A Singular Woman - Janny Scott [86]
To Flickinger, her house felt like a haven. It was possible to talk openly there about politics, about the relentless control exercised by the Suharto regime. Ann seemed almost maternal. Flickinger would want her to say something encouraging about the country’s future, but she was simply realistic, always looking for ways to make the situation better. “Because she was living the life she was, I guess I would have to say she was optimistic,” he remembered. “But with her eyes wide open.” Richard Holloway described her sitting on a settee, clutching a cushion to her chest “and sort of, I suppose, ‘tut-tutting’ is the way I would put it. Not a spinsterish tut-tutting, but she would tone down some of the outrageous statements people were making.” On Thanksgiving, she held a “Ducksgiving” feast. Colleagues, friends, and younger volunteers living on stipends all turned up. In the absence of turkey, they plucked and cooked several ducks. “Ann was extremely gregarious and, of course, entertaining and fun,” Blenkinsop said. “She was generous-spirited.”
Ann did not, as has been said, suffer fools gladly. Semarang, like any place, had its share of fools. Ann found it incredible that one American family ate only imported food, said Glen Williams, Holloway’s predecessor at Oxfam, who was also friendly with Ann. She could not see the point. She found it bizarre that many expatriates made little effort to learn the language. There were hilarious malapropisms to savor: In a speech to an audience of Indonesians, a colleague of Blenkinsop’s intended to use the expression masuk angin, which means a draft of wind has entered the body, and which is used to refer to a slight cold with flu-like symptoms. Instead, he said masuk anjing, which would mean a dog had entered the body. “She was not like most of the other expatriates there, who would never, ever have dreamed of going to a wayang performance,” said Williams, who went once, determined to sit through the performance, but drifted off. “It was out of their comfort zone, but she didn’t respect expatriate comfort zones.” She and Blenkinsop were not above laughing about other expatriates.
If Ann found their behavior curious, however, the feeling was mutual.
“In Semarang, Ann was—I wouldn’t say eccentric, but she was an unusual woman,” Blenkinsop said. “Living in Central Java as a single white American woman with her own household setup—I can’t think of another one.” Ann’s decision to educate Maya at home may also have struck some as questionable: “Running tiny schools in your garage may not have been what they thought was mainstream,” Blenkinsop said. Ann’s friendliness with Indonesians “was thought to be strange and perhaps a little inappropriate.” Ann “must have represented something that was a bit of an eyebrow raiser, frankly,” Blenkinsop said. Remarks were made. “The gossip in those sorts of communities was absolutely fantastic,” she said.
There were advantages and disadvantages to being a Western woman working in Indonesia. Blenkinsop, who had academic degrees in sociology and business and was working for