well this gadis kampung series is really my venue to complain about the fact that m a kampung girl.
i might be yeah ..you know liberal, cosmopolitan and blah blah blah but i still have to eat the fact m a kampung girl and need to bend down to the abiding norms of my kampung.
“you should think of what your kampung people will think about your words, your actions, who your friends are, and blah blah blah………”
yesterday, a friend of mine came all the way from new york to my city. so, it’s just normal you know if i wanted to take him to my home, you know taking him around. but i could not do it! no, i may not do it!
oh how i wish i were a boy. truly! i could take just any friends home. there would be no bruahaha.
but i may not do it. you know, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake did not prompt me to have a breakdown at all. but this restriction (of me cannot take my friends who happen to be male) home really sets me in tears. it hurts my pride.
if my brother can do it, why can’t i? if my brother is allowed to go home late, why can’t i?
and
i plan to go backpacking traveling thru sumatra and java in february with a pal (who happens to be a boy) and i believe everybody in the family will say “NO”
it’s my money and it’s my body but still the answer is “NO” no matter how i convince them that i do not copulate with just any man i meet! i m sure i know the do’s and the don’ts of being me. my records is clean you know.
how i wish i were a boy.
how i regret going home after all.
how i wish i could leave soon.
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October 13, 2009 at 4:57 pm
triesti
well, what did you expect? It’s one of those things that makes going home harder than going away… you’ve changed, and folks back home have also changed but in different speed/direction.
hope you guys have a good time tho
October 13, 2009 at 7:36 pm
colson
Different circumstances, different background, different gender. So,am I in any way qualified to really understand in any significant way this problem? No, probably not. It is not just another conflict of generations I do know about.
So I can only try and use empathy. And sympathize with you. Or, perhaps, I can verbally encourage the flame of peaceful feminist rebellion. That is ‘women’s lib’ Indonesian style.
In any case I can’t think of reasonable reasons to rein in the freedom of girls/women in comparison to what boys/men are allowed to do. Quite the opposite. The amount of testosterone in males- which causes aggressiveness- objectively requires stricter social control of men.
So.
Well, I’m sure you guys have some fun together now anyhow. And I am certain you will enjoy touring Sumatra and Java later.
PS: I think I noticed some glimpses of Kampung morals when I attended to the ( wedding) ceremonies of my daughters in law and sons. One was actually in a Sumatra Kampung – but the syndrome wasn’t absent in the other one in Bandar Lampung either.
October 22, 2009 at 6:28 pm
john
As an addendum, I was invited to Delvi’s village in the end — but unfortunately I was back in Jakarta by then. Fingers crossed I can check it out next time! : )