I Made Degun, a woodcarver who creates cats, koala bears and kangaroos for the trinket trade, sat at the lowest rung of what seemed to be the infinite tourism boom in Bali. His inexpensive souvenirs, snatched up by visitors who ventured to this artistic town by the vanful, gave him a new way of life: a house with a second story, a motorcycle to ferry the goods to market, even a modest shop in his front yard. But eight months after Islamic militants blew up a Bali nightclub with a car bomb, killing 202 people, most of them Australian revelers, Mr. Degun’s income has vanished. He is months behind on payments for loans on his house and precious motorbike. His 6-week-old baby, born with Down syndrome, was delivered free of charge by a sympathetic midwife. A garden of scrawny leaf vegetables and donations of rice from relatives help Mr. Degun, and his wife, Ni Ketut Masni, feed their four children. Soon after the terror attack, there were predictions that Bali’s tourism business would bounce back: the dominant Hindu culture, distinctive from the rest of Muslim Indonesia, would beckon travelers. Full Story
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