Kira Kira turned out to be a fantastic choice for accomodation - i felt blessed that even in my short time away i met someone there who spoke Arabic! Allahu bi rahmah - considering i had just done Level One exam for Arabic at Al Markaz and 2 days later was off to Lombok, without the girls (who had planned to go away wth me but cldn't at the last min) and voila there I was - smack middle of Gili Air (pronounced gheelee Aye-ir) to snorkel and dive and i shd have the fortune to meet Sofie. Sophie is from Lombok but looked chinese and dayak mixed. She had lived in saudi for a few yrs and could speak Arabic. Taka and Masako (both Muslims) shared with me her plight later. Sophie was 8 months pregnant and her husband had just left her a few months ago. She was a cleaning lady for some Japanese families in Lombok when Taka had met her and later decided to employ her at the resort to help her with finances. Ofcourse the worry now was how was she going to manage in her pre- during and post pregnancy phases. Late nights were not easy for her as guests would come in to the resort at any time and ask for tea/coffee and food. Even late night they cooked for us. It's business for them.
So Sophie and I became friends over sunrise walks - and practised our Arabic with one another :) Pure joy.
I have decided to organise some zakat from Singapore to be sent to her - Taka was telling me she wont be able to work with a few months old baby in tow. And she has no other form of income - parents dont have money/income, take money from her, husband doesn't give maintenance. (Typical of men in similar scenarios - i spoke to several island folk and found many cases were like this. They would be having affairs and mistreating their wives. Even the tour guide I had my initial contact with was telling me when I asked if he was married he said yes with two children but he didn't like going home. So he worked longer hours and 'fooled around'. When i asked him why he did that he said he was 'enjoying life'.) It's amazing how quickly i lose my respect for pple who say such things and with such casualness.
Later on Gili Air I met another person - a bar tender. I was walking on a hot day looking for Indonesian food. Came to the last hut where again on the menu i saw only sandwiches, chips etc... which I had no deisre to eat. The bar tender by then had asked me where I was from and said smthg which pleased me - he said "Welcome to my country". Usually having travelled in these countries where people yell out to you a nationality they think you are, it becomes tiring to be called 'India!' (i have given up explaining the Pak-Singapore connection). You take on a nationality! So when this guy didn't yell out a country to me, I actually turned and had a conversation with him. He also offered to get me nasi bunggus (local food, rice with small fish, some cabbage/veggies) and we talked about several things. One of which was on serving alcohol being muslim and he said everyone did it, everyone drank. I was surprised he would give me an answer as that.
So that saw the long conversation i had with this chappie extending into niat, actions, words, iman and you name it we went and discussed at great length. In the middle of all this a very senior man looking half-aboriginal, joined us. He shared how the local Muslims were on the island. The boss of the pub was a muslim man and the young chappie I was speaking to said it was required of his job to taste the cocktails before they are served. So he drank but 'a little'. Again our conversation stretched over many horizons. I wondered what the difference was in saying "I partook in a crime (I didnt really participate in the ___[eg rape] but watched from a distance)" and actually carrying it out. We talked abt what the main message was on alcohol. It was very clear. What is made forbidden for you, do not make it permissible. You can't mince that.
I told him he was such an intelligent guy i didn't see him as a bartender for long. He then shared with me his plans to run his own business with his brother - operating boats.
We talked more and the old man interrupted and said the night before he had a dream where he saw a girl talking to the young chappie over things that many others had tried to tell him but he wouldn't listen. Yet this time round he listened to this female. SubhanAllah i felt i was put in that situation for a reason.
3 days later that young chap had decided (entirely on his own) he was going back to Bali where his family was and fix up his business plans. He had felt some movement within him which is what I'm always hoping for in the young people i do the youth training workshops with - and alhamdulillah he had made some decisions for his own future.
Meanwhile my highlight of the holiday lay several meters under water - mashaAllah what a spectrum of marine life - every trip I make whether is it to the Perhentians (Malaysia), to Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park off Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (northern Borneo), or off Mersing (East of Peninsular Malaysia) i see different alive things and all sooo beautiful. This time I had the fortune of borrowing my friend's underwater camera and although it was my first time using it and had it firmly clasped onto me and around my wrist some of the shots are not so clear.
The homely turtle who swam in front of me for a good 5 minutes and i didn't lose sight of her/him cos it came surfacing to the top and going down again - sweet angel. All this time watching me from the corner of its eye :) it made me smile and I felt comforted in my heart. Like this we saw several other turtles - HUGE ones... but so unafraid of humans. Must be the tourist/traveller element.
And the myriad of fishes, razor fish, clown fish, silver fish, baby reef sharks then the marine lief - anemones, sponges, tubes, corals, nudi branchs... the list is endless. All so awe-gaping and wonderful.
After every underwater session it humbles you immensely to live above the land. We forget there is a life under there, all so teeming and active. Wonderful, mashaAllah.
Pics can be seen at the facebook link. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=609831819&aid=69188
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