A day at the beach – Gorontalo style

Finally, finally, finally made it to the beach in Gorontalo! Look how happy we are!

(Photo Credit: Kibor Qb)

A couple of colleagues from UNG and a friend of theirs picked me up at 7 on Sunday morning. En route to Monano, we stopped to pick up another friend of theirs, who happens to be a professional photographer, and then we went to Limboto to pick up my two ETAs, Alexa and Sarah.

After more than an hour of driving over serpentine roads, inching our way through the traffic of a traditional market and stopping here and there to ask for directions, we arrived at a wonderfully remote, sandy beach lined with coconut trees and dotted with traditional fishing boats. Of course, our arrival at this out-of-the-way beach did not go unnoticed by the local regulars. Shortly after setting up camp, we saw that a few Indonesians had wandered over to sit behind us in the shade. At first, I thought maybe they were just seeking shade as well, but oh no, they were there to look at us. The group quickly grew in numbers. Suddenly, there were about 30 people plopped down right behind us giving us shy smiles and taking pictures of us with their cell phone cameras. Empty beach stretched for hundreds of feet in either direction, but apparently this is where everyone wanted to be.

Alexa, Sarah and I briefly escaped the madness by heading into the water. The sea was wonderful – warm, calm and perfect for floating. As I floated there with my hands behind my head, peering at the coconut trees over the tips of my painted toenails, I felt incredibly peaceful and relaxed. Then we went back to the beach where my colleague Titien got to work setting up a delicious lunch of tofu, tempe, chicken and rice.

At some point after lunch, we noticed a group of Indonesian men dragging one of the traditional fishing boats across the sand to launch in the water. Titien asked if we could take some pictures and before I knew it, we were all sitting in the boat posing for photos while the fishermen looked on.

Not long after that, word spread that a TV crew from Jakarta was here and wanted to interview us on our thoughts about the beach! We briefly conferred about what we would say as we walked over to the cameraman. But when we got there, I found out that I had somehow been elected spokesperson for the three of us. A microphone was clipped onto my cover-up and then the cameras started rolling. Flanked by my two ETAs and surrounded by a posse of onlookers, I said we were English teachers in Gorontalo and Limboto and this was our first visit to the beach here. I then gushed about how beautiful it was and how warm the water was while Sarah and Alexa nodded their agreement. I wonder if this clip will actually end up on TV!

(Photo Credit: Kibor Qb)

Our celebrity status more firmly established, we headed back to our stuff and posed for more pictures with the congregated masses. I started to grow weary of all the hoopla when I noticed that one guy was actually taking a video of my legs, or at least that’s what it seemed like. Sunburned but happy, we packed up our stuff and headed back to a thatched-roof hut on land where a couple of us took cold bucket showers with water drawn from a well. We changed in the hut and then headed back to the beach for another photo shoot with our photographer.

(Photo Credit: Kibor Qb)

Almost famous

As if “Hello Mrs.! I love you!” weren’t enough, today I woke up to find out that a newspaper article had been written about me in the Gorontalo Post. My neighbor’s 8 year-old son and their cleaning lady, who have oddly but kindly taken to coming over to my house around 7:30 in the morning with a glass of hot tea for me, showed up today with the tea and a copy of the newspaper. I was horrified to see such a huge and unflattering picture of myself splashed across the page. My disbelief grew as I skimmed the article and determined that all of the information printed in it was gleaned from the “faculty meeting” I went to on Monday where they placed a microphone in my hand and asked me to talk about myself. Little did I know the paparazzi were there! (The title says "Julianne Reynolds to strengthen the Faculty of Literature and Culture")

Oh well, it’s just another typical moment in my life as a quasi-celebrity here. Today I went to the “pasar senggol” market with Ibu Helena, another English lecturer in the department. This is a labyrinthine outdoor market that’s set up two weeks before the Edul Fitri holiday. As such, it’s a once a year chance for people to stock up on things like underwear, belts, CDs, plastic chairs, clothes, shoes, placemats, and other essentials. As we made our way through the crowds, people not only continued to shout “Hello Mrs.! My Darling!” and other such things, but they also felt free to reach out and touch my arm! Men and women alike did this. It was really bizarre. Ibu Helena kept reassuring me that it just meant they loved me (oh my adoring fans!) and were excited to see me. One guy even asked to take my picture. We made off before he could snap his shot. Later, we ducked into a hardware store to get some batteries for the clock in my office and the saleswoman felt free to stroke my arm and comment in English, “Your skin is so white!”.

Apparently it’s really common for Indonesians to touch strangers. I saw Ibu Helena do this twice. Once she pinched a baby’s cheek in passing and another time in the supermarket she got the attention of one of the clerks by laying her hand on her arm and left it there for the entire conversation of where to find whatever it was that we were looking for. And another thing – she held my hand as we walked around! She says she likes to hold her colleagues’ hands. It felt a little strange to me to be walking around holding hands with a 25 year-old woman I’m not related to and barely know, but I went with the flow. (Plus it was nice to be guided through some of the crazy twists and turns of the market and to be ushered away from my “fans”!).