After a full day of sightseeing around Purwokerto, we returned and had a quiet rest back at Dwi's place. So nice to be home! But we weren't going to be staying here long. Tomorrow, it was time to be off by train, to Jakarta, and home to Tangerang. Dwi had some important matters to discuss with the administration at
UPH, where he and Yudhie were educated to be teachers. Both of them were able to attend college by contracting with a Christian school system for the cost of their education. Now, after graduation, they each have to work for five years, on contract, for this system. One of the severest limitations is on assignment. They do not have a choice in where they will be assigned to teach. They simply must go where they are sent.
This means that after graduation, friends are immediately separated, sometimes by hundreds of miles, and have to establish themselves in a part of the country that can be not only distant from their families, but also in an unfamiliar culture. Yudhie grew up in Lampung and in Sumbawa, but his assignment was to a school just outside the university campus. Johnson, another classmate, though he comes from the Toraja country in central Sulawesi, was assigned to teach at the high school associated with their university, so at least he was also nearby, and could continue to attend Orthodox services with Yudhie. But Dwi was not so fortunate. He was sent to a school on the remote island of Ambon, which last year saw religious riots and the death of one of their classmates, who was a teacher as Dwi is.
Not only because of the death of his friend and fellow teacher, but because the island is basically unsafe for civilised people, Dwi was afraid to return after the Christmas holiday. He wanted to discuss this with the administrators at the university. That's why we decided to leave Purwokerto early, so that he might have a chance to do that. All of us, his parents and family and us as well were anxious for him to not be in such a dangerous place. So, after understanding the situation, we decided to just stick with Dwi and help him in any way we could. If he decided to return to Ambon for the second semester, he would be leaving early in the morning of the 8th, a few hours after I was to leave on the 7th of January.
This morning, we all got ready for the day and met together downstairs for some breakfast. Eko went out to a local warung and brought breakfast for all of us. Afterwards, Andreas and his wife would drive us to the train station before he went to work. I also was able to meet another Indonesian working at the same wood products company,
Ajiwana Tangguh Nusantara, and was shown some of their products. I wanted to visit the factory but because of our change of plans, I wasn't able to. This will be a trip I want to make when I return here next time. I am always interested in woodworking and wood products, both the skills needed and the materials used.
Most of the day was taken up with travelling home on the train. This time because there were three of us, Dwi and Yudhie sat together part of the time, and then Dwi and I switched places. When I was seated next to another passenger in the seats closest to the big screen TV, I watched an interesting but wacky movie that was in English, with bahasa subtitles. That was as good as having an Indonesian language class.
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| Yudhie and Johnson |
We took a taxi home from the train station in Jakarta, and then ‘regular life’ kicked in. I realised that my ‘vacation’ vacation was over, and now for a couple of days it would be just ‘life at home in Tangerang.’ Between today and my departure on Saturday, we three formed a temporary family to which was added a fourth when Sinta, one of Yudhie's roommates, arrived home from her holiday at home in Manado. It was during this time that I finally met Johnson Kendek, whom I knew through Yudhie, and who is also an Orthodox Christian, but still a catechumen. His family belongs to a modern pentecostal church, and it is going to be difficult for him to make the change. In Indonesia, it is not easy to depart from a family tradition, even when it's not an ancient one.
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| Sinta |
Meeting Sinta and getting to know her was the first time I was able to spend personal time with an Indonesian woman of the young generation. I had spoken to a few older women at church over Christmas, but those conversations were mostly formal. With Sinta, it was just spontaneous getting to know each other. She was also visited by a group of friends, both men and women, and so sometimes the apartment was quite crowded, and I liked it very much. What I noticed most about the young people here is, they know what is right, and they know what their rights should be as members of a free society, yet they are faced with obstacles that remain from early times in their country's history. We talked a lot about what freedom means.
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| Romanós at Radja Ketjil |
The problem with Dwi's return to Ambon was not going away by itself. Though I can't say exactly what happened, or how, he was unable to meet with anyone official, and after delivering a written petition, Dwi decided that it would be best to just return to Ambon. Dwi is a young Christian man, and his decision was not based on fear but on trust. He walked around Jakarta the day Yudhie and I went into the city to attend the services of
Holy Epiphany, the nameday of his parish church. We had hoped he'd come with us to the service, but he had other things he had to do in Jakarta, and so we just arranged to meet at the bus terminal that day and return home together.
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| Yudhie and Dwi look at the menu at Radja Ketjil Restaurant |
But I am already rushing ahead to the 6th of January.
Why don't I have a story about tomorrow? Well, it was, as I said before, just ‘regular life.’ There were highlights, though. Dwi and Yudhie and I had gone to a fancy Chinese restaurant (
Radja Ketjil, ‘Little King’ in antiquated spelling to show that it is classy) the evening we got back from Purwokerto. On another evening, Sinta and Johnson joined us for dinner together outside in the street of Taman Ayu where once a week a half dozen excellent warungs come in, so people can eat and visit their neighbors, a beautiful custom. It was a rainy evening, but the rain stopped long enough for us to have our supper. Our wanderings around between Tangerang and Jakarta were fun, but again, nothing I can describe. We just got to know each other very well. I was becoming a member of the family, an Indonesian.
