Custom

Side note on Culture

Sitting in a taxi in Yogyakarta (Java, Indonesia) from my hotel to the airport, I learned another lesson about Indonesian culture. “Where is the taximeter?” I was asking the driver in Indonesian after greeting him friendly. “It’s there.” He pointed towards the mirror where I could see red numbers on a black scale saying: 15.550 IDR. Which is not a lot of money from a western point of view. But it got my attention. “Why is there already a price on it although we haven’t moved an inch?” I was asking. “It’s because I was waiting already for ten minutes”, the man replied. “But noone asked you do to this”, I responded. Taxi driver: “The hotel was ordering the taxi straight away, so I came straight away.” Now that I found interesting because I was listening to the phone call the receptionist made earlier and he asked him to be there at 5:45 sharp. Apparently the driver decided himself to be there 10 minutes too early. Me: “But I heard what the receptionist was saying on the phone: He ordered you to be here at 5:45 sharp.” Taxi driver: “No, they were asking me to come as soon as possible.” To underline his statement, he pulled the car over. I immediately felt we need to find a solution to get over this problem if I still want to catch my plane.

Blaming it all on the person who is not there. That’s so Indonesian. Avoiding conflicts and trying to keep the face. Maybe I was smiling when realizing this. The taxi driver couldn’t get out of this without admitting that he did a mistake. But when doing this, he would lose his face. What now? When in Rome, do as the Romans do, I was thinking. So, I did the same he was doing: I started blaming it all on the poor receptionist at the hotel: “Actually, I was thinking they had already ordered the taxi yesterday. But they just forgot.” Silence. “Yes, they were also ordering the taxi too early”, the taxi driver says. “So, it was not my fault”, I said and asked “but who is going to pay for it?” Silence again. “What”, I was saying, “if we just share it at the end because it was none of our faults?” The taxi driver turned around: “That’s okay.” Smiling. It worked. He could keep his face and I didn’t pay the sum myself.

Pouring rain: ­An Indonesian inspiration for more time-outs in our daily life

 

This text is an ode to the Indonesian way of handling rain. Maybe we should adapt it to our daily lives?

 

RAIN.BALIIt was in Indonesia where I learned to love the rain. I learn to appreciate it as a time-out. A time-out of everything which I was about to do. The rain in Indonesia is very different from rain in Europe where I come from. It is stronger, the rain drops are bigger and once it has started, it feels like all the Niagara falls are pouring over you within a few minutes. Whether you stay dry or not can be a question of one minute. If you have been outside in the rain for just a few seconds too long, it is as if taking a shower with full clothes on. The thunders during these rain storms sometimes were so loud, I couldn’t separate them from tremors.

 The Indonesian word for rain is “hujan”. “Hujan” is strong, very strong rain. That was my first observation. My second observation was that in a very pragmatic way things slow down when it is raining in Indonesia. Whether you are in the sea, on the road or you have found a shelter, people and their actions decelerate. The rain interrupts the daily routine. It’s like a break. It is kind of celebrated as a time-out.

 

Observation 1: How rain in the sea physically decelerates every move

Imagine you are sitting on a carpet of diamonds. Surfing in a tropical rain shower is exactly like this. Dark sky, dark sea and bright rain drops. The speed of the waves slows down. The wind stops. The rain drops physically decelerate the waves by entering into its surface. The waves become clean, super clean. They only break slowly. When you paddle for a wave you have to start paddling later, because it will break delayed. It is like surfing in slow motion. The falling drops swallow all sound. The rain absorbs peoples’ voices. A fog of white mist covers the ocean which shimmers like a carpet of diamonds. Time stands still.

 

Observation 2: Rain on the road

When you are driving a scooter and the sky turns into a grayish black, you should hurry up. You have two options: Either you find a shelter somewhere quickly before the rain begins or you have a rain coat in your scooter. People pull over their scooters to the sidewalks to put rain coats on. Within minutes the whole road scenery is changing: The ponchos with their hoodies give the drivers a ghosts-like appearance. Scooter drivers are slowing down their speed because driving fast is impossible when the roads are flooded. If you are stuck in the rain and you do not have a rain coat, there is nothing you can do but relax with is. You’ll be dripping wet within 10 seconds anyway.

The rain is warm and by running into your eyes makes it hard to see at all. You constantly have to swab the water away from your eyes. There is nothing you can do against it. You can just go with the flow. Go with the rain. Take it easy. Wondering how strong rain can be. Sometimes you are lucky in finding a hut before the rain starts, sometimes you are not. You can just make the best of the situation.

The calmness and the routine with which all this is taking place is stunning. Nobody is complaining. Ok, it’s raining. Ok, let’s pull over and wear the poncho. Ok, let’s drive on. Soon the streets will be flooded. Water is not only coming from above. It is coming from the side by cars and other scooters passing by and from down the street, because the roads are flooded. It is interesting to see how within minutes the traffic is slowing down until it is just moving on far below typical average speed.

 

Observation 3: Rain in a shelter

If you have found a shelter in time before the rain starts, you simply stay there. You don’t go anywhere until the rain stops. You simply stay and make the most minimal effort. A Javanese friend of mine was super excited to see the new born baby of a friend. When finally the friend’s baby was born, it started raining badly in the afternoon. I was asking my friend, why she does not want to go and see the baby today. Her answer was this: “Tidaaaak. Ada hujan.”  (Noooo, it is raining). Also if you have dinner plans and it starts raining, be prepared that your dinner partner eventually would not show up at all because it is raining. When the rain starts while you are having dinner, you won’t be leaving until the rain stops. Even if that means staying for hours.

If you are at home, you do not go anywhere. You just stay inside. Rain in Indonesia freezes time. You can have a nap, listen to the rain drops falling, watch a movie or you read a book. But the most popular activity DEFINITELY is to sleep. Actually this is what most people do when it is raining. “Ohh, ada hujan!” (Oh, it’s raining) goes hand in hand with “Enak tidur.” (It’s nice to sleep). People working in restaurants will lay down for a nap on the benches. Or you are stretching yourself on the ground and resting a while. Probably fall asleep then. Apparently everybody does. If you are at a friend’s place, you stay there and do nothing. Maybe chatting a little, wondering how long the rain storm might take this time. One hour, two hours… You don’t leave unless you absolutely have to. But usually you postpone all activities to the next day.

You simply ENJOY that you can’t do anything because it is raining. The rain is taken as an excuse for everything you intended to do but you cannot do now. You’ll be waiting until the rain is over. Then you will reconsider your plans. It’s something you can’t influence. You just take advantage of it when it’s there. When it’s raining, it’s raining. People do not go anywhere. It is accepted as an excuse. Rain means rest. Rain means prescribed rest. In our stressful lives with to-do-lists where every minute of the day is synchronized, it might do well to adapt the Indonesian rain concept. Just a little. Don’t you think?