Mummy and Daddy say that I was a smart little girl and that I always liked books and watching TV when I was a little kid. I don’t really remember that too much, but I do remember always being around the school that Mummy and Daddy used to have. Like I said, it was in our old house at first and then Mummy and Daddy opened another one or two schools (I forget which) also in Sidoarjo, and so everyday after I finished in my nursery school, Mummy’s driver picked me up and took me to whichever school Mummy was in and I would stay there the rest of the day. If Daddy was not too busy in Surabaya, he used to come to the school later. I decided at that time that I wanted to become a teacher too when I was grown up. I watched the way Mummy was very friendly when she was teaching and I decided that I would also be a friendly teacher. She was always laughing with the students and playing games with them, but Daddy was a bit different. When I saw Daddy teaching his lessons he always seemed to be more serious and his lessons were always quieter. I don’t think the kids enjoyed Daddy’s classes as much because they always seemed to have to do lots of writing. This actually was a bit strange for me, because I didn’t understand why Daddy was always so serious in teaching, but so funny with me at home. At home he was always laughing and telling silly stories and singing silly songs, but at school he never smiled very much. I wondered why that was.
There were lots of other teachers at the schools Mummy and Daddy owned, of course, but Daddy was the only teacher from a different country. All the other teachers were from Indonesia and some were women and others were men. I liked them all because they were all nice to me and all of them played with me if Mummy and Daddy were teaching or busy. Because we knew them well and they were close to us, I called them all either ‘um’ which means uncle, or ‘tanta’ which means ‘auntie’ together with their first names. For example there was: Um Didik, Um Kasi, Um Yanto and Um Arin and Tanta Ida, Tanta Della, Tanta Tine, and Tanta Nurul.
Mummy was very good in training the other teachers to be good teachers and she helped them with lots of things. They didn’t just teach English language, like Daddy did, but also physical activities for the little kids. It was like a kind of nursery or playschool as well as a language school and I sometimes joined the classes too, but not often.
When I was maybe three or four years old, my mummy and daddy and me went on a long plane journey to England. I remember we stayed with my Nana for one or two weeks and we did lots of exciting things there. We went to London (I think) and we went to many famous places there – but I forget the names of these places now. I will ask Mummy if we have some photos somewhere and then I will describe them more later. Also, I know we went to the beach even though it was quite cold and I rode on a donkey for the first time. Daddy said he used to ride on a donkey sometimes when he was a little boy living in England with Nana, too. I wonder what Daddy looked like when he was a little boy? I have never seen a picture of him when he was little. I wonder why.
England was nice, I think, but it was very cold. I think we went there in winter maybe. I met my English cousins and played with them, but I think they didn’t understand me much because I couldn’t really speak English very well then.
When we came back from England, Mummy opened a new school and was very busy getting everything ready for that. There were many things to buy and she had to go to many places so she wasn’t at home or in the schools much when I got home every day from my nursery school. Luckily though, she had Um Arin to help her. He used to go with her in the car everyday and they would drive around for ages buying things for the new school while the other uncles and aunts did the teaching in the old schools.
I liked Um Arin especially, as he was always nice to me and Mummy. He had funny curly hair and I always teased him and called him ‘Um Cribo’. Cribo is the Indonesian word for ‘curly’ you see, so I was really calling him ‘Uncle Curly’. Funny, right?
Um Cribo and Mummy and me went one time to a place called Malang. This is a town which is near where we lived in Sidoarjo but it is a bit cooler because it is in the mountains. When we were there, Mummy and Um Cribo met some people and talked about something connected with Mummy’s job, and then we spent the rest of the day playing and walking around. It was a lovely day and we played in the park and ate ice-creams together and Mummy and me laughed a lot at Um Cribo’s jokes. It was nice because Mummy was so happy then. Sometimes Mummy was not happy in Sidoarjo, I know, and so it was a good day for us all there. The only pity about that day was that Daddy wasn’t there because he was busy working again. I told Mummy that I missed Daddy, and she just said that he could come with us next time.
Soon after that day we did go to Malang again and this time Daddy did come too. In fact almost all the
