"I can not be held responsible for floods.  Its a natural phenomenon that

 occurs every five years. There is no point in throwing abuse around.

I was up  till 3:00 a.m. this morning trying to handle the refugees...."
 

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso told el-Shinta radio station


Source: Flooding overtakes Jakarta; death toll rises
 

FROM  THE EDITOR:

A summary: The BuGils and the EP bar manager are in search for new staff and therefore they travel all the way to Purworedjo in Middle Java. In this town they hope to find family members of their ex-waitress Endjie, who happened to be a descendant from one of the 3000 Ghana soldiers that were hired by the Dutch government in the 19th century.

PART 3:   He called himself Romo Lukman, but his actual Dutch name was Henk Loogman. The people of Purworedjo considered the old catholic priest paranormal, but even he couldn't help us with tracing the African descendants. Maybe he could, but he had much more enjoyment in telling us his techniques to heal people. Besides: 'I am not much interested in history..', he said. 'It never appealed to me...' (Strange to hear these words from a priest, I thought).  'I have my own system', he said proudly. 'So people cannot easily copy my recipes..'. He showed us laminated sheets with different codes typed on it. 'I am also very good with my hands'. He lifted his both hands and turned them around, back and forth. His pictures covered the wall, some of them even higher then the pictures of the Pope and Jesus. Other pictures showed proud parents with new born babies. Lukman noticed that I was observing the pictures. 'Yes, sometimes it just works..'. He tried to get up, scraping his throat and then spitting a large quantity of green slime in a handkerchief. 'If he is using his own medicines, it sure doesn't help him much', I whispered to Lens. Again, he swirled his hands in the air while looking more closely at some of the pictures.

The next stop was the old 'Kerkhof' or graveyard. Most of the old tombstones where overgrown. A lot of the stones were damaged, their marble plates ripped off. It didn't take us long to find some remaining inscriptions of old Dutch, possible ex-Ghana KNIL soldiers. Serg.Maj.Adm. van Kleef had died in 1928. Albinus Beelt in 1922. The Duren Family had  a number of impressive tombstones, all grouped together. There were many. The caretaker of the graveyard hopefully asked if we happened to be representatives from the Dutch government. Some few years ago he had had a visit of a man who had asked him to make a list of all the Dutch graves that were there, so he could apply for a fee to maintain the graves. He said he had collected 300 names of Dutch graves and that he had proposed a fee of one million rupiah per grave per year to keep them clean. He obvious had tried his luck, but the Dutch government had never replied to his letter. He looked very disappointed when we told him we were just a few bar managers. Looking for Africans!? Suddenly he looked up and indicated us to follow him. In a little shed that probably was his office or home, he showed us some marble plates. He quickly started to clean them. Had he ripped them off the graves himself? "This is very nice marble', he said. 'Good condition'. It was a 50 cm high marble tombstone, obvious very heavy, that was displaced from the grave of a poor young kid, named De Fretes who had passed away in 1931. No, we didn't want to buy marble stones. Our only hope now was the Kampung Africa...

On the left of the street I was excited to see a banner in front of a warung that read: 'Warung Africa' and then, on the other side we noticed the signs Gang African 1 and Gang African 2. It was a nice, quiet cluster of old houses. A small river flooded through the middle of it and at the back end it was bordered by beautiful rice fields. I tried to imagine the life in this kampung as it used to be -up to 50 years ago, when most of the African descendants left for Holland and Ghana. An old lady was sitting in front of her house. She offered us a seat and we started chatting. She had been a teacher and still spoke very good Dutch, almost without an accent! She told us were the different Dutch families had lived, pointing at the houses left and right. Apparently a certain Ibu Eveline was the last 'real' african lady that had lived here, but she died not so long ago. Then the old lady suggested to call Mas Slamet. Slamet was de son of Eveline Artz and thus a direct descendant! Would we finally meet a 'real' one? A few minutes later Slamet arrived. He looked darker then the average Indonesian and his posture was different. A bit shy, he introduced himself. It turned out to be a very soft spoken (he reminded me of Kofi Annan who comes from Ghana) and friendly, calm guy. He brought with him a book that he offered to us. It was a research about the Kampung Africa made by an Indonesian scholar some years ago. Although it was not the potential Indo-Afro-Belanda waitress we were hoping to bring home, we did feel we had accomplished our mission.

An interesting  part of history, of which the last reminders slowly slip away from us...  -- Bartele

THE PREVIOUS EDITIONS:

http://www.bartele.com/2007/20070201.htm
http://www.bartele.com/2007/20070129.htm
http://www.bartele.com/2007/20070126.htm
http://www.bartele.com/2007/jan19nl03/LATEST20070119.htm
http://www.bartele.com/2007/jan12nl02/latest.html 

======================

Indonesian gas potential burns dimly  Indonesia's reputation as a reliable business partner in the energy sector has recently been tarnished and its earning potential undermined by a series of contractual spats pitting Jakarta against multinational energy companies and big Japanese natural gas importers. - Bill Guerin (Asia Times)

Indonesia's push for biofuels

If the Indonesian government has its way, another 5m hectares (12m acres) of land in Kalimantan and elsewhere will be turned over to companies growing biofuel crops like oil palm, cassava or sugar cane. Global demand for alternative fuels is growing, and Alhilal Hamdi, head of Indonesia's new Biofuels Development Board, says now is the time for his country to tap into it. (BBC)

THE FLOODING OF EASTERN PROMISE IN PICTURES

It started as just another evening. Fun at the bar..

Then it starts to  rain ...

The water starts rising. Lens calling for help.

Customers in stress..

Other customers escape at the last moment...

Help arrives...

Staff and customers (14) loaded on the truck

But everybody in good mood

Leaving brave men behind...
(as we were abandoning ship we saw guys catching a 5-meter python just in front of the bar. The next morning the staff faced another, smaller python and  a cobra in the storage room!)

The next morning. One regular had to leave his car behind...

But last night the happy faces were back in the bar .....

===================THE END===================

FROM A READER:

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