On the airport in the smoking-room (still allowed in Indonesia) we have a chat with some Indo’s from Holland. They are going to Ambon. Busy talking we almost miss our flight. This time no delay. Merpati is known as airline with a lot of delays (just ask family Geurts or Nick and Elise). But not today.
Then, just after we fly off, we go down and land at the airport in Mataram.
Our luggage is quick, and we are off. Soon we see the familiar faces of Eful and Adi.
In the car is Efuls brother, and I can’t wait to get home. It’s not far to the kampung.
As we arrive there, we see Sareah, Boungs wife. I jump out of the car and give her a big hug. And there is June, Cuks wife. Another hug. Then we walk, pass the watertank, one of the best things the village ever got, to our home.
Before we arrive there, we meet Sane, with her beautiful little daughter. Zara is still to young, she is not really afraid of me, and gives me a big smile.
Most little children are scared to death for the strange white lady with the blue eyes, something they usually don’t see in the kampung.
At our home Mariam is already waiting for us. Our house looks beautiful, and everything is very clean. The garden looks nice.
We also meet Mariams mother. She came from Bal to visit her daughter in Lombok.
Mariam bought us a bottle of cool water. Sweet and kind.
In the house we talk a bit.
Then Andrea drops by.Everyone who read our last newsletter knows who Andrea is.
We are so happy to finally meet him, and we talk for hours.
In the meantime, Mariam brings us some coffee, as we don’t yet have any ourselves.
Andrea has a heart of gold, and his feelings for the kampung are much like ours. We always joke; Kampung Loco is like in the song Hotel California, “You check in, but you never check out!”
At 16.00 we say goodbeye and agree on having diner tomorrow in the evening, together wit Andrea and the parents of Pascalle, a friend of Andrea from Holland.
We are not yet used to the heat, and “mandi”, take a shower.
After that we both fall asleep. That’s no problem, it is raining outside, more like a heavy shower! Monsoon already started!
After getting up, we visit Kartini, Efuls wife, and have a talk.
Then we go to Sareah, where we meet her children Nur, Ani and Ana.
Daan en Nurul also come to welcome us.
They are changing into real ladies!
Then we go to June, and wait till Cuk gets home. In the meantime we talk and say Hello to everyone who passes by.
The clock is ticking (this is holiday!), we still have to eat and do some shopping. First we go to Tenda Cak Poer, a really great restaurant in Senggigi. Insiders know this is “the place to be” for a delicious diner at a ridiculously low price.
But you cannot compare it with a real restaurant. You are sitting almost on the street, with a blue canvas above your head (the Tenda).
Smoke from the pans and grill sometimes blows right into your face, but it is authentic and pure.
After dinner we do some shopping, and it feels like I am in the Dutch supermarket. But when you have a house in Lombok, you will have to do your weekly shopping. The strange thing is, that here it is big fun, in Holland it is very boring.
We visit the neighbors of the supermarket, an internet cafe, we know Mohni has a small office in there. Mohni has a diving company, and is a friend of family Geurts.
We also haven’t met him before. He is not in the office, but after a phonecall he rushes in. While we watch our website together with Mohni, we see Marianne trying to make contact to Mohni on Yahoo. He starts laughing and asks us to answer in Dutch. But Marianne is not stupid, and knows I must be the writer of the message!
Funny, when we first meet Mohni, in some way, Marianne is also present.
We have a really nice conversation, talking to Mohni, chatting with Marianne.
But the butter and cheese we just bought are melting, so we say goodbye.
Rush to our house, and on Adi’s terrace we have a quiet talk with Adi and Mariam.
These are the best moments of the day. At the beginning and at the end of the day we always have very nice and personal conversations with Adi. He is very good at explaining things in a clear and quiet way.
For instance when we ask if it will be good to talk to the father of Paiza (a girl from the kampong who died last year) about her. Adi explains that it will be better not to. Because it may be to painful to him, people usually don’t like to talk about those things.
Even in Holland it always is difficult how to handle such things, but here, with different customs and a different culture, we even have to be more careful to do things right.
All in all………we are home again!
