Heightened Visibility

By this time, I should be used to the extra attention that I get when I go out, but it's starting to get old. Obviously, I am taller, blonder, curlier-haired, bluer-eyed, bigger-nosed, and lighter-skinned than most Indonesians I encounter, but this seems to project a silent "I'd-appreciate-it-if-you'd-randomly-say-hello-to-me" signal, mostly to men. Some people want to take pictures with me in public places. I even had a woman plunk her infant son on my lap to take a photo of us in the angkot on the way to the mall.

I try to be gracious, giving nods, smiles, hellos, or pictures as I feel comfortable, but I get tired of it sometimes. This is probably due to my American over-developed sense of privacy. One of my Indonesian colleagues has a collection of cartoons that highlight Indonesian-Western cultural conflicts, and my favorite documents an experience I've had more than once. An Indonesian man gets on a bus and sits down next to a Western woman with comically curly hair. As he asks her questions ("Hi. Where are you going?" "Where are you from?" "How old are you?" "Are you married?" "Not yet? Why not?" "So when?"), her expression goes from quizzical to irritated to furious before she yells, "SHUT UP! NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!

Of course, I'm sure that many the people I encounter are thinking, "What the heck is she doing?" Like when I stayed to the very end of the credits last night at a movie, the theater attendants were giving me extremely strange looks. Apparently, that isn't done here.