Meet Joseph

I met this guy at Mandiri Beach, this early April. He was taking photographs of his friends surfing the beach break. His name is Joseph and he is a Canadian.

Joseph speaks good Indonesian. Although I spoke to him English, he answered me in Indonesian whatever he could say, but he said it in English when it came to a more complex ideas as I kept speaking English to him.

Joseph is an old hander. This is the second time he is in Krui. He was in Krui four years ago and stayed there for a long time. “I stayed with local people at Jimmy’s for two months,” he said. And he stayed at the Karang Nyimbur for even longer time.

He kept on taking photographs of his friends in the water, and so did I. His friends were busy handling the swells that came over them one by one. The swells were about three feet or four, but they missed most of them though. We sat in the shade in the bush. We halted talking every now and then as we are pointing the lens of our camera to the people in the water.

“I want to have a girlfriend here,” he said.

“Sure you do, but it’s not just easy, Man,” I said. “You cannot have a local girlfriend here just for fun. You’ve got to be serious. You have to buy a piece of land and build a house first so as to show how serious you are. The parents will not allow you to marry their daughter if you are not serious and settled.”

“Those white people’s girlfriends are not locals,” I said.

 “I had one though when I stayed at Jimmy’s four years ago,” he said.

“Oh, really? It wasn’t a real girlfriend, was it?”

“Yes. It was. We had affection. We loved each other. We kissed. But when I tried to hug her to say goodbye, she refused, she pushed me away,” he said. She was ashamed because there were many people watching.”

“Yes, they are not just used to it,” I said.

“And besides, if you want to marry a local girl, then you have to convert to Islam. And you’ll have to be serious with the religion,” I said.

“Yes. It’s complicated,” he replied.