The traveling didn't feel like it took any time at all. For three days, they went back and forth between Yogya, Klaten, and Solo, even making it as far as Wonogiri. They were looking for material for their doctoral dissertations. Because their time was limited, they eventually had to return to England. They were quite satisfied with what they had accomplished, and they thanked Katrin.
They gave her a few souvenirs as keepsakes. Katrin was touched. She liked it best when tourists were like this—when she could build a good relationship with them, almost like close friends. They promised they would return to Indonesia someday. And the first person they would see would be Katrin!
But this parting didn't seem to make Katrin all that sad. Someone was still staying behind. Sam wasn't returning to England with them. He would remain in Yogya for a while because he'd been invited to teach at a public university. Sam had been appointed as a guest lecturer. As luck would have it, his work visa had already come through. It was good news for Sam—and for Katrin too.
Secretly, the young woman was harboring something. It was something she'd been trying to deny and avoid all this time, but reality had proven otherwise. She had lost to the charm Sam brought with him. All her opinions, assumptions, and perceptions about the typical Western man had been shattered. Sam wasn't a stereotype of the usual Western guy.
Spending time with Sam—even under the guise of work—had given Katrin a different perspective. She realized there was something appealing about Sam that had managed to thaw her frozen heart toward Western men.
Sam wasn't just any Western man. He was handsome, educated, intelligent, and polite. More than that, he was deeply protective and caring. He truly understood Eastern culture and traditions. He acted and behaved like a native, even more Javanese than the Javanese themselves.
Just look at the way Sam acted when visiting someone's home. He would greet the household first, in Javanese no less. “Kula nuwun…” he would say fluently. When the door was opened, he immediately shook hands with the host. He wouldn't sit down until he was invited to. The same went for being served food—he wouldn't take any until he was told to.
When standing in line, he would let older people go first. He was polite and friendly toward women too, never letting his eyes wander like a womanizer. He respected and valued women deeply.
With all of Sam's qualities as a person, how could Katrin not fall in love? Katrin tried to reconsider her principles when it came to choosing a partner. It felt too racist and extreme to assume that a native Indonesian man was more suitable than a Western man. Wasn't finding one's soulmate a matter for God to decide? Humans had no power to determine it themselves.
Love doesn't recognize race, religion, or social divisions, because love is a sacred feeling God has bestowed upon humanity. There was nothing wrong with love blossoming between two people of different nationalities. Weren't all human beings equal in God's eyes?
Sam himself was deeply egalitarian and staunchly believed in equal rights. He wasn't rigid or selfish. When it came to cultural and racial differences, Sam preferred to take a humanist perspective. To him, the question wasn't which nation was superior among all the peoples of the earth, but how they understood the values of humanity.
Setting aside his work as an anthropology professor—which had given him an understanding of the history of human life on earth—he was, at heart, a humanist and an egalitarian. He was against racism!
There was no denying that Katrin had fallen in love with Sam. With his personality. But like Javanese women in general, Katrin couldn't openly show her feelings. In her family culture, as well as in Javanese culture generally, a woman was expected to wait. She waited for Sam to express his feelings. She couldn't recklessly make the first move and confess to a guy. According to her mother, that was saru. It would make her look like a cheap woman.
A Javanese woman had to know how to protect her dignity and honor. She had to preserve her standing as a respectable woman so men couldn't toy with her easily. Katrin still held on to her mother's advice, even though the temptations of the times and the modern life she'd encountered in the city had eroded traditional values.