Bali day #4
Wot a nite version 2! Last night it was awake and noisy! When you're75% asleep and someone is noisy, it is tempting to lapse into anger.
This anxiety stuff is a bugga. I have had a revelation and that is that we are only just 'keeping the lid on' Kaylia's anxiety ... our efforts make it possible for her to cope with the world at this level .... but to cope with such things as the "Kid's Club", the anxiety would need to be much, much lower. My mental image is that we keep her anxiety at about 70-80% whereas a non-auty person would be at about 20-30%. We all have some anxiety ... self-consciousness, worry about finances and so on .... but it is at a level where that doesn't stop our daily functioning. Kaylia (without help) would be stranded in a fog of anxiety. And anxiety at a certain level is functional - we interpret it as concern .... without it we would not care about our families.
This thought line was prompted by watching a line of little kids walking along with just a couple of adults guiding them ... and I was trying to imagine Kaylia doing that! Naaaah!
Another idle thought while floating in the pool .... what proportion of hotel guest have an MP3 player of some sort? ..... and what proportion of those are iPods? Earphones seem to be everywhere! No wonder we don't talk .... we all have earphones stuck in the aural orifice!
..... and the number of electronic items close to water! Not too long ago, we'd have all been too wary to take electronics near the pool.
After lunch we went to Bali Collection for icecream again. (Don't dress Kaylee in white when she is about to have chocolate icecream!) Kaylee goes into icecream-zen state and the dregs go anywhere!
Ian & Kaylee had a long swim in the afternoon. (N is worn out from last night.) Fortunately, the pools here have shady spots all over so you don't have to be in the sun while having a swim. Kaylee's behaviour this afternoon has been odd - highly anxious, crying and whimpering from time to time .... she doesn't want to change what she is doing ... but she is not happy. I wish we could find the answer. It'd be great if we could press a button and get a readout ... "XYZ is the problem.... do this ...." I hope she calms down by tonight.
Back in the room and Kaylee is mellow again. We took her off to the Pause Cafe where the staff are getting used to K and her order of "beef bacon,extra crispy". She is completely disinterested in other food at the moment...other than donuts and icecream! It's like her little brain has formed the association that when in Bali, must eat the bacon. She and I are on the couch at the moment eating a mini magnum. I've decided that K would do well on the Atkins Diet!
She still has a hacking cough which could also be part of her ups and downs at the moment. When she came back from the pool she made a point of attaching herself to N then proceeded to ask for the swimming pool. Ian was off having a snooze and after being told "no" she was content to just lie on top of N....with the promise that we'd be going swimming tomorrow.
Right now she has stolen N's iPod and is working her way through N's dance and hip-hop collection. She is the only child we know who can fall asleep with techno on her ear phones, max volume. Must be something about the repetiton & rhythm which is comforting....
Have you considered asking the locals whether there is anything in Balinese life/culture which could help Kaylia? Even Balinese techniques for dealing with "bad spirits"? Do the locals ever ask what's wrong and engage in talk about it?
ReplyDeleteI'm not joking about this. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, ... Wouldn't hurt to find out if they know anything about it, whether there are any Balinese auties.