We Can Say...

We went to Puncak on 05-06 July 2011 for a staff retreat. We drove past Bogor where there is a famous botanical garden and “safari”—too bad we didn’t get to check it out. It was quite a drive, but the fresh air and great views of the mountains was well worth it. We got to know our colleagues better as well as the school’s 3 thrusts. Many of the teachers are actually from the Philippines. There were also team-building games, which is always fun.

The next morning, Dennis played soccer with some of the teachers. One of the PE teachers actually played for the Indonesia soccer team, and the new soccer coach was a professional soccer player for 14 years if I remember correctly. He played for ~10 different teams/countries including his homeland Cameroon, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and a slew of others that I cannot recall until an injury ended his professional career. Needless to say, his skills were far beyond anyone else’s on at the school.

He reminds me a lot of Dixon from Alias. Similar faces with a seriousness that’s quite intimidating until he smiles. I think the main difference is in height. The character in Alias is probably taller, but our coach is by far more muscular. I swear it looks like he’s about to bust out at the seams—he is pure muscle. That and Dixon was always in a suit while our coach is always decked out in Adidas soccer gear. I’d love to see his closet; there’s probably coordinating soccer outfit in every color. I once commented that Adidas must be his favorite. His response was that it’s part of his national identity—that in Cameroon, Adidas is what people wore. On the surface, you’d never suspect that there’s a surprising gentleness about him. He’s soft spoken and kind-hearted.

I don’t know how many games they played that morning or exactly what went down on the field. What I do know is how thrilled and proud Dennis was because he blocked one of the coach’s shots that saved a goal. Granted whichever team the coach was on won (and Dennis tweaked his ankle for the 100^th time), but now Dennis can say that he blocked a professional soccer player’s shot.

We also learned a phrase on our long bus ride back to Jakarta. Why this particular one? We’ll leave that to your imagination (though for once Dennis was not the culprit).

Bahasa:        Siapa kentut?

Chinese:       Shui fangpi?

Tagalog:       Sino’ng umutot?

English:        Who farted?

It’s the 1^st phrase we know in 4 different languages. The only question is: Why didn’t we learn how to say this in Japanese?

For completeness, we’ve used Google Translate: Dare ga farted? Apparently, Google will not translate “farted” to Japanese, but the word for “fart” is “onara”. We’re okay with “Dare ga onara?” To our friends who speak Japanese, please feel free to correct us.