I’m sitting at the beach, open my phone and scroll through my messages. It feels like someone covers me with a blanket of love. As sand slips through cracks and openings to fill those spaces, leaving room for movement, shifting and change, this is how your love fills the gaps around me. Thank you so much for bringing me the sun during the past days when I was standing in the rain. Your words give me the strength to get up every morning and make the best out of each day.
Heaven can’t wait
Most of you know my story; I was backpacking around Indonesia, ended up on Gili Air, fell in love with this paradise island and never left. A few years ago the incredible talented Marella made a documentary called ‘Heaven can’ wait’ about my life on Gili Air. You can find the trailer of the documentary here. Unfortunate, for now, you can only watch the trailer on a laptop / pc. I recommend you to watch the trailer and you will see and understand why we call Gili Air the most magical place on earth and why I decided never to leave. Not even after a 7.0 earthquake ; -)
Little things make big days
If you ever wonder what do to for a friend or stranger in need, this are just some of the things that people did for me in the last week that made my day:
- Putting pulsa (phone credit) on my phone and the phones of my staff so we can stay connected to the outside world.
- Telling me (message after message) that we will get through this.
- Helping me to set up our GoFund Campaign as our internet connection didn’t work.
- Sending me poems.
- Putting fresh flowers next to my bed.
- Giving me the advice to keep singing as this is proven to release trauma
- Sending me music
- Telling me I should have sex to release the tension and offering me their house so my Sunshine and I can have some privacy.
- Organizing fundraisings
- Telling me random stories which make me forget about everything for a second
- And much more!
Life is for most of us a continuous process of getting used to things we hadn’t expect
When I saw our house and our villas for the first time the destruction was too big to comprehend, too big to take in. Now we are almost numb to it. The images of strewn bricks, concrete and twisted metal have become the new norm. They’ve lost their shock value. I guess in the end you just get used to it. One of our boys named Andre went back to Java. He has a big network and is helping us from there to get things organized. Hopefully soon a team of engineers will arrive on the island to inspect our buildings.
My family reunited
Yesterday Pudja (one of our boys) arrived home and if everything goes well Ivan and Iling will arrive tomorrow. Slowly slowly my family is getting back together. One of my boys Herman is in a camp in Lombok together with 53 other people. They are constantly running out of food and water. We will keep trying to bring supplies to him and his village for as long as they need.
I would love to share more stories with you but I need to start organizing the supplies for Herman. I wish it was over but it’s only just begun. Please give what you can spare and keep SHARING my story.
Love Rose
Feel free to share 
