Sunday 29th July.
Today we are off to Munti with Smudge. Southern Cross Bali & Yayasan thru Smudge look after a village on the slopes of Mt Agung. There are a number of primitive villages up the mountain but the chief of the villages has declared that we can only go as far as the village at the bottom of the mountain.
The villagers do not see a lot of westerners as it is around a 4.5 hour trip each way from Kuta through Candi Dasa & along the coast about half way to Singaraja.
Smudge had a full load with 100kg of rice, other supplies & a new 'drop toilet' & we followed behind with pencils, crayons, books & 75 kg of rice for the villagers. We also took toiletries etc some of which were donated by Balibec & her sister Rissa.
Smudge also took a lady & her son, who had eye treatment in Kuta back to the village. The lady, aged about 30 had 5 previous children all who had died through malnutrition & this little boy aged about 7 had survived. He caught an eye infection & the village 'witch doctor' treated his eyes with a toxic substance which caused him to go blind. Doctors in DPS had drilled into his eye & this has given him limited 'tunnel vision'. So sad. His mother looks very frail & because their village is so isolated even Made could not communicate with her.
Fantastic scenery along the way & after a drama with a tree & a puncture we eventually arrived at the village. Very dry & dusty as they don't get a lot of rain & in fact they cart water by hand about 2 km every day. Too dry to grow anything in the area. Southern Cross have installed a 1000 gallon tank, a community 'lean to' & a community kitchen but conditions are not good & about 50 people live in 3 small rooms. The villagers are a very happy group of people tho.
We distributed the 'goodies' to many thank you's & hand kissing, Smudge & Made took feet measurements for the supply of shoes for the kids next trip.
You have to admire the work of Southern Cross Bali (Chris & Ken) who do so much fundraising in Perth (pubs etc) & Yayasan (Smudge & Made) & their helpers. When you see the need, it makes you wonder where to start helping.
The trip back was a long haul & driving on the open road at dusk amoung the trucks buses & motor bikes was horrendous. Said a few 'Hail Mary's' along the way.
The last few days in Bali were spent shopping for more 'bloody handbags', sitting around the pool & on the beach.
We went to S&S most evenings & enjoyed chatting with other forumites. I have been trying to 'do a deal' with Sammy to take his beautiful daughters as my wives but can't get him to agree. I offered to swap MT for them but he wasn't interested, said I would take Suzie also, still no go. Finally offered to give him Rp45million but I have a picture of Sammy on my webshots album with his arms crossed saying 'NO DEAL'.
I guess I will have to keep MT as well to get the deal thru. Lol. Another sacrifice.
The return flight with Singapore air was good (but long) & service terrific as usual we arrived back to 7 degrees in Adelaide & pining for beautiful Bali before we even got off the plane.
Any questions welcome.
Photos are on http community.webshotsDOTcom dennisc71. (www not required)