One of us

A local encounter that changed my life

One of us

When I was leaving my country, father advised me not to act like tourists. ,,No one can be just a visitor for one year``, he said. He must have been imagining popular destinations, touristic places, palm trees and beautiful beaches. I am sure that in my father`s image of Indonesia, there was no place like Jebres, my future neighbourhood.
Jebres is a poor suburb of Solo, the small but historically and culturally important city in central Java. In Jebres, houses made of bamboo and mud, are springing up in just one month, children are playing barefoot on the street , the postman would be lost if he would search each potential recipient so he is delivering letters to the first person he finds in the area.
My neighbors are mostly playing music in public buses while their wives are preparing and selling food on the street. Some of them are opening warungs, a certain mixture of private kitchen and restaurant. Warung is also a place where a foreigner starts to practice Indonesian language.
That evening I felt like a local for the first time. I was watching television in warung with neighbours. Slumdog Millionaire, a movie I had seen before and didn t like it. But this time it was different. It was so realistic, people were seriously immersed in the story and the audience gave a certain significance to a movie.
Being loud or showing emotions is not really in Javanese culture, but on their own way Javaneses were supporting main character cheering and being worried about him, about poor Indian guy who got a chance for better life, to become rich and leave a mud and dust.
No one was actually interested in having a dinner and until the happy end it was very intense. Finally young man from poor neighbourhood managed to win, and he became a millionaire, a hero ... Everyone was touched, even me, because one of us did it.