Posted by Anonymous?? on Friday, 16. October 1998 at 22:01 Bali Time:
I've just returned from Bali and either had an extremely special experience or I've been taken for the dummest fool on earth.
Of course it had to do with a girl over there. I had met her last year and as promised we corresponded over the last year, just as friends: nothing more, nothing less.
Over the past year she got very sick so I saw it as my duty to pay for her medicines, which I did.
Having taken a course in Indonesian I decided to visit her again this year which I did.
At first she was extremely glad to see me again and introduced me with all of her friends and family with whom I could communicate well since I'd taken the course I mentioned. I also found out about her illness and her parents were overjoyed to meet the guy who had helped her daughter (and indirectly the parents as well) out earlier this year.
After a little while however she started to avoid me more and more and even had trouble smiling when I was around. Since I'm into socializing with locals I spent quite some time in her (non-touristic) village where I had a great time being as one of the locals. Nevertheless I hardly saw the girl, but got along great with her family and friends (she had to earn money for her family and therefore worked a lot, which her parents confirmed).
Since I had seriously fallen in love with her I had already expressed my feelings towards her and she had admitted feeling the same. Nevertheless I saw her less and less so my disappointment and confusion grew bigger and bigger. That's why I wrote her a letter to express my confusion and disappointment. She anwered that letter with a letter of her own in which she apologized for having acted this way but she couldn't love me because her parents had already arranged a marriage for her. That explained a lot but nevertheless nobody had ever heard about this fact not even her own brother.
A friend of mine had told me that he had heard her mother say that she'd be extremely happy if the girl was to fall in love with me so that's how I found out that what she'd written in her letter wasn't true.
That's why I looked her up at 5.30 am the next day and begged her for an explanation. After one and a half hours of begging and pleading she finally told me the truth: she had promised to marry the son of the owner of her parents' house. If she wouldn't marry him her family would be thrown out of the house. This was her secret and nobody knew about this in the village, except for me and her. Since I thought this was too big a problem to keep between us I persuaded her to tell her parents which she did. The mother was startled and had tears in her eyes hearing what her daughter had to say.
Since I'm a nice guy (:dumm fool?) I tried to find a solution which I found by promising her to wire her money to buy the house from the owner without him knowing that I actually bought it, so "my girl" would be free.
Next to this a lot of other things happened but this is the essence of my story.
Right now I'm back in Europe and thinking a lot about what has happened. Have I done an extremely good deed or have I been taken for a fool?
So many things happened, so many things I've heard while I was there that I find it hard not to believe her. But since I haven't heard from her since I left Bali I'm getting a bit doubtful, although I've been only home for a week or so.
Since none of you Bali freaks have been where I've been none of you can tell me whether I have been taken for a fool or not, but I still appreciate your kind feed back.
Anonymous??