In Reply to: Advice from the formites please... posted by Miss ford on Thursday, 22. February 2007 at 08:34 Bali Time:
We have taken many things over to Bali for many years.
Some things for different schools,
some things for the birthing clinic in Ubud,
some things for some of our beach friends,
and some things for our Bali manager and his family.
Coffee, Sugar, rice, even fruit are all good acceptable things
to give to people as a gift (buy everything there fresh),
this way the whole economy is supported.
For your friend, if he is 25 and lives with friends and does not
go to his village very often, one of the reasons could be as simple
as petrol costs / or bus fare to get there. I gave on our previous
trip the equivalent of AU$7 to a guy (that we have known for years)
that wanted to go up to his village - he just needed the bus fare.
It is NOT offensive to them to give an "offering or donation",
just put some cash inside an envelope and say this is to help you
with your life.
You will find that cash helps - and helps a lot. A DVD player is fine,
yet then they have to but DVD's (as cheap as they are to us, even finding AU$1.30 +/- for a DVD can sometimes be tough).
I know its a bit like sticking $20 inside a birthday card, yet then it
can go towards what they really need.
Up in Singaraga where we have a sponsor child (through Helen Flavel),
we take up big bags of fruit and rice to give to the families, plus
we also take with us for our sponsor child a special bag of goodies
which we put together before we go to Bali (its a bit like Christmas).
I also give them a cash donation (approx AU$30) to 3 different
families ... to help them buy the things THEY need. On our last visit
up to this remote village, there was a lady that had a very bad tooth
ache - it was causing her a lot of pain. I asked how much would it cost
for her to go to the dentist ... RP50,000 ! ... so just AU$7
Just stock my hand in my pocket, pulled out a 50,000 and told her
to go see the dentist ASAP. Under normal circumstances she would have
just left it and put up with the pain. So as you can see, sometimes
a small $ / Rp donation can go a long way.
Hope this helps :)
Regards, Geoff & Louise