Money Talks

 I was talking to a friend in Jogyakarta yesterday and was surprised to find that foreigners will not be able to enter Bali until July. I'm sure the authorities had said April before, but it seems now that they want at least half of Indonesians to be vaccinated before the island is reopened. Probably a good idea, although harsh indeed on the businesses here, or at least those associated with tourism. 

But I thought then about Wayne, Louis' boyfriend, who is still trapped in Australia. She had told me recently that he would be here in a couple weeks, at which time they would move to their villa in Nusa Dua. How can this be, I asked, given the July date I heard from my friend? 

"Oh, it's okay," Louis said. "I already bribed a guy at immigration." 

Well, yeah. Yup. That's how it works here. Money talks. And Rupiah talks rather readily. 

So anyway it looks like Louis will be my next door neighbor for only a couple weeks longer. To tell the truth, I've kind of enjoyed having her here. I mean, she usually brings me food every day, or cookies, or what have you. And also she has certainly gotten things done at my house and in the neighborhood. Getting a new road built, for instance. Getting my front yard canopy erected. And so on. 

The general Indonesian attitude is to be polite and to avoid disagreements to the point of worthlessness. But Louis somehow missed out on that character aspect of the common Indonesian. When people have signed up to do a job, she is not at all shy about screaming at them until they actually do it. She could make some enemies in this way, sure; but the thing with Louis is that she just plain doesn't care! And anyway, ultimately she's not going to live here, so whatever. 

Other than that, it seems that my laptop battery is about to die, so this will be the end of my communication today. Over and out and all that jazz.