Walking
with my father
During my
vacations and other free from school days, I often went walking with my
father over the plantations, mostly at Sumber Sewu. Since these coffee
and rubber plantations were not really small, I had to walk for several
hours. Not only did I become a good walker but I really enjoyed these
walks, and I became more and more interested in the plants around me,
but especially the coffee trees were beautiful.
Now and then
we went further than the plantation, sometimes we went right into the
jungle, that was really fascinating. I remember that it felt a little
damp but it was not too hot since the plantation Sumber Sewu and even
more so the jungle were quite high on the ridge of the mountain the Semeru.
It was very different from anything else I had ever seen before.
I felt as if we were entering a forbidden world, this was not our world
but from the wild animals and birds living in the jungle far away from
us the human beings.
To me the jungle had a very special smell, a bit of snakes and a lot of
all sorts of plants, it made me walk very close near my father and I carefully
watched my steps in this very strange world with a sort of stillness while
the birds twittered at us since we had disturbed them by entering their
kingdom. Some monkeys looked down on us from their high seats in the trees,
I wondered what they were thinking of us.
My father asked me very softly if I liked this walk through the jungle.
I just nodded, I was in an ecstacy of all that indescribable beauty around
me, the whole atmosphere was so strange, so unreal to me, it felt as if
I was walking through a fairy-tale-world.
At the same time I felt very proud that I was allowed to see all this,
that I was able to walk through this jungle. I guess that very few planters-children
went into the jungle with their fathers. I am still grateful that my father
took me with him, those walks were really very special.
My life on
the plantation was very different from my life in Malang. The strict but
also very nice nuns have taught us a lot, we had a very good education,
in many ways.
We also learnt about the complete difference between Holland and the Dutch
East Indies, almost all the nuns came from Holland so they told us their
Dutch stories.
Up till today
I am still very grateful that I could spent my complete youth in Indonesia,
it gave me at a very young age an enormous adaptability, it stimulated
me to become inventive, I learnt to get on with all sorts of people, the
most beautiful nature around me made me a good observer, taught me to
be alert, I learnt to live in between two worlds, a European world and
an Asian world. Also thanks to my parents, I was not brought up in typical
European ways only, I feel that I have received the chance that has given
me a certain freedom.
I have always realized how privileged I was to have grown up in Indonesia.
And in the
meantime the Japanese came closer and closer, they needed the Indonesian
oil for their war in China. People began to feel uneasy and very worried
and some of the Dutch have left Indonesia during those days, mostly to
Australia and South Africa.
War with Japan became the conversation of the day but the Japanese in
Malang were polite as ever. Also my father’s barber, Matayoshi still
bowed for his clients, also the Japanese photographer in Malang , I can’t
remember his name, kept on bowing.
The newspapers told us that there were many Japanese spies in Indonesia,
but strange enough that didn’t bother too many people, since we
were convinced that our army together with the Aussies, British and Americans
could keep the Japanese enemy away from Indonesia, or at least from the
island Java.
We saw more Australian, British and American military in town than before
and since Malang was a garrison town there were a lots of Dutch East Indies
military as well.
Anyhow it gave the people from Malang the feeling that we were well protected
against a possible Japanese attack.
And then there were some jokes as well; “the Japanese while shooting
would always miss, because they were slit-eyed. Or the Japanese planes
were made out of meat tins. Or the Japanese couldn’t run fast enough
because of their crooked legs. And so on.”
In the meantime
the sun was still shining and Indonesia was as beautiful as ever.
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