I am having my 10 days in my god how can I go on with this moment. It will pass. I am staying tonight in the strangest little run-down retreat center on the far edge of Banyuwangi, which has many rooms but seems totally unprepared for the sorts of things guests in a place like this might appreciate, like for example clean towels and soap. We had a long drive again today - which is more or less any day that you get into a car in Indonesia, and driving is like going on the scariest roller-coaster in the world only with no safety regulations and the guy running the controls is texting. And for Christ sake there is this ridiculous little ringing buzzer that goes off every two minutes for no clear reason, like someone is standing at some unseen doorbell just pressing it for 2 quick seconds and waiting.
But last night I stayed in a little hotel on a South Javanese beach that was, after dark, completely deserted, and I went to the beach and watched the stars and listened to the surf and then suddenly about 100 fishermen showed up in the dark to head out and I had a great conversation with one of them who sat smoking and eating and taught me the word for fisherman - nalayan - and I got up early enough this morning to see the boats come back in, and talked to him again, and there were baskets of krill and other fish, and it was really just amazing. Funny how you remember the person who taught you a particular word: the Chinese doctor who did acupuncture on my numb foot four years ago taught me the word for "blood-curdling' - mengerikan - when we had a discussion about the massacres in Java and Bali in 1965.
So I am just having a tired day, after a lot of action, and before another workshop begins tomorrow. I will recover. And I should sleep well, in spite of that goddamn buzzer. Since I left Madura just two days ago, I've about a week's worth of things happen. Not sure I'll have time to catch up here before I have another week happen tomorrow...
But last night I stayed in a little hotel on a South Javanese beach that was, after dark, completely deserted, and I went to the beach and watched the stars and listened to the surf and then suddenly about 100 fishermen showed up in the dark to head out and I had a great conversation with one of them who sat smoking and eating and taught me the word for fisherman - nalayan - and I got up early enough this morning to see the boats come back in, and talked to him again, and there were baskets of krill and other fish, and it was really just amazing. Funny how you remember the person who taught you a particular word: the Chinese doctor who did acupuncture on my numb foot four years ago taught me the word for "blood-curdling' - mengerikan - when we had a discussion about the massacres in Java and Bali in 1965.
So I am just having a tired day, after a lot of action, and before another workshop begins tomorrow. I will recover. And I should sleep well, in spite of that goddamn buzzer. Since I left Madura just two days ago, I've about a week's worth of things happen. Not sure I'll have time to catch up here before I have another week happen tomorrow...
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