Am I a woman or a man?

three village women

Whether you believe it or not, but these three village women asked me the following question: 'Are you a man or a woman?' To be honest: they asked this question in Javanese dialect to my guide and friend Ana, while we were cramped up in some kind of mini-bus (city-transport). Ana translated their question and really, I couldn't believe my ears! I've had many crazy questions in my life before, usually about my age (I look younger than I am), the colour of my hair or the size of my (non-existing) breasts, but NEVER, no never before, somebody's asked me whether I am a man or woman!

No. Stop. Correction. I remember a woman asking me this once before in my life: I must have been 5 or 6, hair cut short, dressed in ugly boyish clothes. So her question was a forgiveable and logical result of my appearance. But now!? Now that I'm wearing my hair long again -for the first time in years!
Luckily, Ana comforted me: 'These village women probably have never seen a white skinned woman like you before. And you're not wearing a veil, as so many muslim women do. Only men are supposed to walk around 'naked'. So I suppose it's because of the lacking veil that they doubt your sex.'

Whatever the reason, I decided not to ask these women. I had to safeguard my ego, no?

Ana and me

The picture of Ana and me is a wonderful combination of religions:
catholic white woman with buddhist bracelet and muslim black veiled woman in front of a Dutch protestant church.
Reason for the church in the background: it was the only place in this part of the city where we could find a clean toilet!