Please, my pubic hair!

I have only been in Indonesia for about 10 days or so and apparently, I have already made an announcement about my pubic hair!

I have been spending a lot of time chatting with my neighbour, her husband, and his friends, as we pass the kammus (dictionary) along. I now pay my neighbour's husband 300,000rp a month to be my motorcycle-taxi driver.

So he explains to me, when I am out somewhere and I want to come home, I should call him to say "jamput saya." (lit: pick-up me)

So I said, "silakan, jamput saya," (please, pick-up me) Or so I thought I did.

I knew I have trouble with the indonesian p/b pronounciation, but I didn't thought it was a big deal, until I called myself pubic hair.

Deddy (neighbour's hubby) started laughing, and says, "jamput, tidak jambut. Jambut ini," then he points his finger to his groin and make a circle around. I HONESTLY cannot tell the difference when he contrasts jambut vs jamput, and I didn't understand at the time what he was trying to tell me. Later, his friends arrive, some speak some English. Deddy made me say jamput again, which I tried, which apparently sounded more like jambut, and they all laughed. I asked his friends what it means, they just point to their groin and say "this here".

Next day, I went to see Deddy's huge family -- his parents, his brothers and sisters, his brother and sister in law, and their children. And as soon as I got there, Deddy told them I can't say "jamput." Then he pointed at me and tell them "coba" ("try to get her to say it.") I was too embarrassed (in front of strangers that I don't know!) to say it, but they all had a good laugh anyways.

One of Deddy's sisters married a Dutch man and speaks a bit more English, so I asked her again, "what is jambut?" (trust me, I already looked it up in 3 dictionaries and it's not there.) When she managed to stop giggling, she finally pointed to her groin and told me, "hair in here, what in English?" That's when I found out, instead of saying "please pick me up," I said "please, my pubic hair." >_< @_@ u_u .......


Other than some occasional embarrassment, life has been good and mellow. I have decided travelling isn't for me, at least the tourist package type travelling isn't. The best thing ever happened to me in my life is probably going to Canada, the second best being coming here to Lombok. Despite a pretty rough time, I am having the time of my life in here now. Life is quiet, the loudest noise here in our muslim village is the geckos and the muslim's prayers. (which is kind of funny... my neighbour's teenage son, after dinner, wears the best dress in the family and kneel down in front of the PlayStation2 and bow his head down on the ground a few times. Since the rest of the family also does that, I figure that's the direction they are supposed to pray to. But, in all seriousness, it looks like they are bowing and preying to the PlayStation!)

I am lucky in that everywhere I go, I seem to get adopted by nice people. In Canada, Crystal's family and Ryan's family both adopted me and took me in for many family holidays and camping trips etc. And now, my nice neighbour have taken me into their huge family, and already made me promise to keep in touch with e-mail if (when) I go back to Hong Kong (even though they don't have e-mail yet).

Speaking of my neighbour -- you might notice I said "my neighbour's husband." Of course, he lives next door as well, but I think that's the only way I can demonstrate my respects for the lady (Ibu Uni) next door. Ibu Uni is truly an amazing superwoman. She is a breast feeding mother who is also a teacher at elementary school; so she takes the youngest child to school with her everyday so she can both work and breast feed and care for the child. And in the mean time, she makes some money by making me food, and also making muslim clothing to sell to friends and family. Her husband Deddy, on the other hand, stays home to take care of the other children and the chicken. He used to be a Blue Bird driver, which apparently works the driver to death (from 6am-11:00pm, which is extrodinary work hours in Lombok,) but he only made 5000-7000rp a day -- less than what we tip our taxi driver! So after the children are born, he quit his job and stay home to take care of the chicken and the children... and to chat with friends. His wife Uni takes care of all the money matter, and everytime he wants some money, such as money for tobacco, or for food for chicken, or some snack, he has to ask his wife.

