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Saturday, April 4, 2020

The Score

So what, you ask, is the covid news from Bali?

Well, seeing as how all of my coffee spots are either closed or late opening and takeout only, I went down to the beach this morning for a walk while the maid was busy at my place. (The main thing is to get out of her way). The beach, as it turns out, is just about the safest place to go under present circumstances because there is barely a soul to be seen. Talk about social distancing. I did run into one Ibu (older woman) clinging to the hope that someone might pass by so that she could sell something from her little shop on Sindhu beach. There is a little complex of these shops just to the landside of the beach walkway, and hers was the only shop still open. She guided me back to the establishment to survey her array of generally worthless items and finally I picked out a little cloth carrying bag, for I had told her that I needed a new man purse and this was all she could come up with. But my goodness, I could not help but wonder how the poor old woman's family is eating.

Back to the beach then, I strolled east for a ways, and came upon a second woman, this one selling an item of more worth, for what she had was an enormous bag of hand-sewn face masks in many colors of brightly patterned material. "Three layers!" she said. "Better than store bought."

Well, this seemed an industrious idea to me. Meet the need, and do so with class. So I bought one of these, only 10.000 Rupiah (less than one dollar). Actually, I wish I had bought more, for upon arrival back home, I gave the mask to Sia, a nice woman who lives here in my apartment complex, as I thought she would appreciate the decorative pattern. I suppose they would even make good stocking stuffers, if covid stays around that long.  And at this point, who knows, right?

Took me a couple of pictures, found me a coffee, and then sat on the beach for a time. Quite peaceful, it was. No tourists running about in swimsuits, no waitresses bustling back and forth, no children screaming in the surf--just lone fishermen in peaked straw hats wading waste deep in the placid waters.

Incidentally, I've been chatting a bit with an ER doctor in Surabaya (which is a city of fair size on the island of Java). She herself has now tested positive for coronavirus, is feeling rather sick, and is self-isolating at home. It's happening all over the world, folks, frontline healthcare professionals first. I hope to talk to her more so that I might learn more of what is going on, for as I mentioned yesterday, we common folks know very little at all.

The score today is 2092 positive, 191 dead.
 

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