How To Tell Hendrikus?

Hendrikus told a little tale of what he termed “selfishness” this afternoon at the old Malioboro library involving his Belgian friend. This woman was a serious Indonesia enthusiast, speaking both proficient Bahasa and also one of the Timor Leste languages, in addition to her two or three European languages and Esperanto. A talented and devoted linguist who had a PhD from Brussels within the field presumably. The woman, similar age to Hendrik in his mid-thirties, loved Indonesia and visited annually, staying ten days at a stretch. As a visitor to the library on Malioboro Hendrik at the counter had made the acquaintance. (Hendrik had been working the last few years digitising Greater Yogyakarta’s newspaper archive, which took him to the new library a few kilometres out of the centre where he met fewer foreigners now.) Over four or five years a good friendship had developed with the Belgian and Hendrik confessed he had fallen in love with her. The woman was soft and sensitive, according to Hend, similar to Indonesian women. For an odd and surprising illustration of this latter Hendrik told of riding on his bike with the woman, always of course an ordeal in a helmet under the tropical sun. When the pair arrived at a particular destination Hendrik had seemingly been charmed by the tears that came to her. This had reminded Hend of his Javanese beauties riding daily in this heat from earliest days? It was rather odd and unexpected to hear. The conclusion of softness and sensitivity granted however. Almost certainly Hendrikus had not acted on his feelings, nor divulged them to the woman concerned; perhaps the Belgian guessed well enough. Hend was married to a pretty local gal, in the main a contented husband. Which didn’t of course mean feeling could not radiate elsewhere in the usual way. With numerous visits to Indonesia, many likely predating the initial meeting with Hendrikus, the Belgian linguist had formed a number of friendships, among which there was a local Indonesian mother-figure. Such relationships were not unfamiliar in other countries and among other cultural groups: far from home, an enthusiast adopts one particular maternal figure whom they have claimed as mother-in-a-foreign-land. Migrants in displaced communities commonly resorted to the practice. (Bab back in Melbourne had been majka to many Serbs, Croats, Macedonians and others.) In Indonesia the practice extended to regular foreign visitors. Hendrik’s example of “selfishness” occurred at this local mother’s house. When Hendrik dropped off the woman, the Belgian, at her Indonesian mother’s house after one of their outings the perfunctory goodbye he received rather stung him. The Belgian had apparently dismounted, offered farewell with the wave of a hand, opened the door to the house and entered without further ado…. One needed to imagine Hendrik looking on from the seat of his motor-cycle at a wave of the hand from behind, as he demonstrated this afternoon; the door of the substitute mother’s opened, closed and banged a little perhaps. Nothing of real moment. Discourteous and casual, however, for one accustomed to better graces. When the Belgian linguist had this “selfishness” pointed out to her she had laughed, whether from embarrassment or some other reason was unclear. As a Catholic Hendrik was concerned with the resurgence of radical Islam and terrorism. There was some Belanda, Dutch ancestry in the family a few generations back, including an evangelical grandfather who had conducted lay missions in Lampung, South Sumatra, where family remnants remained. Sometimes Hendrik thought a re-location to a Western country might be a good thing. It was difficult to maintain faith in meaningful change for the better in Indonesia; the country had gone backwards in recent years, according to Hendrik, the economy stagnating and inflation particularly a serious problem. (By contrast, for all the financial graft in Malaysian politics the country continued to surge forward.) Airfares were expensive to Holland, and immigration more difficult since this turnaround after the refugees and the rest.

         How to tell Hendrikus? And how to tell a Westerner too what the heck Hendrikus was on about with his summary judgment? (Might the Belgian linguist have seen enough in her trips to Indonesia to comprehend?)