Home

We've been home for week now, though I have been away again, four days in DC to help next year's Fulbrighters get ready for their year, something we didn't have last year.It was quite pleasant, with a coincidental overlap with my brother Duncan, who was in DC on Tuesday, and whom I hadn't seen for two years.
I got stuck in Denver last night, because my plane sustained hail damage, not a bad deal because my parents live in Denver, so I spent the night with them. Now I'm at the airport waiting to board.
We had the most marvelous spontaneous greeting after we arrived home last Thursday. Word got out that we were back, and within an hour Seamus was off with friends, Graham had a gaggle of friends going through his new treasures, and Laura and I were drinking one of the many beers that showed up with our greeters. It was great, even after 26 hours of travel and ridiculous jet lag.
On Tuesday I gave a 3 minute address at the Indonesian Embassy, during which I was actually heckled by the Indonesian Ambassador. (He yelled out, after I greeted the crowd in Indonesian and thanked him in particular, that he had no idea what I just said. It was quite funny). I realized, as I helped prep next year's grantees, that I had a lot to say, and a lot of ideas about the process and about getting around in the country. When I spoke at the Embassy, I plugged the work I hope to continue doing writing workshops in Yogyakarta, as well as just praised the program.
There is no doubt micro-diplomacy like this works, and works well. As I said n my talk, my children will be lifelong lovers of Indonesia, and I'll never see the world the same either. I'm wary of using words like 'transformative' - maybe I'm too cynical - but it's a different world for me in some ways. On a small level, when I am driving on a road where the speed limit is 25 miles an hour, and it's a wide road, and there are no other cars, I have to study the speedometer the whole time or soon I'm at 40 miles an hour, my instinct from Indonesia to make up for time I have already post or am about to lose. And everything engenders visual flackbacks: the water cascading down the side of the highway after a DC downpour brings up the road, outside our house, when it would become a river.
Last night I went to dinner with my parents and my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, Cupcake, and I ate the entire plate I was served, a massive hamburger and French fries and onion rings, for reasons that are not clear to me, except for old habit. It was quite gross really, enough food for 2 or 3 people, at the portions I've become used to, and it helped explain the general girth of my fellow citizens, which is one of the first things you notice upon return. I felt sick for about 3 hours.
I'm so glad to be home though, I can say that much. And I think I'm over jet lag. But the reverse culture shock, I suspect, has only just begun. My plane, it appears, is boarding. Mari.