Leaving Gili Air

The last days, sad to leave, but happy to be heading home, and saying goodbyes amid promises to be back next year.

Littletree did her daily Bahasa Indonesia work over breakfast…

And we got to meet the freshly born twins, Nadiya and Nadira – the newest additions to the family we stay with on Gili Air (pictured being held by their grandmother and great grandmother.)

Littletree spent our last morning playing with Naiela, the little three-year-old girl who lives next door to us; Naiela absolutely adores Littletree, and taught her a bunch of nursery songs in Indonesian.

As a parting gift, Littletree decided to give her soccer ball to Naiela, seeing as proper soccer balls are at such a premium on Gili Air. A very valuable gift indeed!

Naiela was so happy, and Littletree too. Until finally, it was time for us to get on the boat back to Bali. The whole family came out to hug us goodbye, we shall miss them so much!

Beach Football

We brought Littletree’s soccer ball to Indonesia, which has been a great success! Littletree recently discovered a love of playing football (apt, as she was born on a soccer field), and she’s been getting some great practice in on the beach in the evenings.

Not only is football Littletree’s latest sport du Jour, the other kids love playing as well; we’ve gotten some great games happening, with locals as well.

And, as it turns out, football is the main sport on the island, with local teams setting up beach-side games every day in the hour before sunset. The only thing they miss is a proper soccer ball; the games being played with cheap plastic kiddie balls, so Littletree’s proper ball is like gold here.

Gili Air island is incredibly safe, the small local population have an agreement that there will be no crime on the island so as to keep a good reputation with the tourists. Apparently, if any of the locals are caught stealing, they are beaten up and kicked off the island. I feel totally safe to leave my handbag on the beach while I swim, or have my computer on our balcony… but that soccer ball! We can’t leave it unattended for a second!

Every wandering hawker passing by trying to sell sarongs or trinkets or pineapples gets big-eyed when they spot it; we’ve had dozens of offers to trade for it - a king’s ransom in hand-carved Balinese necklaces and batik sundresses. It gets snaffled up every time we turn around, but we always find it in use, not to far up the beach, and the locals always hand it back again cheerfully when we point out that it belongs to Littletree :)

(I wrote this post last week some time, and I thought it published… but - yay for slow, erratic internet – seems it didn’t work, so I’m re-trying again!)