Today's featured crew member from the cruise is Kadek. Kadek was one of the guys who roamed the deck selling drinks (kind of a male version of a cocktail waitress). Kadek was even quieter and more reserved than Danilo. His English was also much more labored and limited. He did fine and we were able to communicate, but you could tell it was a struggle at times.
Kadek is from Bali (one of the islands of Indonesia). He is quite young, not married and Hindu . We didn't get to talk with him quite as much as Danilo, but we did speak to him enough times to learn a lot about him. His family formerly owned a business in Bali. Almost all of the money that comes into Bali is from tourism (or at least it used to be that way). In 2002 and again in 2005 there were Muslim terrorist bombings near his parents' business. As a result of these bombings the tourism business all but died and they lost the business for good. To this day the tourists still have not returned to Bali and the locals have a lot of difficulty making any significant money.
Through our conversations we also learned that all of the islands in Indonesia (and there are MANY), have different cultures. In Indonesia there are mostly Hindus and Muslims, but also some Buddhists and a few Christians. Kadek described for us the teeth filing ceremony all people from Bali go through as a rite of passage (usually around age 17). For reasons that we still don't quite understand, the people of Bali file down (not all the way) the top 6 and bottom 6 front teeth. He described how after the ceremony they bite into a coconut to stop the bleeding and then toss the coconut into the ocean as an offering to the gods (notice the plural and lower case g of gods). He also described for us the many gods of the Hindus. He described gods of the ocean, wind, sky and many others. We explained that we have only one God and you could tell that notion was very strange for him. It's all just fascinating.
On the last day of the cruise, after a long conversation, I gave Kadek a cash tip (one that obviously looked large to him). He placed his hand over his heart in disbelief and was unsure at first of accepting it. At my insistence he took it and nearly cried. He went on to invite us to his home island of Bali and described in great detail how we would be cared for and our safety ensured if we ever visited. In short he said he would be with us all the time as our host. He also said we were now his "American Parents". We could tell he didn't just sling this label around as a means to gain a tip. He was quite sincere and we accepted him as our Indonesian son. I think we would have been able to see through him if it was a ploy to get money. It wasn't.
Much like Danilo, Kadek is a nice, kind, gentle, warm, sweet man. We had so much fun getting to know him and hope that our small tip in some way helped him. Also like Danilo, it was painful to leave Kadek (or should I say our Indonesian son? :-)
Since leaving the cruise, Tami and I did some checking and we discovered our church sponsors a missionary couple in Indonesia. We acquired their address and intend to connect with them in some capacity. Where things go after the initial contact, I really have no clue. It will be interesting to see what God may have for us.
I regret I do not have a photo of Kadek. However, we do have his Facebook information and maybe we can get a photo that way.
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