After breakfast we want to have a relaxed morning at the swimming pool.
Yesterday Andrea told us at the terrace near the sea it is impossible to read a book, because there are so many sellers at the beach.
And that is right, about 12 sellers are standing in front of the terrace with their merchandise.
A group of Javanese tourists are busy buying things and talking to the sellers. Most tourists don’t like the sellers, sometimes it’s hard to get rid of them. The best way to deal with the sellers is to be clear. If you’re not interested, just say no!We find a quiet table, have breakfast, and enjoy watching the see and the sellers and tourists.
At the swimming pool we cool down, and when Marijke still is in the swimming pool, I decide to do some work. I want to transfer the pictures of the children from the camera to the laptop. I found a power-point, and Odjong gives me an extension cord. I need it, because the batteries of the laptop are quite old.
Because of the sun it is not easy to watch the screen. Especially when I have to type all the names with the photos.
A few minutes later Andrea joins me, he woke up early. A big touring car was waiting with tick-over running motor almost in his room.
Marijke is enjoying a massage from Ibu Iba. Then it starts to rain and thunder and I take all our things to a bruka. Andrea goes back to his room.
Aftrer the massage Marijke tells me Ibu Iba is very tired. Her daughter has been ill since the end of Ramadan. She is talking about “not looking”.
We think she means something like evil spirits. Already 27 “healers” have seen the daughter. And of course they all need to be paid, with rice or other things.
We are surprised to see how much these things still influence the daily life of people. Also with Adi and other people from the Kampung we hear a lot of those things. A lot of healers walk around.
Marijke advises Iba to give her daughter and herself some time and rest, see what happens.
In Lombok people are very eager on taking medicine when something is wrong. Adi told us, when he comes home having a headache, he takes medicine and takes a nap. After that his headache has gone.
We advised him, next time, to take a nap without having medicine, because propably his headache will be gone then as well.
It is interesting, every year we learn more about the way people live in Lombok, but sometimes it is a bit strange how people handle certain things.
When the rain stops, we walk to the restaurant for a cup of coffee. We show the staff some photos that are on the laptop. We start a nice conversation with someone from The Netherlands. Of course we also talk about the Proyek, and hand over a Proyek business card.
We are almost the same like the sellers in Lombok! Start with a usual conversation, end with promotion of the Proyek.
After the coffee we walk back home, where we spend all afternoon with the photos and names on the laptop.
It is not easy. Sometimes, for instance when a child has a lot of diseases, the parents change the child’s name. This, they hope, will give the child a new identity without diseases.
We also have to register the schools children go to. Next June a lot of children will move from Elementary school to Junior Highschool.
We also hope to find some new children that will go to Elementary school.
If not, we must disappoint some sponsors.
We want to do everything in the right way, but sometimes it is not so easy.
When we finished our work, we drive to Senggigi for our almost daily visit to the internet café and for dinner.
After that, we spend hours on our terrace with Adi and Mariam and have an enjoyable evening.