Helpers

I work with others. Have gotten so much help from others that I know what I'm doing is not really mine or even from me - it's from us. But I'd love to have more help right here at home. I dream of getting an enthusiastic young intern, better a couple so they can explore Bali while getting the home front organized beyond what I do - stuff others could do so I can focus on what others can't and I've got tons of that. My old psychic adviser Fred said always say thanks for what you've got and then politely ask for more. 

My wonderful Balinese assistant, Gus, (goose) is so busy helping to run a successful eco-villa (not his) and his own micro-businesses that it took him three months to get back this last time. Gus caught up with a list of what he does for me. Then we work together on other tasks either Cuke Archives related or not. He's helped a lot with online tasks for my music including working with me to translate the songs of mine I've produced here. This time though we spent the rest of the time setting up Team Viewer which my tech guy uses so he can work on my laptops here while he's at home. Now Gus can do that so we'll see how that helps. I used to think, especially because of my experience here, that Balinese couldn't do things at our level like the Chinese Indonesians can. The island laid back culture too embedded in them. No more. People can adapt to new ways quickly. And it's not just Gus. It's hard not to feel the same way in Thailand about the non Chinese, the Lao they call it - Thailand and Laos I gather are basically the same people. But I had the same sort of wake up experience there too. I talked to a therapist who has local clients there about that and he said at first he thought they had totally different issues but he'd come to see all people as pretty much the same. I keep seeing that too. But culture is strong and deep so I'm not saying many differences aren't still there. 

Gus is sharp, figures things out, gets a step ahead of me, and is occasionally on the phone about his own business. He'll say "Just got an order for 100 tee shirts from a high school with their mascot on it." He sells trophies and medals for youth sports events. Katrinka orders her favorite sparkling water from him delivered by the case. When the the small propane tanks we use got scarce I realized we needed two more but you can't buy them from the little stores, only put a deposit on them and get them refilled and they couldn't get more. The government subsideses refills for the small tanks because they're for home use. He had a couple of small tanks dropped off by his delivery truck. He arranged for us to get a better deal on our wifi. 

Katrinka loves to cook the meal but our housekeeper Kadek makes a lot of stuff for us, occasionally a dish, but mainly other stuff. Some of what she makes is local like jamu health drink, sambal (like their salsa), fresh coconut water. Much of it we taught her or developed with her - fantastic yogurt before I went off dairy, fantastic coconut yogurt, great muesli and trail mix, wet dog food, almond-cashew and oat milk. Gus liked the unyeasted bread she and I came up with. She calls it kue keras - hard cake. Cuts it up into 3" squares. It's less than half an inch thick, made from different combinations of whole wheat, cassava, and gluten rice flour, roasted nuts and seeds, raisons. But when he took a bite of the latest and highly popular creation, thin crunchy crackers made from cassava and gluton rice flour, roasted and ground up flax, chia, sesame, and sunflower seeds, almonds and cashews, he immediately perked up and said, "This is marketable."

The case of the Missing Moment Solved

Sunday Katrinka and I walked to the beach. On the way - like less than a minute on the way - I stopped at the salon on the corner to thank the young woman there for helping me out. She looked down at my right calf immediately and asked if it hurt. No. I asked her if she saw it happen. I was eager to know what happened because i had no memory of it. She said she did see it happen. I do remember her standing outside in front as I walked up that way. Usually I walk on the right side so I can see the traffic coming toward me. I call walking on the left side, the suicide. But up to that point on that street, the other side is better, walking space wider with no open drains on that street up to right before that point where there is an open drain. Usually I've crossed over before then but I guess I hadn't because I was waiting till there was no traffic. It's not a big street at all. She said that a teenage girl on a motorbike had whizzed by me too close and that it made me react and I'd fallen over backwards into the ditch. She ran over and called for help. Two guys from the villa right next to it came out and they pulled me out and walked me home which was very close. We walked over to it and she acted it out. Said my head and left shoulder hit on the top top edge of the concrete ditch on the far side and that my right calf hit on the right side. I came back and made a video of her explaining and demonstrating because I hadn't understood everything she'd said. I'll run it through a translator and will try to get the video done with subtitles. That would be neat. I saw my internist today at the nearby public hospital and she suggested I walk with a cane. I told her I don't think a cane would have helped in this instance. - dc

More on the Fall into the Drainage Ditch

Got a concerned email from a dear friend about my mysterious fall into the drainage ditch the other day after sunset but before dark. Here's what I wrote her.

Image: the scene of the fall - it's about 2.5 ft wide.

Young people fall in those things too. But of course it's much more likely as we age because our sense of balance, our gyroscope, can go south and sure has with me. I read once that falls make up a high percentage of emergency hospital admissions here. That's the first time I had a fall since five years ago when I had about five in a row. Oh I forgot a bad one in 1920 getting up to pee in the dark which I talked about in my first podcast and reposted by itself later (Nyepi Blood Bath). That was either a slip on a small bedside rug (actually a Muslim prayer rug) or fainting from fasting the day before. 

What did I do wrong?

 I don't remember how it happened. I came to with very concerned people pulling me out of a drainage ditch. My first thought was to save the tea to go that was in a covered container on its side. I grabbed it as they lifted me up. It was right near the entrance to our gang. By the time they'd walked me to the gate I said I could carry on from there. Our friend Jeffrey was for years a first responder in Stinson Beach and he happened to come by to get something. I was in our Japanese bath. He told me to turn off the hot water and turn on the cold. He asked me five questions like what's my name, what day, is it and I passed them. He checked to see what I could move starting with fingers. He put a bunch of alcohol on the bleeding bump behind my ear which was still bleeding some. He asked where I hurt - left shoulder and right thigh but they seemed okay. He gave me a bag of ice and had me hold it on my head bump for ten minutes. For a while it seemed I should go to the emergency room but I could move everything, got out of the tub and dried and dressed myself and Katrinka ordered dinner from Riviera. Got up and walked this morning and meditated and made tea and got to work.

Life in Bali - financial

Had a good day yesterday.  In the morning I remembered I'd lost 3 million rupiah - about $200. One million buying electricity with my phone because it died right after buying it and when charged, the receipt with the code to enter into the meter was gone. I went to the nearby post office which is also a payment center and the woman there didn't know what to do and some guys she called over didn't know. I'd have to go to the bank which I'd made the mobile payment through and wait for maybe an hour and they'd surely be able to fetch the receipt with the numbers. The next day when I deposited 2 million through an ATM into my local bank account it took the money then had a glitch that froze the transaction. It went into the machine but wasn't recorded. Inside I made a report. They know me and believed me but we were at the mercy of the folks at the mother bank who manage the ATMS. I had no proof. Then yesterday afternoon, five days after losing it, the two million appeared in my account. I had happened to notice in the settings on my mobile banking app a little thing that read "bukti" which is proof. So I went in there and there was a list and I hit on purchases and there was the purchase for the electricity listed and I clicked on it and the receipt with the code appeared. I went to the meter and entered it and realized in a matter of minutes the 3 million had come back. One of the little victories.