October 5, 2022

Since retuning from Bali, I’ve been feeling like I haven’t lead a meaningful life. Maybe I’m romanticizing the culture on that tiny island. On my day of arrival our tour guide, Ryan, drove us to Lovina. The drive was long and gave so many opportunities for Ryan to tell us about things we saw. Besides the twisted mountain roads lined with macaques, the most fascinating thing I saw that day was a funeral procession. All of the people from the village dressed up and marched with drums, music, and singing to deliver the ashes of the deceased to the sea. It didn’t seem at all solemn, but more of a celebration. Perhaps because of the Hindu belief in reincarnation, I’m not sure. I’ll have to read more about that sometime. 

I did see struggling people everywhere during my two weeks in Bali. I heard many stories of hardship due to Covid. The island’s greatest source of income is tourism and Bali was essentially closed to tourists for the best part of two years. My mother-in-law had been to Bali 12ish times before I went with her. She said that half of the shops are closed or have gone out of business. It’s hard to tell since most markets are open air. We did see a lot of vacant buildings and empty store fronts in the couple of malls we visited.

My takeaway thoughts are, however, that the sense of community in Bali is strong. People took care of each other during the worst of Covid, and in every day life that tradition is set in stone. Maybe that’s what has left me feeling so lacking, I’m not sure. One thing I’m sure of now, is that I’m going to foster a bigger sense of community within my circle of people.