by Klara Johanne Braga Jakobsen
mUSLIM PRAYERS AND cHRISTMAS tREES
We have now been in Indonesia for over two months, and I think we are getting in the groove of it.
Everywhere we go, whether city or rural village, people greet us with so much enthusiasm, kindness and generosity it glitters my world and makes me believe in million friendships.
Every day we learn more and more about the Indonesian ways, the language, the manners, the customs, the does and don’ts, the jokes, the songs, the flavours; from tofu that tastes like horse to tofu that tastes like heaven.
We have been in Ambon for three weeks, and like always the City is overwhelming. But despite the chaos, the trash and the noise this place is truly incredible.
In the morning the air is full of song from the Mosques, and at night thousands of Christmas trees light up the streets. Salam and Selamat Natal.
Everything is colourful, the houses, the food, the fabrics, the whole culture is an explosion of diversity.
Love it
Everyone should see it and see it for what it is; a pallette of cultural colours brushed across a thousand islands, an expressionist art piece bursting with philosophy, with contrasts and resemblances to what we know, with some things worse and some things better, with conflict and harmony, with conformities we cannot relate to, and liberties we are incapable of.
I judge, I pity, I disagree, and I judge, I envy, and admire. There is so much to learn.
There are more world views than there are people on earth, for mine for one keeps changing.
It is easy to be opinionated and look at the world with a want or need to change it. It is hard however to truly observe it without judgement, without always getting caught in criticizing all the thing we do not understand.
But even with its trouble and the faults of its inhabitants the world is a masterpiece, and I think that it is important to remember to love it and love it with all its people.
The Warung
I want to tell you about Azis, Armand and Hans, three friends caching up after 20 years apart. They are in their fifties and grew up together in Ambon. Armand and Hans now live in Java but have both temporarily returned to Ambon, one for business and one to look after his old mother. Every day they are meeting at Azis’s Warung (cafe) for a catch up with food, drinks, cigarettes, laughs and an occasional bet on the lotto.
Walking past one day, we got an invitation to join.
We had noticed the Warung before as it stands out among all the other restaurants. Built by Azis himself it is all wooden from floor to ceiling including tables and benches. Although this used to be the standard in Indonesia, the natural materials are now commonly substituted with plastic, concrete, and corrugated iron.
The walls of the Warung are decorated with various artwork, many of the paintings and wood carvings featuring dreamy characters in abstract worlds are from the same artist, a good friend of Azis.
Placed on shelves and on the floor around the Warung are big ceramic vases with simple patterns and brown glaze. These are traditional water vessel from Azis’s home-village on Pulau Saparua. Before the introduction of plastic this was what the women used for transporting water, carrying the extremely heavy vases on top of their heads. Now, Azis told us, they have no use and are thrown out.
Hospitality
Azis was very thrilled to see us, as he explained he had seen no tourists for almost two years. “Please come in, sit down, coffee, juice, anything you like is on the house” you don’t turn down an offer like that, so we sat down and Vida, Azis’s very shy employee, made us a coffee and a mango juice.
One thing led to another, and we finished the evening with guitar-play and song, for Azis, Armand and Hans love every single song we love, and know them all by heart.
Later that week Azis invited us back for lunch and more music, and two days later we returned for what might have been one of the best gastronomic experiences we have ever had.
We had informed Azis that we were vegan and ate neither meat, fish or egg. We arrived at a table filled with dishes of steamed coconut rice, fried mashed casava and sweet-potato cakes, avocado and tomato salad with fresh lime juice, coconut sambal and sticky rice wrapped in palm leaves.
Living the Dream
Azis’s English is great, and over the couple of weeks we have known him, we have had the pleasure of hearing most his life story, starting when he ran away from home at 11, moved to Java at 14, spending years living on the streets, sleeping on the beaches and selling Brazilian style bracelets to tourists. He showed us pictures from the 70’s revealing a young hippy in Denim clothes and long wild hair.
Azis explained his path to an exciting life in tourisms, quickly bringing him back home to follow through on his dream to build and run a resort on his home island Saparua.
At the age of 22 Azis built Putih Lessi a small, simple, secluded resort in Paradise conditions starting with just four rooms. The resort has since grown a little and have had many guests both Indonesian and foreign, many of who have returned multiple times and has become like family.
Unfortunately, the resort is currently closed due to Covid 19 and Azis has come to the city to run his café instead, where he serves both Indonesian dishes and Italian Pizza and Pasta.
But it turns out that Azis has not only been all over Indonesia, he has also been to New Zealand and Europe multiple times, in fact he even got married to a German woman and lived in Germany for two years.
It was great to hear about his experiences traveling in Europe, describing the culture shock, the language barrier, and the experience of being the one who stands out, all of that which we are facing here.
But to Azis, Europe was a great place for a holiday, not the place he wanted to call home, so when his father fell ill, he returned to Indonesia and stayed.
A two faced country
Talking to Azis, Armand and Hans it is clear that they are proud of their country, proud of living in a society which in their opinion has a very high tolerance for diversity and where every province has a unique culture.
But when the subject landed on history and politics, specifically the religious conflict which followed the step down of Dictator Suharto in 1998, which drew many people away from their homes, including Azis, they openly expressed strong condemnation for political authorities who in their eyes have long been the instigators of much serious quarrel even when the people of Indonesia have lived in unity.
Indonesia seems in that way two faced, on one side it is in political turmoil and on the other in a kind of cultural concord.
I am very grateful to our new friends for being so open and I feel like we have learned a lot in the time we have been in Ambon thanks to them.
Honour your Guests
So, what is the point of this story?
The point is that some of the best experiences come from when we leave the world we know behind and open our mind to something new. That we can look at someone and see a stranger or a potential friend. That diversity is exactly what makes a culture, and without it life on earth would be a white wall.
But most importantly the point is, that we should always treat our guests with honour, whether in our home or in our country, we might just give them and ourselves an experience for life!
Thank you Azis, Armand and Hans!
