Strange Obsession

Another interesting incident happened today regarding Indonesians and their fascinating way of communicating. A few weeks ago, I took off to Lampung, a city south of here, for a long weekend with my girlfriend. We took the train and it was an overall enjoyable experience all things considered. Now, every so often I would take a break from sitting and go between the cars to pee, just move around and have a smoke. As expected, I met a few characters during my breaks. One fellow apparently took quite a liking to me and we had a rather engaging chat.

Now, he was much older than me so he is automatically granted a high level of respect. We went through the normal line of questioning that permeates each and every first time (and sometimes not even that) conversation. Afterwards, he asked me for my phone number. Now, he wasn’t hitting on me or anything of the sort; it’s just the done thing here. Now, I quickly thought about telling him I didn’t have one or giving him the wrong number. I know, it’s bad to lie, but I didn’t have any desire to communicate with this man again.

Now, had I said I didn’t have a phone, it would have led to a long, protracted line of questioning that would have led to me lying more and I just didn’t feel up to the task. Had I given him the wrong number, he would have rung me or sent a sms that very moment and I would’ve been shamed and branded a liar. I didn’t want either so I just bit the bullet and gave him my damn number. He called it and that was that. I didn’t save it or his name and I thought that was the end of it.

Well, earlier this morning while I was at work, I started getting calls from a number I didn’t recognize. The first ones were while I was still teaching, but it continued when I came back to the office. I have this rule of generally not answering when this happens, so I just don’t. I assume they’ll either stop calling or send a sms which will identify whether or not I should reply, call them back or answer the next time they call. Well, that did happen and here’s what went down:

“Mr. Brori, apa kabar ini, kawan yang waktu ngobrol di KA., Limex waktu ke lampung, nanti aku telpon.”

After this was sent, not ten seconds later, he called me again. Predictably, I didn’t answer and that was the last time he tried ringing or messaging me. I promptly blocked the number in the hope that he doesn’t have five phones and a different sim card for each one. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he did, but that’s just par for the course.

It’s not that I don’t remember the guy, but what else would I have to say? I even forget where he lives, but it’s not in Palembang. Maybe it’s some sort of novelty thing he can brag about: “Hey, I met this foreign guy on the train. We smoked together, chatted a bit and I got his phone number…yeah!” If you think that’s out of the question, you’d be wrong.

No matter the reasoning, it really underscores the fascinating phone number and mobile phone obsession in this country. I would never dream of asking for someone’s number unless I had a reason and actually planned on using it for something productive. This isn’t productive; it’s just wasting time. There’s no point in it and there’s definitely no reason to call me again and again when it should be clear that I’m either busy, it’s not me or I just don’t want to answer. You’d think someone could figure that out, but it just doesn’t happen. Yes, it’s baffling.

Anyway, enough of the phone talk. I guess I could give a little update on life as of late. First off, it’s been absolutely scorching hot the past week. There has been little to no rain and while that means you don’t have to worry about getting stuck in a downpour or a flood, it also means infernal heat. The air temperature has been around 33-35, but the ground temperature has been more like 40 and higher during the day when you factor in the humidity and the lack of wind, trees, green space and the ugly concrete jungle that is an Indonesian city. It makes things miserable sometimes that’s for sure.

There isn’t much more teaching—two weeks only—this semester and I’m quite happy about that. My June holiday will be here soon and I’m ecstatic! I’m going to be leaving here for three weeks and that alone makes me smile. I don’t really care about the destination just as long as it’s not here. After we come back for a little over a month, we get two more weeks for the big Muslim holiday (Idul Fitri or Lebaran) and I’ll be on my way to Thailand unless a better offer comes along. Actually, I may hit Singapore and Malaysia as well, but the bulk of the time will be spent in Thailand. Once again, as long as it isn’t here, I’ll be happy.

I’ve got it counted up and implanted in my brain: only about eight more weeks of actually teaching until my contract is up. There is a lot of idle time and time spent doing other things in between but the principal point is that when I think “only eight weeks” I lose my feeling of dread and hopelessness and perk up a bit. If that gets me through then that’s good enough for me.

I remember back in December and the first of January when I thought that May would never come, much less October, but it’s slowly approaching. I’ve been obsessed lately with thoughts of “what if” and while I know I can’t change anything and I know this wasn’t necessarily a bad decision, I still can’t help but wonder, well, “what if”. Maybe life and work would have sucked terribly in Kyrgyzstan, but I’ll most likely never know now. I do hope to visit one day, but that will most likely be all. I think I can live with that.

I suppose that’s about all there is to say about life as of late. I got to spend the day and night alone last night for the first time in a while and immersed myself in the new Devin Townsend Project album ‘Deconstruction’ and I can happily say it’s a fucking masterpiece. I haven’t managed to acquire ‘Ghost’ yet, but the reviews I’ve read thus far give it high praise as well. It’s safe to say that Devin Townsend is a musical genius and aside from only a few of his projects, I worship the bulk of his musical work.

That said, I’m going to check my e-mail, read the news again and try to knock off some more of my latest book before heading home for the day. So, until next time, enjoy yourselves.