...included Bandung, the capital city of West Java.
When I was little, probably 1-2 years old, M&D took me to Bandung to live with my paternal Grandma and my aunties. The reason being both my parents were working and the babysitter had quit.
I remembered waking up in the morning, going out of my grandmother's home and blowing out my breath into the air. And then I stood in awe...because it evaporated as if in winter. My aunties would boil water for my bath, because I could not stand cold, I would get influenza the next day. Bandung was that cold in the early 1980s, I could not imagine how D, with his asthma, survived the weather in the 1970s.
Then I would play around the neighborhood with my cousins Luki and Astri. They would take me through the narrow alleys in Babakan Tarogong. When I got home, Grandma would buy me snacks, such as a very spicy kerupuk (cassava crackers), sate bakso (meatballs on skewers) and lotek (vegetable salad). She would tell me bedtime stories about Kabayan, or Kancil.
Grandma Ummi was very good at sewing. She made me a white dress. I wore it only once, because I was afraid to put stain on it and I was more comfortable in shirts and shorts.
One day my aunties took me to a zoo. Someone fed the elephant with peanuts, but when the peanuts run out he gave plastic to the mighty beast. The elephant was angry and blew water to all of us. My aunties screamed for fear, but I was excited.
In the morning, the weather is cool, but not that cold that your breath will hang in the air. The water is still cold, though. Some things change indeed, but other things remain just the way they are:).
What's your earliest memories?
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