We knew Pak Jamah as a good and generous man. He donated a gamelan set, and revived the legong troupe in our village. Thanks to him, the legong troupe from our village began to perform every night in various hotels in Nusa Dua. When he suggested that we activate the joged bumbung troupe, we ended up having two dance troupes that took it in turns to perform in five star hotels. It didn’t matter that our village was 30km away from Nusa Dua, because we were transported to and from performances in an air-conditioned bus. And we were very proud of the fact that we were the only traditional dance troupe in Bali to do so. Other troupes were taken in the back of a truck and were paid poorly. Our wages were three times that of other dance troupes.

Pak Jamah was like family to us. He kept telling us to hold on to our rice paddies, because they were passed down to us by our ancestors. "Your rice paddies are not only fertile. They are also beautiful," he said at every opportunity. "Not only do they produce rice and vegetables. They will also bring you dollars. People will come and offer you a lot of money for those rice paddies, just because they are beautiful. But don’t sell! Don’t, I tell you! They will only use the land to build a hotel and then it won’t be beautiful here any longer."

Pak Jamah really was a good man. He taught us to take care of the things our ancestors had passed down to us. It was true, a lot of travel agents had started to use our rice paddies as a tourist attraction. They came in big buses which vomited out tourists. They walked around, photographing us as we ploughed or harvested. And it was also true that land agents has started asking if any of us were interested in selling land. Many of were offering very high prices, but we didn’t take any notice.

We were grateful to have met Pak Jamah, and for his advice on the value of a piece of land that was both fertile and beautiful. Whenever he spent the night in our village, we would take it in turns to visit him. You could always tell when he had come, because his house was full of people. Many of us would stay the night in his house.

*******

About two years after his house had been built, Pak Jamah became one of us. His identity card listed our village as his home address, we began going to his house to air our personal problems. Usually these problems concerned money. Most of us didn’t even have enough money to keep our kids in school. When Galungan came and we were yet to harvest, we went to Pak Jamah. He was glad to lend us the money. In all, it added up to a considerable amount, because just about everyone in our village borrowed money from him.

As time went on, the need for money only got more and more acute. And every time for there was a temple ceremony or a cremation we would go to Pak Jamah to borrow money. Of course we felt embarrassed about it, because we kept on borrowing money without ever paying it back. We started offering our land certificates as a form of collateral.

"Ah, I don’t need that! Please, use my money. Don’t think about it! Pay it back whenever you have money," said the friendly Pak Jamah.

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