Filming for Kiva, Indonesia take TWO

Filming for Kiva, Indonesia TAKE TWO (Injuries happen)

Saturday started off as a great day. We met Father Charlie (See Filming for Kiva Indonesa TAKE ONE for more info) at the Church that morning to interview him about YSBS. His interview was sincere, thought-provoking and heart-warming. You could tell that he was used to the camera and spoke like a seasoned pro.

After the interview Father Charlie took us on a tour of the Church grounds and introduced us to his pet monkeys. Because he is a priest, he is not allowed to have children, so instead, he adopts orphaned monkeys. His best buddy is Sam, who is kept away from the other monkeys due to territorial issues. These little creatures are really smart, and at times pretty aggressive, Father Charlie loves them nonetheless and takes care of them like they are his own family.

After the interview, we had a few hours to kill before heading to the Church to film. While we were in the Philippines, we saw that there were a ton of motor bikes around. But the lack of lanes, traffic lights and safety standards turned me off from renting a motor bike to get around. When we arrived in the small town of Cilacap, the street lights, and limited traffic made me think that I could attempt to rent one. The kind folks at YSBS and the local Church were kind enough to find us a free motor bike to use during the duration of our stay.

After the interview with Father Charlie, we took the motor bike to the local mall to buy some snacks and lunch. There are a limited number of street signs so needless to say, we got a little lost. Luckily, the area is so small that you can still find your way around with a bit of trial and error. We turned down a side street hoping to cut into the larger street. I thought to myself, "this side street is surprisingly very well paved!" then BOOM! There was a giant hole in the ground, the front wheel veered to the left and the bike fell to the right, hitting my shoulder and dragging Yungkit's knee across the dirt road.

I felt intense pain in my shoulder immediately and all I could hear were many different voices asking if I was ok. Yungkit's knee was covered in dirt and we didn't realize how bad it was until we saw blood start to gush out. One man in particular spoke English (pretty rare in the area) and helped us up, got Yungkit water to rinse off her knee and even helped us get a tricycle cart (a taxi, but where a guy is riding a bike) to take us to the hospital. I ended up riding the motor bike, following this man to the local hospital and Yungkit took the cart. When we arrived at the hospital, this man paid for Yungkit's bicycle taxi and refused to take money from us. His only words were, "I am going to go now, we just want you to be ok." We never saw that man again, but his actions showed true selflessness and kindness. Kindness we both intend to pay forward...

At the hospital itself, the nurses tended to Yungkit's wound, which looked pretty bad at this point, and eventually got to look at my shoulder. Turns out it was dislocated! Oops. By the time we found this out, Christina, our awesome YSBS representative had arrived to help us translate. By the time we were at the hospital, the doctors had gone home for the day so we had to wait a while before one was available to help me fix my dislocated shoulder. They had told me they were going to give me muscle relaxant to ease the pain, but the next thing I knew, Christina was waking me up an hour later. I was told that I was actually knocked out and they had to get two men to put my arm back into place, since I was so large. The only words that came out of my mouth were "Kiva blog". I kid you not. Obviously Yungkit, Christina and Arda took it upon themselves to ensure I had great photos to share and here they are:

The next act of kindness was when Christina's friends arrived to the hospital to pick us up. They didn't know us at all, but just because we were in need, they came. The kind lady held Yungkit's hand while she screamed in agony as the nurses cleaned her cut. The couple kindly drove us back to our hotel, but not before stopping by a convenient store to purchasing a sufficient amount of snacks, knowing we would be stuck for a few days.

This accident certainly put a delay and strain on the filming we had to do, but with the awesome assistance of Christina and Arda, we were able to still get amazing footage over the next two weeks after the accident. Getting hurt really sucked, but it allowed us to encounter some incredibly awesome individuals and stay in Cilacap longer. I think that there's still hope for the good will of people to one another...