After I finished my studies through the exchange program, I stayed in Bali for another 3 months to do my internship at the same university. I helped the new exchange students to settle down to the uni life and organized events together with the local students. I also took part on a volunteer project where we took clothes and other things to one poor family together with the students and our teacher. Here is the story of the family.
In the village of Bangli lives one family of four generations. I Gusti Ngurah is one of the thee brothers of the family. He is only 21 years old but is already married and has two children. When I Gusti was young, he had a motorbike accident and his right leg was damaged. Because of his family didn't have money for the operation, he lost his leg and now has an artificial leg as a donation from one association. While he cannot do too physical work, he makes baskets out of bamboo for living.
His wife, Uspita, 22 years old, has also a physical disadvantage while she cannot use her right hand since she was born. Therefore, it makes it even more difficult for both of them to take care of their two children, both under 2 years old.
In the village of Bangli lives one family of four generations. I Gusti Ngurah is one of the thee brothers of the family. He is only 21 years old but is already married and has two children. When I Gusti was young, he had a motorbike accident and his right leg was damaged. Because of his family didn't have money for the operation, he lost his leg and now has an artificial leg as a donation from one association. While he cannot do too physical work, he makes baskets out of bamboo for living.
His wife, Uspita, 22 years old, has also a physical disadvantage while she cannot use her right hand since she was born. Therefore, it makes it even more difficult for both of them to take care of their two children, both under 2 years old.
I Gusti and his family live together in the same house with his parents and two younger sister, Asea 4 years old and Dewi 10 years old. Both of the parents are farmers growing cucumbers on a rental field. However, that doesn't make enough money to support the whole family.
Also I Gusti's granparents live in the same village, in a small one room house next to them. Both of the grandparents are over 70 years old and still working as farmers to make enough money for the family. The grandparents have always lived in the same village and never been anywhere else.
The house where the family lives has two rooms, one for I Gusti, his wife and two children, one for his parents and his two sisters. They also share a small kitchen corner together. The house is build from left over materials and as the wind on the mountains gets sometimes really strong, it sometimes blows the walls of the house down.
It also gets really cold there at nights and therefore the donation of clothes from the students was really needed. It also rains quite often on the mountains and the roof of the house leaks from many places. The whole village has one Asian style toilet and a bucket shower but nobody uses them while the people of the village are used to do their needs behind their houses and have a bath on the river nearby.
Our teacher visited this village couple of weeks ago because the mother of I Gusti is originally from the same village as he is. As also in the Balinese Hindu religion has a belief to help each other, he wanted to support this family by donating money for I Gusti to make a living in the future. 2.5 million Rupiahs is enough for I Gusti to buy seeds of a special flower which can be grown on the mountains and sold for 10 000 Rp per kilo and during the special Balinese ceremonies for 25 000 Rp per kilo. As a farmer, I Gusti can work on his own and rest every time when he needs because of his disability.
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