random notes # 2 - Washington DC
"Where are you from, Miss?"
"Oh, I am from Indonesia."
"Oh, Obama country?"
Within a split second I went through bewilderment, surprise, and happiness before I responded tentatively, "Well, kind of…." (a big question mark swimming around in my head, trying to figure out whether this gentleman was being sincere, or was testing me on my knowledge of US…or whatever….)
And then he continued asking, oh, well…. maybe more stating….and asking himself…,
"His mother is from your place, right?"
And thank goodness he was an elderly gentleman, because if he were a young man I would have a tough time trying to hold myself back and not let my jaw dropped to the shinny floor below me.
"Ehemmm…. I believe it was his step-father who came from my country, Sir…. He just spent a couple of years in Indonesia, that’s what I know…"
Now I am not trying to be racist, but boy, how the Javanese upbringing helped me pull this sentence through.
I am still not trying to be racist, when I realized why it was both deeply shocking and why it was so easy for me to maintain my composure in front of this gentleman, because he was a man of color. Of course I didn’t even ask him who he voted for in the last election, or whether he voted at all. But it was both sad and humbling for me to see that a man of color, working in a place only 2 blocks away from the doorstep where Obama will take his oath a mere 33 days from today, though that his mother came from Indonesia.
And maybe even if he knew that she came from Hawaii…he would have thought that it was still abroad.
Though I am proud that people actually recognize ‘Indonesia’ when they hear it, thanks to the controversy surrounding Obama, it is still sad to see how much people need to learn more about him…. And also about us. And the fact that, no, jilbab is not a traditional clothes in Indonesia, and no, we don’t speak Arabic down there on the equator.
dados transparant sak kal. Ketingal sanget menawi lare punika sajak ketarik marang rencang kula. Lajeng basa-basi, kenalan mekaten, lajeng tanglet-tanglet bab kuliahipun rencang kula. Kadosipun tiyang putri punika radi kaget nalika mireng rencang kula nembe mundut master. Pitakonipun…. "Mmmm…..so…..you are……(very long pause….) older?"
). Taksih wonten sepindah punapa kaping kalih piyambakipun sliwar-sliwer lan nyobi omongan kaliyan rencang kula. Walah….walah….. 
