Peter, the Australian marketing consultant, returned home today. Apparently, there was a spot of trouble with extending his visa, and rather than paying an exorbitant amount of money, he decided to just leave a few weeks earlier than planned. Before he began his journey though, he passed on a good bit of wisdom to me, such as: the best place to stay when visiting Bali, where to find an oasis of botanical beauty in the center of Bandung, and the schedule of free movie events at the French embassy in Jakarta.
We equivocated over what to buy him as a parting gift, but finally settled upon a Rama-Sinta set of wayang golek (wooden rod puppets used in traditional art/music performances). At the office, they hired caterers, and over the lunchbreak we had a selametan (ceremony) to say goodbye. Now, somehow along the way, I was chosen to be the master of ceremonies! Probably because I’m a native English speaker, although the choice seemed strange, since I had known him the least amount of time. But let the bule speak! (Bule is kind of like gringo, it basically means white person.) Did I mention yet that Indonesian’s love ceremonies? And no ceremony is complete in Indonesia without lots of speeches. Luckily, I’ve been to my fair share of selametans, so I knew what was expected. A lot of thank yous, a couple of jokes, you will be missed, etc. Its all true, but I almost think the ceremony itself is more important than what is said!
Without Peter, the house seems quiet. It’s not that he was even home all that much. But this morning, no one got up at 5:00 to eat breakfast and head to the office. And the office will seem quiet without his constant jokes. Now I am the only bule in Margahayu Raya. The upside of all this, is that I get my old room back, which is lovely, spacious, has a desk for writing, a place for my books, and a clothing rack! Thanks Bila for lending me your room in the meantime!
P.S. Happy Birthday Papa! Happy Birthday Dalinda!
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