What do the men do?

      As we travel around Bali, we've been photographing women at work.  The men are often missing from the photos.  But they are there.  They are often in the background.  We've wondered what they are doing.  Mostly, I am aware that they are managing.  They are also almost always racing around on their motorbikes, managing the affairs of the village and state, no doubt.
      One night I walked up our hill to discover a large group of motorbikes parked together.  A few roosters wandered around between the wheels.  As I got closer, I heard shouting, cheers.
     Men in Bali love volleyball!

Group of men playing volleyball one evening in Penestanan Village.

     But the women?  These women of Bali do everything!  They plant the rice, they harvest the rice, they cook the rice, and they wash the rice dishes.  
     It's incredible seeing them at every work site doing heavy manual labor in their flip flops.  They walk everywhere usually carrying something on their heads:  heavy bags of cement, groceries, bricks.
     As in most cultures, the women also take care of house and home, caring for elderly relatives.  Here in Bali, they make the offerings to the gods but are not allowed in certain temples if they are menstruating or pregnant since that is not "clean."  The men are always clean, I guess.  They are always allowed in the temples.
     One more thing about the women-- the really astonishing part--  is that women also run the market place, work in tourism, and end up managing and running their own shops and cafes.  They are actually very powerful in business-- at least a select few.
      Which brings me back to the men, and the nagging question, "What do the men do?"
      The men help with tourism, they drive cars, they work in the rice fields, and they build.  Most often, when we are out and I have my camera, I see them.
     They are sitting.  They are watching.  They attend the ritual cock fighting ceremonies at the temple.  Early morning, late at night, from our bed in Ubud we could hear the cheering from the fights.

     Today as we drove across Bali, I saw the men in a new light.  Groups of men were gathering in every town and village.  They were dressed in white and carrying banners.
     Women were not visible.  Instead thousands of Balinese men were staging a protest against proposed land reclamation.
     This resistance movement is about the destruction of native land to further the tourism business.  For example, there are plans to build a Disney like "all-inclusive" tourist island.  You can imagine.  The Bali men are imagining.



     The future is at stake, and the men of Bali are rallying together to fight mega moves that would devastate further the environment as well as the culture of this precious island.
      Perhaps it is already too late. As it is, we arrived in Kuta today and I'm heartbroken to see the mess in this part of Bali.  As one travel writer said so well, "Kuta may well be the most vile place on Earth."
     Think of the worst fraternity party gone bad.  Drunk Australians.  No temples.  T-shirts for sale that say disgusting things.
     Kuta isn't the Bali I've come to know, but it is a big fat warning.  I suspect these resistance men have seen the damage in Kuta, and they are inspired to do something to protect what they hold sacred.
     I am on their side.  I hope they succeed.


So what else do the men do?

     They are artists, musicians, dancers, wood carvers, jewelry makers, painters, and so on.
Everywhere we traveled, the men were creators of beauty.



      Here is a silversmith working in the village of Celuk.




       Oh, and yes.
     The men of Bali do a great job helping to care for children, especially while women work.  I took the picture to the right from the car window.  A father and his son.

      Finally, I offer my apologies to all people for any stereotypes I've portrayed here.  This note is one tourist's view given after a very short visit to a complicated and beautiful place.


      During my stay, I have never felt safer around men.  Balinese men are kind, very kind.  They are funny.

      I've so fallen in love with Nyoman, our driver, and Adi, who has managed our stay in this fabulous Ubud house.  Nyoman told me today that I was "a souvenir memory" he would keep.
      I say the same back to you, my soul brother.  The same to you.