Sunday Nov 18th - Hunt the Tourist

A Sunday would appear to be a very dangerous day in Bukittinggi. Packs of children accompanied by there teachers hunt down poor tourist and force them to perform conversational English, make them sign their school books and then, worst of all, take pictures of them with the pack. Seriously on a Sunday it’s hard to get down the street. Today I have been stopped at least a dozen times by groups of three or 4 children. I was even interviewed by one group who had a tape recorder.

A group with their teacher helped me find an English to Bahasa phrase book. The book shop wasn’t near at hand so we all jumped in a Bendi (horse drawn cart) to get there. Later we went back to the main square, her whole class of about twenty had turned up by then. They all wanted to take photographs with me, using the mobile phones. Apparently they had come from the town of Paya Kumbuh, about an hour away by bus, with the main intention of meeting some tourists they could practice their English on. I was the only one they could find. I hope I didn’t confuse them too much with my Scottish accent. To be honest I learned more Bahasa from them than they did English from me. However at least they managed to tracked down the strange beast that is the tourist.

The teacher was telling me that it is her dream to visit USA or Germany, but she thinks it is highly unlikely. She asked me how long it had taken me to save for my trip and I told her 2 years, exaggerating deliberately. She was shocked at this because it was such a short time. She told me a school teacher’s salary is only around $100 a month.

Anyway I got off lightly an English couple I met were asked by a teacher to help out in a class last Sunday. They went out to a nearby small town on the Monday to discover they were expected to teach a class of about 30 each, on their own. They said it was a great experience.