Dorina Schulte: I, the white girl in Pontianak !

Sebuah cerita menarik. Ditulis oleh Dorina Schulte tentang pengalamannya sebagai seorang gadis muda berkulit putih di Pontianak. Dorina adalah juga salah satu mahasiswa saya yang belajar Bahasa Indonesia di Universitas Jerman. Saat ini Dorina pun sedang bermagang di koran Borneo Tribune, Pontianak.

Berikut tulisan menarik yang diturunkan di salah satu terbitan Borneo Tribune, edisi Sabtu, edisi berbahasa Inggris.

By Dorina Luise Schulte

I am Dorina Luise Schulte. I use to study in Bonn, Germany. On every Saturday I will report about my experience in Indonesia.

A lot of people ask me, why I am here, in Indonesia. This is the answer. I always loved to travel around the world. That`s why I decided to learn Asian languages. We already learned English, French and Spanish in school, but I really want to learn more. I started to learn Mandarin and Indonesian languages. I liked the Indonesian language, because there are no signs, just the same letter we use in our German.

My teacher for Indonesian language, Yanti Mirdayanti, told me about her experience with the newspaper the Borneo Tribune and Pontianak. I really enjoyed her stories and she asked me to do a practical training in Pontianak. Immediately I booked a flight to Jakarta. Yanti Mirdayanti helped me to get ready for the trip, because I have never been in a land like Indonesia. I already have been in almost every country in Europe, in Australia and New Zealand, but never in Asia. So I was very excited to get the chance to travel in this beautiful, green country called Indonesia.

So when I arrived in Pontianak on Thursday the 2nd of October I drove through to a beautiful area with palm trees on every side, colorful houses and a lot of people crazy driving their motorcycles.

I stay in the house of Nur Iskandar and I noticed that everyone is very polite and courteous. In Germany we are very polite too, but it`s not usual to invite everyone in their house, but that is exactly that, what I experience the next days.

It was just the second day of Idul Fitri and everyone invite the family of Mas Nur including me, to come, and have meals and drinks together.- Germany is a country with a lot of different nationalities and cultures, though I already know Ramadan and the big celebration after the fasting month. But until now me wasn´t invited at all. So I really enjoyed the hospitality of the Indonesian habitants. Also I enjoyed the tasting of all the different kind of food.

I already ate sate, pisang goreng, kambing, ikan lele, sotong, seafood etc. And everything I tasted was a very delicious and hot too, but I really enjoyed every meal I`ve got, because I really like to cook. So for me is every dish a new experience. I already knew sate from the Asian restaurants in Germany, but they just have sate made from chicken. Here I could taste the sate made from beef, goat, and shrimp too. Also all the different traditional cookies they especially served to Idul Fitri. They are very colorful and different.

In Germany we have cookies for special festivals too. It is tradition to bake with the kids some weeks before Christmas Cookies. For Christmas we have honey bread/lebkuchen, gingerbread and almond paste/Marzipan. We use spices like anis, honey and ginger. During the Christmas holidays we´re visiting our family. Before we exchange presents with our lovely friends and family, we`re going to the church together. In the afternoon is always a nativity scene. Children are playing the story of Maria and Josef, showing the birth of Jesus Christ. After the church we are going back home to eat traditional food. Traditional dish in Germany for Christmas holidays is duck or goose with vegetables and dumplings.

I think the really important think on both Celebration are to be together with your family and friends and enjoy accompany with the people you love.