Day 22: Singaraja

Our final official field day! We started off bright and early at 7:30, and headed to a local art market that I had heard about but suspected was just a standard market with foods and clothing.

Turns out I was right, and there were only a few art stands and those selling baskets hadn’t even created them! This said to me that a local art market is lacking and needed! Also I almost bought a duck. Since I had pointed out the cute ducklings in a cage to Cody, the seller lady thought I wants to buy one, but when I said no to her she glared in response! I then ran away, but it was tempting to bring my own little Aflack home with me.

Next we went back to our old home of Sudaji Village to visit Zen Zen and receive his input on our project. He was actually extremely supportive and loved the cooperative idea, and also said he would be able to put us in touch with artists who may be interested, and would love to partner with us since he could send tourists to the shop. This encouragement was just what we needed after the ups and downs of the last week, and really confirmed the viability of this venture.

Then it was off to meet a famous artist/dancer named Durpa who Ary really wanted to talk to. I was a little less than impressed with his business advice, as it was a lot more touchy feely than I am, and centered around finding artists who are fully committed in their craft and not concerned with money at all. I don’t think those two things are necessarily mutually exclusive, and furthermore this venture is based at least in some part in getting more money for artists, so it’s already finance-centric. Anyway the power of networks here really does continue to surprise me, and disregarding the fact that we don’t have much more than a loose plan Durpa put in a call to a contact at one of the top shops in Denpasar and said that he could help us form relationships with possible buyers throughout the island. And this was from a man we had only met about an hour previously because Ary’s friend knew Durpa’s son!

After the encouraging morning we decided it was time to expose the Balinese in our group to pizza! Off we went to Louvina and had some pretty decent if overly sweet pizza. We decided to stay there and work on our project as they had free wifi, plus we were the only ones there and they had a fan!

Dian experiencing her first pizza!

Putra eating pizza with pedas, hot sauce!

I don't think the Balinese especially loved the food, especially when Putra later confided he doesn't like cheese, but it was a very fun meal!

Thank goodness we actually got a fair amount if work done, and with that and our supporters I think we are in track. However the challenge of finding the right artists remains our largest issue and one that we have been successfully avoiding.

Dinner consisted of Korean cup of noodles, and was oddly satisfying as we kicked off our third Reflection of the troop. We shared our biggest obstacle and best learning experience here. My answers were working in a group for both, but it was cool to get to know everyone a bit better based on what they said. Definitely a good group and I am so excited to see what projects come out of all this!

Lessons Learned:

Om Swasti Astu, the greeting I give almost everyone is Hindi! So I should probably stop saying it to Muslims.