Monday, December 3, 2007
Circus and Bad guys
Saturday we thought we would go to town because there was to a be grand performance. some guys from america have been traveling the world on their bikes for 7 years... giving towns and cities a circus act of sorts. i would like to see how they get the elephant on a bike!!!!...and that is why i wanted to go...this would be an amazing show to see! we were told 5 pm at the Ramanyana. we (greg, edith, yon and i) showed up at 4 with our 6 kids who were eager for a circus show. we thought there would be many many people who would want to see this and we wanted good seats or standing space. but no one was there. the parking lot was empty...mostly. so we thought we would give them the hour and we went inside the store to the top floor where they have arcade games...a kind of "chuckie cheese" if you will??? and we thought if the circus didn't show...we could at least call the games "the circus." so at 5:20 we went back out and no...nothing. Edith called our rep who told us of the event and the rep said...it had been postponed until 7...or maybe tomorrow? nothing here is for sure until after it happens! :D so we began to go to the car and the kids were only a little bit frustrated. a fairly normal looking man approached me. he said something about "black hawk" and i repeated trying to understand for my indonesian isn't THAT great yet. i figured he was talking about the circus. no. he turned his cigarette around and bit the burning end off--- chewed it up and spit it back at us. ok...so this guy is not happy. then he gets in my face a little more, and yes, he is indeed angry. we are all trying to figure out how are we going to get out of this...with our kids watching. he turns to edith's husband and yells something of which if i could have understood, i'm sure i wouldn't have wanted to...then he turns back to me and yells some more of that i COULD understand. this was getting a little intense. then he decides to leave on his own..."whew!" i was thinking when BAMMMMM...the guy had come behind me and punched me from behind. yes...this is martha talking...he punched a GIRL! this was in public...maybe people were around. i can still feel the blow today in my shoulder...he meant it. i don't know why...we didn't do anything. i was grateful an indonesian woman and her husband came over to apologize for him. she said he was bad and we should excuse him from "indonesia" - i agree but i am just shocked. at first i was scared. then i was hurt. then i was mad. now i don't know?! what is culturally appropriate to do in cases like this? what do we say? what do we do? what do we NOT do? what can we do just because we are humans and what do we do because we represent Jesus? turn the other cheek? or shoulder? hmmm...i am thinking through so much...culture is a lot to process...Christianity is more of laying it all out and giving it to Jesus. when we got home Paul said "mom, why did he want to be mean?... i don't want to go there ever again...i don't like it when people hit you." and my heart sank... i know this is one instance that he prob. won't even remember but i didn't want him to have to process this too...i want him to be able to trust this country...and yet...everything happens for a reason...i trust that...so together we processed and it even helped me to take it to a 3-year-old level... we shouldn't hit anyone cuz it hurts their feelings and makes others around them feel scared too. fists...and even words too...paul added.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
hey,
I'm sorry to hear that and i wish i was there to help you to solve the problem.
As native people i fell shy because eastern culture teach us to respect each other with good hospitality especially Jesus followers...
I hope that horrible situation will not happen again toward your families.
God Bless U
Regards,
Adie
OMG! glad you are "ok" for the most part. wow. maybe you should've turned on your black-belt-in-karate moves.
Post a Comment