Then Wayan, whose eyes are not exactly meeting mine anymore, crochets a complicated
story. She tells me that she visited a mystic the other day and the mystic went into a trance
and said that Wayan absolutely needs to buy this entire seven-aro package in order to make
a good healing center... that this is destiny... and, anyway, the mystic also said that if
Wayan could have the entire package of land, then maybe she could someday build a nice
fancy hotel there...
A nice fancy hotel?
Ah.
That’s when suddenly I go deaf and the birds stop singing and I can see Wayan’s mouth
moving but I’m not listening to her anymore because a thought has just come, scrawled
blatantly across my mind: SHE’S FUCKING WITH YOU, GROCERIES.
I stand up, say good-bye to Wayan, walk home slowly and ask Felipe point-blank for his
opinion: “Is she fucking with me?”
He has not ever commented upon my business with Wayan, not once.
“Darling,” he says kindly. “Of course she’s fucking with you.”
My heart drops into my guts with a splat.
“But not intentionally,” he adds quickly. “You need to understand the thinking in Bali. It’s a
way of life here for people to try to get the most money they can out of visitors. It’s how every-
one survives. So she’s making up some stories now about the farmer. Darling, since when
does a Balinese man need to talk to his wife before he can make a business deal?
Listen—the guy is desperate to sell her a small parcel; he already said he would. But she
wants the whole thing now. And she wants you to buy it for her.”
I cringe at this for two reasons. First of all, I hate to think this could be true of Wayan.
Second, I hate the cultural implications under his speech, the whiff of colonial White Man’s
Burden stuff, the patronizing “this-is-what-all-these-people-are-like” argument.
But Felipe isn’t a colonialist; he’s a Brazilian. He explains, “Listen, I grew up poor in South
America. You think I don’t understand the culture of this kind of poverty? You’ve given Wayan
more money than she’s ever seen in her life and now she’s thinking crazy. As far as she’s
concerned, you’re her miracle benefactor and this might be her last chance to ever get a
break. So she wants to get all she can before you go. For God’s sake—four months ago the
poor woman didn’t have enough money to buy lunch for her child and now she wants a
hotel?”
“What should I do?”