school teacher, muslim boy, etc...

Pardon me for not writing more often, Ramadhan is now over and so is Idul Fitri, which means the city is alive and back to normal, and I am picking up my pace again.

The happy thing to share is that I can now speak Indonesian fairly well, definitely not fluent, but good enough to communicate. The sad side is that I lose my Japanese... last night, a friend of Ma came over, he is an amazing muscian who can play everything and play them well (guitar, drum, piano, flute...), and when I told him I studied Japanese in Canada, he started speaking to me in Japanese, so I started to respond in Japanese... and suddenly realize I am speaking in Indonesian. So I tried a bit harder, and still, only Indonesian comes out. I think, Japanese language is lost to me forever.

Life is interesting enough that Internet is quickly losing its appeal... my muscian friends whom I frequently play with will be performing in a music fastival during New Years, too bad I will be in Irian Jaya by then. I decided I am too sick of being a University student so I gave up my plan to study in Un'ram, and instead... I will be teaching English to a bunch of 13 years old in a public junior high school >_< What's wrong with that? Here is what...
1) I am kiddophobic, these kids are only 13...
2) I am a night owl, I start teaching at 8:00am...
3) I am phobic of public speech, I am speaking in front of 45 kids...
4) These people are rigorously... ridiculously religious, and I am supposed to "dress conservatively" (i.e. cover my hair), I will probably melt from the heat. But that's not all, I am supposed to keep the class in order... I mean, those who lived with me or had the misfortune to read my papers probably know I am a post-anarchist who is half heartedly against maintaining authorities and order and all that crap.

So I will find out how that works out tomorrow, I start at 8, I hope I can even get up that early.



In the mean time, I am back to the same-old me. I had my first debate regarding the existence of God with a Koran guru yesterday.

Speaking of this Koran Guru ... there is so much I want to tell you all, but where to start?

I don't think I have ever met a boy as shy as him. He is 24, his parents are farmers and his family is extremely poor. Their house looks like a tornado torn through it years ago and it has not been repaired yet. A wall has collasped and you can see the interior of the house... no, seriously, they are that poor.

But, instead of turning deceitful and shrew to earn some quick money, like so many Indonesian in the tourist industry are... he just travels around the village on foot, to teach little children to read the koran (in bahasa arab)... for free. I met him as "guru Ryan"... nobody knows his name, I only know he teaches Ryan (the teenage boy in *my* family) the koran and to play the guitar; I also know he walks a long way everyday to teach the other kids in the village.

He is small, humble, polite... not as a supervisual social gesture, but out of a sincere, honest respect for muslim etiquette. We hang out a lot, but he always makes sure he takes me home before 6, regardless of how much I protest and insist that I am old enough to stay out late if I want to. For some reasons he thinks my family will be mad at him if I come home any later, or if he keeps hanging out with me, just because he is a guy and I a girl. Dear god, did I time travelled? I didn't know guys like that exist anymore.

His fear for God is almost funny. To be precise, it would have been funny if it wasn't so sincere, and if he wasn't so serious. When he told me he is afraid to watch magic shows and that he is certain those are works of the devils, I laughed in his face... hey, before you start berating me, I feel awful enough about it, I wasn't trying to belittle him or his beliefs, it's just too incredible that someone actually fears god to that extend.

He also made the mistake of confessing his love-life to me. Hey, I didn't even ask, he just volunteered the information. He has a girlfriend, it's his first girlfriend, she has two boyfriends, which is okay with him... my first reaction was, my god, polyamoury in Lombok! But it turns out to be a bit more innocent than that... since he is a muslim guru, and he fears god and all that, he is afraid to even touch his girlfriend, much less kiss or have sex, until they get married. So I am not sure exactly what he means when he says they are dating, but apparently it's A-okay to have many boyfriends/ girlfriends as long as you are not married...

I am now regarding him with some sort of ... exotic interest. I know; I used to get really angry in Canada, when guys I just met approach me and tell me how they have always loved asian women. The whole process of exoticization is just so racist, disrespectful, condescending, and patronizing. But here I am, at the other end now, exoticising this god-fearing boy. I can't help it, I find him so incredibly interesting...


That's my obssession for now. Life is good, I am healthy (but the kids are not... Raisa has been having recurring fevers and it smells like malaria to me... but that's a story for another time)

I hope you all are well in Canada/ HK.

-C