Corona Dairies April 29

Well it has been a few days since I last wrote down my thoughts, hopefully I can remember what has happened through this crazy blurring of days.

Rice was all packed up quite fast with a cast of willing helpers. Unfortunately, it appears some vendors aren’t always accurate when they pack things, we were 86 kilos short of the donated 1 tonne, an average of just over 2 kilos per bag missing which adds up when you are buying in bulk

Another distribution day has passed with 188 families getting care packs, today another 290 families will receive theirs and that completes Desa Bunutan. We move to Desa Culik next, with 525 families identified there.

Positive things have happened, we have now managed to reduce the cost of rice by 10,000 a bag by switching brands and negotiating hard, so that means we can buy an extra kilo of rice for each 10,000 we have saved! Price of oil. Soap and eggs have also come down. We never just accept a price and stop looking for a better one. 

I was asked to help a family from outside our area, when I heard the wife was a tailor, I asked if she could make some masks, in just one week, we have gone from a cry for help for 1 family to being able to get 10 tailors back to work and creating a new income stream. It is things like this that empower people and keep their mental health safe. It was cute to hear how the role reversal has come about in this patriarchal society with the fathers now staying home and doing housework and minding kids whilst the wives are working to support their families.  1000 more masks coming down from them today. 

Some bad things have happened too

Anxiety decided to rear its ugly head for me due to too much stress and cyberbullying.

I have been through this before, there are always people who will decide it is a good idea to tell you what they think you are doing wrong, even if they have no real understanding of the way things work here or the respect that should be shown to the local leaders.

It can be seemingly small remarks that are enough to send me into uncontrollable tears, that one comment or opinion  may be harmless/important  to you, but is it really necessary to convey? Please stop and think about how we are all feeling on the front line, how tired we are, how hard it is ro raise money to keep going. That some of the team have lost their jobs and as foreigners get nothing, worry about their survival here and have no option to return home with closed borders. I personally am one of the lucky ones, my salary has been guaranteed by my employer, although it will probably be cut if this is a prolonged situation which is looking more and more that it will be.  We have tourists ignoring the directives to stay where they are and are flooding out here in search of open beaches and restaurants. They don’t wear masks, how much isolation have they been practicing?  The positive cases in Bali doubled yesterday and included infants.  Things need to change! Immigration has a directive that anyone on emergency tourist visas MUST NOT MOVE out of their accommodation unless it is to buy necessities. This is punishable by jail and deportation, yet still they come! I express my concerns constantly, hopeful that someone will listen and realize that this community is vulnerable with a low economy at the best of times, this means poor diet which equals lower immunity.

I am sad for the fishermen with Tuna dropping from 45,000 IDR to 15,000 IDR per kilo and the mackerel have moved to the Lombok area. This means petrol for fishing Tuna is not really worth it as they are a long way out and it is difficult to even cover the cost of the petrol to get there. Also the cost of petrol to go find the mackerel is a risk and that is fluctuating too- sometimes 1500 ( 15 cents) per fish sometimes even less . On a good day if not so many available, the price will go up to maybe 2000 ( 20 cents) per fish, but that means so many fishermen have gone out and come back empty handed.

The price of pigs and cows has also dropped as people are now flooding the market with them in an attempt to get some cash into their households.

If only we had more water out here we could start towards planting and making changes to help people become more self-sufficient but most crops only grow in the rainy season which has ended now and the terrain varies along the coastline, what now appears to be lush and green will turn into a dust bowl before too long.

Well, that is all I have time for this morning as I now need to prepare for today’s big task. Anxiety seems to be back under control now, so I can better handle the negative comments and criticisms.

If you can’t say something kind, then please put your mouth/fingers in quarantine, we are doing the very best we can in extraordinary situations, if people come with a plastic bag to collect their care packs, although we wish they wouldn’t, that is not really important in this crisis. That bag will get used multiple times by the person carrying it.