Visiting the Old Batavia and Barak Obama's School in Jakarta

October 1, 2009

It's Thursday morning. The city of Jakarta is still half asleep this week for the country is still observing the 2 weeks of "Idul Fitri" holidays following the 30 days of Ramadhan (the fasting month). Half of the residents are still "mudik" (visiting their families in their towns of origin). Looking out the windows of Aryaduta Hotel at the streets down below, I saw only a few vehicles. It seems odd to me for I have never seen Jakarta so quiet. I often wish that I can turn the clock back to the old days when the country's population was not so big, how nice it would be to feel the stillness and the quietness of the city, like those old days. I feel it now. We went to the breakfast buffet on the first floor of the hotel. As you may expect, there is "bubur" and "soto" stands with pots of different kinds of Indonesian porridge and soup, nasi goreng (the famous Indonesian rice), Chinese style noodles, freshly baked breads and muffins, a few selections of cheeses, the hot kitchen to make you omelettes, salads, fresh fruits of the tropical region, pastries, yoghurt, cereals, and much more ..... you can expect this in almost every hotel with 4 stars and up. So be ready to gain some weight. Depending on the type of meal, you might see sushi/sashimi, all you can eat... which we did during lunch. While we typically pay $14 for a small appetizer plate of sashimi in the US, we paid the same for as much as we want to eat (mostly tuna, salmon, and snapper).

After lunch our driver took us to the Old Batavia. It's the historic town square when Jakarta was Batavia then (during the Dutch Colonial era). The square consists of four main buildings. I had wanted to go through every single one of them but since we didn't have much time, we decided to pick a couple of buildings to go through. We described our short visit as "broad and shallow" with the intention to go "deep and narrow" next time. I was amazed at how those buildings are still standing as witnesses of the old Batavia government. In one building which was full of visitors (some Europeans, but mostly school children studying history), we saw antique furniture which was made to suit the european taste at the time, heavy stair cases, wood benches .... all were made of teak wood. Standing arrogantly on the walls are paintings of some Dutch men in formal suits with their official lapel pins depicting the position the person was holding at the time. A few years ago I was in a building with similar photos of Suharto and his family. Funny how time can change everything. Same country, same city, same citizens.... different power house !

The next building was a Wayang (puppet) Museum. There are four kinds of Indonesian puppets, namely: wayang orang (live Javanese opera), wayang beber (story scenes painted on cloth), wayang kulit (shadow puppet), and wayang golek (wooden dolls dressed in batiks). Wayang kulit is the most popular kind. You can still find many of them being performed on the island of Java on special occassions such as celebrating Javanese New Year (1 Syura), circumcision ceremonies for young boys, wedding celebrations, and government special events. Wayang golek was mostly performed in the West Java region as well as in Bali. Wayang orang is my favorite, for as a child I was almost becoming one of the performers. I had learned how to dance Javanese which, I was told, was the foundation of wayang orang performance. Being a wayang orang performer/dancer was one of my childhood dreams. Wayang beber is a story whose scenes are painted on a piece/pieces of cloth, episode per episode (one scene or painting may represent an episode). The word beber means the act of rolling the cloth out and show the scene/painting. As the puppeteer would slowly roll out the cloth, and the painting episode is shown, he would tell the story of the episode. One complete story may consists of several paintings on one long roll of cloth. A painting of an episode/scene may sometimes be cut out and framed. Since this type of puppet performance is extinct, you may find some of these episode/scenes reproduced by different artists in more colorful batik paintings, as well as other media.

Our next stop was Barak Obama School in the Menteng area. Good thing we had a good driver who knows the city. I regret not making an appointment with the school on this trip, for we could learn something if we have the opportunity for an interview. It took us about 15 minutes from the Aryaduta Hotel to get to Menteng. The school seemed ordinary, nothing special about the building neither the community. The street in front of it is somewhat narrow but I've seen many narrower streets for 2-way traffic. Cars were lined up on every possible parking spot, so we decided not to park. I asked the driver to stop right in front of the school, had a few minutes of quiet moment and took a picture of President Obama's picture on a plaque that's embedded on the school's front entrance. Then I saw a young boy about 6 years old in his school uniform and was wondering what the boy would become 40 years from now.