You are probably thinking, "what a loser." At least two of my university-educated, progressive girlfriends in Canada have confessed in girl talks, that despite being feminists, they just personally cannot handle a boyfriend that 1) makes less money than they do, or that 2) is shorter in height. I can more or less understand, but let me tell you, I have nothing but affections and respects for Deddy. I am kidophobic, but he is really great with his kids, the little one cries all the time, and their 4 year old occasionally cries as well, which their mom is helpless to stop, but as soon as dad talks to them and cuddle them, they stop crying. To me, THAT'S what hot guys are made of. I have always said I don't want to get married; but if I can find a guy who will stay home to take care of my kids and my cats, I might reconsider!


The less great side of my current life is my health. I've got the run for two days now. I stopped counting the number of flies I swallow through my drinks now. Ever since I went to the market to buy groceries with Ibu Uni, I (put things into perspective and stop being mad about being ripped off, because I found out everything I pay for in the tourist area has been marked up for about 10x.) I am surprised I can eat at all. Everywhere we go in the market, every item is covered in flies. For example, we went to buy the dried coconut for shredding. The coconut is already covered in flies, then the teenage boy puts it through the shredder, more flies landed in the shredded coconuts, but the boy just scoops the product -- coconut mixed with flies -- into a plastic bag, and Ibu Uni didn't even flinch. It used to be that after a fly or two land in my drink, I will just dump it in the toilet. But, I have to eat eventually, so I swallowed my squirmishness (and a lot of flies) and currently, I rely on fruit flies as my major source of protein.

No, I kid you not. I pay enough money for food that Ibu Uni [used to] give me some meat every meal. But Mr. Ogi has a habbit of rubbing between his toes with his finger then play with the meat on my plate, then ask me "you don't eat meat?" And before I can answer no (because he touched it with his filthy fingers!), he already took it and ate it! Now that I have successfully established my hierarchy and trained Ogi well,(no more touching, no more kissing, and no more borrowing money,) the kids get in the way. They will stare at me while I eat. To be more specific, they will stare at the meat on the plate. I ask them, "mau makan?" And the little one will just shake her head and continue to stare. I will ask again, and she will just stare, and finally, I ask for the thrid time, she will nod her head and consume the meat. Ibu Uni must have notice I don't eat much of the meat, because she no longer give me meat.

In Canada, I can buy a slap of low grade steak, or at least grounded beef, cheaper than I can buy a bell pepper or a large tomato (I kid you not, veggies is THAT expensive in BC, and even more so in Alberta.), so I more or less turned into a meat-getarian. Now that I share meal with my Sasak neighbour (we eat dinner together; but they serve me meals on a try during the day because I am not fasting.), I cannot remember the last time I eat meat. They did offer me some "koroppo" the other day, which is deep fried cow-skin, with hair still stuck on it, I took one bite out of politeness and quickly decided it's not for me. It tastes slightly better than cat kibbles...

They also fed me a Lombok dish called "plarcyng", which I remember because the whole time I ate the dish, my hand was "clutching" my water bottle. It was so spicy it burned my lips off, but it's GOOD.

But, to add more stress to my body, I had to take my doxacycline (anti-malaria meds) on empty stomach. My advice is, DON'T DO IT. It burns so badly for a few hours I thought my stomach might be bleeding; I actually had goosebumps on my skin from the pain.

Other than ingesting large amount of insects, constantly second-hand smoking, a drastic change in diet (what I call insectivorous vegetarian), and the doxacycline side effect, I am generally healthy. In fact, I am surprised I have't got diarrhea until yesterday, because frankly, I have ate more fruit flies in a week than most people would ever ingest in their entire life time.

So that's my life for now. I am in love with the Jakarta band, the Radja already, and even though I have no idea what I am singing, I love to sing "Tulus" and "Jujur." I can also converse a little and body language makes up for the rest. Most importantly, I am alive and happy.

You all take care, and say hi to Kira for me!

-C