I spent yesterday in Jakarta and woke up this morning in beautiful Bali, where I'll be for the next 3 days. Of course, traveling has - as always - brought many unexpected adventures: an Indonesian lunch where we sat down and they brought us 7 dishes + rice without us actually ordering anything, a long speech on Indonesian independence by an over-excited tour guide at the National Monument, a cab driver who took us through the Jakarta slums while his meter ran higher and higher, piles of street food for the equivalent of less than U$1.
However, I think the most exciting and noteworthy event of my past 48 hours was Obama's inauguration. I arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia - where Obama lived for five years - just after 1 am on Tuesday night. As I went through the process of applying for a seven-day visa, completing immigration, and going through customs, the inauguration speech appeared live on every TV in the airport.
As I walked sleepily with the crowd, I paused for a moment in front of one of the TVs. I couldn't even hear the words of the speech, but stood transfixed by the image of the enormous audience and the idea that this man was actually our President. I suddenly became aware that the security guard next to me was staring at me - or rather, trying to see my passport. I flashed it to him: United States of America. He gave me a little smile and a thumbs-up, and for maybe the first time in my combined year of living abroad (France, Belgium, and China) I felt like I didn't have to defend my country or explain the political views of myself, family, and friends. I was actually proud to be an American.
So, that's been the trend so far in Indonesia:
"Where are you from?"Every newspaper has Obama headlines. Every taxi driver and street food stand operator seems to have read an Obama biography. And everyone seems to be interested in Andy and I, like somehow the person in charge of our country reflects directly on our personal character.
"America."
"Ohh! Obama! [Insert broken-English rant about Obama's greatness here.]"
Yes, today I am so happy to be an American.
2 comments:
Amen to that. In the Dominican Republic, I got a lot of the same feelings. Tacky as it was, I donned my Obama T-Shirt in the capitol yesterday, mostly as a social experiment (but yes partly out of shear joy), and was not at all disappointed in the response. All over the streets of Santo Domingo, I heard chants of praise and saw smiles of recognition. Si, se puede!
In the US too, a lot of us are feeling prouder to be American than we have in a good long time. --Mom
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