Living in a Balinese community

Life has changed dramatically for the Balinese over the last 50 years. Areas such as Seminyak, which 20 years ago used to be rice fields, with hardly any foreigners, are now ‘bule central’.

Around the corner from our house is a little shop, basically a slapped together convenience store served a very limited ranged of drinks and snacks. The family who owns it, also owns the set of houses behind it, and its function is as much a meeting place, as a money-generator. During the day the ladies sit on the steps and natter, pembantu’s toting babies, and cleaners, pass by and stop to share gossip. In the evening its a male scene, with the bored younger guys hanging out, drinking arak, or cheap rum and watching premiership football on saturday nights on the small TV.

When I ride past I wave, and they say ‘Ba Pak Jevon’ (father of Jevon) as it customary. They are used to me and I used to them. For the last couple of years I passed an old Balinese man, tottering along the gang with a stick, ‘Selamat pagi’, I’d say and he would nod after recognizing me. He passed away a few months ago, and I was thinking how different his environment was, from his youth. Back then there were no westerners in Seminyak, now he had western neighbors and relatives who speak English and Bahasa Indonesia, sometimes better than their native Balinese.

The family who owns the shop employs a pembantu (helper) named Komang, who is from North Bali. Komang is there 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, watching everything. She has a mischievious grin, and it has been highly entertaining, watching the stream of Indonesian and western guys, who stay in the guest houses nearby, come and sit in the little shop all day long, trying to get somewhere. A western friend who visited me said “Oh yeah, she’s putting out the vibes alright.” I guessed early on it was just because she was bored. Anyway a couple of month ago Komang got married to a guy from Denpasar (guy on the right), she’s now 5 months pregnant, and her life is pretty much set from here on out. If Komang had of ended up with one of those friendly Euro guys, her future would be very different, such are the possibilites for a young Seminyak local these days.

As far as Jevon is concerned, living in a Balinese community is great. His friends come over to play with him (or more accurately, his toys), and when he goes over to the shop with Ika, the boys let him fly their kite. Having a pembantu to clean and friends to entertain, the mother is very content.