After graduating from high-school, I took a typing course; since entering university seemed out of reach. During the course, I met several girls who quickly became friends. One by one they found jobs; both locally and in other provinces. Finally it was just me and Hesti; me for lack of luck, Hesti for not trying at all. She was getting married, and typing course was a pastime.
One hot summer day, Hesti and I decided to go to a local swimming-pool. We weren't particularly good swimmers, but were having fun talking about our future.
Out of the blue water emerged a bearded stranger, Darcy. He said hello in fluent Indonesian; our native tongue. We soon learned that Darcy was an Australian studying sociology in our city, Yogyakarta, Central Java.
Before long, we had a conversation going, conducted both in English and Indonesian. To my amazement I found that Hesti was fluent in English. Seeing that my English was poor, Darcy offered some help. It came two weeks later; in the form of a brown envelope containing eight booklets of English lessons, issued by Radio Australia.
From that evening on, I tripled our family electrical supply consumption; poring over these user friendly DIY English lessons until well past bedtime. Darcy also advised me to enroll at an English college, Sanata Dharma, where students pay monthly fee instead of exorbitant semester fee payable upfront required by universities. Suddenly tertiary education seemed affordable after all.
In return, I typed Darcy's final essay, in English, for his degree in sociology. He duly returned to Australia after graduating, but not before giving me his family's address in Sydney.
A year later, with my improved English, I met another Australian fellow, Chris, who swept me off my feet, literally. His opening line was: “I met countless Indonesian ladies, but none speaks any English, until I met you”. Speaking about fate.
Through him I hopped onboard a Qantas jet-plane bound for Sydney, Australia.
After our simple wedding, we met up with Darcy a few times, before he went back to Indonesia to teach.
Years went by; quite suddenly Chris and I were busy raising a young family. One day it dawned on me that I would like to pass on Darcy's kindness to other high-school leavers in Indonesia.
I contacted Radio Australia to ask if they had similar program going, but was advised the contrary.
Never one to say die, I now help new Australians learn better understanding in English. In my line of work, our company employs overseas students and new Australians come pre Christmas trading period. During our lunch-break, I virtually coach some of my co-workers spell and write few new English words and their synonyms. Each time, I thank the kindness of a bearded stranger those many years ago.
