Part two opens with John being based in Indonesia. After looking at pictures of the Wisma in Bandung, I can understand why John liked it. The pictures I found of Bandung were beautiful. Part of John's job was to visit local residents, businesses, and government employees. After a while, he got a feeling that they didn't trust him enough to open up to him. Usually, when Americans visited Indonesia they stayed in the capital Jakarta. Residents rarely ever crossed paths with them. The lady who managed Wisma in the 1970s while John was there had a son close to John's age. Rasmon or Rasy, taught John how to speak Bahasa Indonesia. President Sukarno created Bahasa to unite his people under one common language. Indonesia had 350 official languages and dialects which changed in each area. So after getting their independence from the Netherlands creating a single language was a priority.
Before John left for the next part of his assignment, Rasy took him out to see Bandung which Rasy knew and enjoyed. John meets Rasy's friends from the university. They had hours-long conversations with appetizers and coffee. Rasy's friends were intrigued by John. They rarely ever saw foreigners. Most visitors stayed in the wealthier neighborhoods of Bandung. John enjoyed going off the beaten path. Seeing all the sides of Bandung Rasy showed him made John realize he needed more time in Indonesia. While in Jakarta, John noticed things he'd never thought twice about. The time he spent with Rasy and his friends made an impact on John.
While in Jakarta, John went about his business with colleagues. Except he noticed things in their demeanor he hadn't seen before. They often referred to him as an 'Inquisitor' or 'Interrogator'. They didn't know that John learned enough Bahasa to understand that they were complying with orders. The politeness was just that. They neither liked nor trusted him. He came to question the information he had been given.
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