Cultural Clash

16 Feb Friday

Photo of the waterway route into Jogya with a motorbike 'towpath'".............. ........... ..... Tuesday late breakfast on the office terrace interrupted by the surprise visit of Thomas who has been dispatched by Pak Biwa from a nearby village to borrow my camera. Thomas has not had breakfast so he gets some toast and jam, rejecting the drinks I have (should get some tea in for local visitors) and says that Biwa has still not come up with the offer of some temporary financial help pending Ibu Wati paying the wages now over two months late. I should refuse to let the camera go but I’m rubbish at saying “no” and accept assurances that I can have it back in the afternoon or early evening at the latest.

No sign of Thomas, Biwa or the camera by the evening (why should I be surprised?). I text Thomas to say Santrika is here with her birthday suit and I need the camera but no response until Wednesday morning just after I have packed sandwiches for lunch and am about to set off for town. Thomas and Alice who has not seen my accommodation yet are coming over this morning, So I wait in, only popping out to the main road to get a replacement 19 litre water bottle for my dispenser. At one o’clock they arrive having had to wait for a motorbike to borrow from one of the hostel girls, I have managed to keep the soup hot but Thomas shoots off to some village to collect the camera while Alice and I start lunch – she picks the soup and I take the salad, which we eat on my terrace. Thomas returns without camera but we complete lunch and have quick trip round the village where my first toilet still looks disappointingly like a patch of earth with a couple of reinforcing rods sticking out. At 2pm I am committed to going out to visit Andrew, in hospital again and Thomas and Alice are of to see her birth father, currently in Jogya but suffering from a bout of malaria. I manage to topple the bike over while getting ready, due to the rucksack on my back and I break a wing mirror. I have money for needed petrol but will have to find an ATM for money before I can get the mirror replaced. At the hospital Andrew is still in theatre but Maria and Athena are in attendance, Elvie had been there earlier but had now left. I get a cooling drink while Athena goes out in search for a cash machine taking my card for my withdrawal. Andrew whose platinum pins have become detached is still having them replaced and augmented when Athena returns having had my pin number rejected three times. I say not to worry and she lends me 100.000 Rph. I am about to leave when word comes that Andrew is leaving the theatre so I am able to say hello to his semi-sedated form as he is wheeled back to his single bed (apart from the visitor’s bed) ward. I do hope to avoid being hospitalised here where as with Pak Bowo’s hospital in Sleman things seem somewhat tatty despite being a pay hospital. We have yet to find out if there will be a charge for this second operation following the failure of the first one and also if vso are going to be more efficient in making or guarantying payment. I get caught in a rainstorm, the bike objects and it’s a stop-go journey to the hostel, I reckon that because of the tendency to stall in the rain that I’m revving the engine too much so that the fuel can’t get through quickly enough. At all events I get there and borrow dry trousers from Thomas and get a glass of hot tea from Alice. Still no camera, or Biwa though and I don’t fancy driving back to the village in the rain so I text Priyo to let my host Hari know that I wont be back till the morning. I take Thomas and Alice out for a meal – it seems that for the last week they have taken to going out together, leaving the hostel un-manned and they are clearly enjoying the experience! We go to a ‘steak’ restaurant with, I would guess some re-constructed steaks, but still with chips etc and at 50 pence each I shouldn’t complain. Still no Biwa when we return so I get to bed.

Early in the morning I hear the sound of a car being started, guess that Biwa is not only back but now on his way out again so I grab my towel and dash through the kitchen into the front courtyard giving Ibu Wati who is there the shock of her life, probably lucky that she didn’t have a heart attack! Biwa appears as she screams and I apologise but ask after my camera. He refers me to Thomas who is now wide awake from the commotion and acts as interpreter again. Biwa says the camera will even now be back in the village with Pak T.O. so I start to phone T.O. but he stops me and makes acall himself telling me then that the camera will be at a specific photo shop with the pictures being printed in an hours time, or if I have a little patience it will then be returned to the hostel with the apologies of the present holder.

With a couple of hours before Thomas and I can go to the bank HQ I go to the wi-fi café. En-route at this time of day are many policemen controlling junctions and I realise in time that my usual right turn across the main road has a sign indicating ‘no right turn’ and then that the next convenient point for a ‘U’ turn also has a sign indicating ‘no U turn’ (you learn something new everyday!). Successful in updating the new virus protection but not in downloading photographs to the blog site, still I get a milky coffee and the staff are nice.

Thomas takes me to the bank, on my bike of course but him driving which is much safer although I don’t know what vso would say if asked, but I haven’t yet signed my bike agreement form that I received last week. At the bank we test my card once more to find that it works as normal despite the failure at two machines yesterday. We go upstairs to question the problem but a security guard there puts it down to an occasional computer glitch and gives us a number to call if it happens again. Midday back at the hostel and the camera arrives with someone I doubt if I have seen before who apologises and goes to speak to Biwa. Pak Biwa knows I am there and that the camera has been returned but does not come to speak to me – is this a cultural difference or is he seriously affronted by my daring to ask for it back? We may find out the next time we meet but right then he is off for a meeting with a secretary to the President in connection with his big project. I had been going to call at the Hero supermarket on the way home but rain again so no stopping and I had enough food for the evening, toilet paper getting low but no diarrhoea at present so can go shopping the next day.

On Friday Pak T.O. is giving a presentation to a group of about 70 UGM university students visiting the village, I listen in as he presents a lecture accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation extolling the achievements of Mandungan village politically (establishment of parish council and mayor), technically (electric power connection, surfaced roads etc) and in farming with the successes of the organic movement. He is as successful in working his audience as with his farmers’ meetings, picking up on which islands individuals come from and cracking well received jokes on the way. The students are much like the primary school children in the village and all jostle for a chance to be photographed with this weird foreigner – perhaps I should charge or take the opportunity to get photographed with some of the pretty women? Invited for a snack lunch in the farmhouse being partially rebuilt opposite my accommodation and which is being used to cater for the hungry hoards of students. The lady of the house accepts that she qualifies for the government assistance but says she has already spent that amount on the initial repairs and internal reconstruction work. Like everyone else in the village she sees me as a walking pot of money, as does T.O., Ratiman and Co. and one could start to wonder how much the friendly atmosphere is based on unachievable expectations. A trip to the supermarket after lunch finds some long grain rice to accompany the spices just received from Hazel although Priyo says its not for eating unless it is cooked in a particular way with desiccated coconut. I turn down an invitation to join T.O. when he gives a lecture to the UGM university on Saturday (he is billed as ‘professor Supratio’), I will go to Godean to post my first batch of postcards and a bit of shopping.