The world's a stage

---

It was 8.20 am. Music by Philip Glass was being played very loudly through speakers attached to a laptop computer. I was sat in just my boxer shorts in the front room of my new house in Cirebon, working on my lesson plans for school.


I was disturbed by the sound of loud noises from outside. I turned down the music, wondering if the neighbours were objecting to my taste in music. Then I twitched back the net curtains and looked out of my front window. Standing outside my house was a little woman who was shaking the locked gate.


So, I walked to my bedroom and got dressed. When I finally emerged from the house, the woman at the gate was holding up a piece of paper which had the words, “I work here”, written on it.


I smiled, unlocked the gate and let her in the house. I found some dirty laundry which I handed to her. She walked out to the back yard and proceeded to hand wash my clothes.


I've inherited a maid with the house. I don't speak Bahasa Indonesian, she doesn't speak English.


I'm working as an English teacher in the city of Cirebon in Indonesia. The contract ends in November of 2009. The Lonely Planet guidebook says of Cirebon that it is

well off the tourist trail, on the sun burnt north coast.

Translation: it's hot! Although it is now the coldest time of year because it's the wet season. Cirebon is a small city but was once the centre of an Islamic kingdom.

---

Photos

The world's a stage
"Then the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school."
(As You Like It, Act 2, scene 7, Shakespeare).

Raffles got everywhere!
Memorial to Olivia Marianne, the wife of Sir Stanford Raffles in the Botanical Gardens, Bogor.

Comments

[Armchair Traveler]

You've surfaced!
Just idly cruising travel blogs when I came across yours. Months ago, I followed your travels in Africa. Love your stunning photos. The social/historical commentary is good too. Lived in east Java about 25 years ago. The language is easy to pick up. Grammar is not a big thing. Just string words together. I'd get a phrase book and/or dictionary if I were you, seeing as you'll be there for 7 months. The locals will appreciate your attemps. I look forward to reading your blogs. -A.T.

[Pavel]

Nice photo!
Nice girls there in Ceribon :D Cheers from Bali ;) Bibr - www.zivotnabali.cz