Indonesian Community

Indonesians like to gather.  We even have a principle that says mangan ora mangan kumpul which means “eating or not at least we gather”.  So it’s not surprising if even in the foreign country, we still flock together or try to find other Indonesians.  People who want to stay abroad for long time like me, will try to find any existing Indonesian community.  This is like a normal SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for Indonesians.

The main benefit of joining the community is of course we can get help.  It’s not such a secret if students like me like to come to a gathering event for having free Indonesian foods.  Of course in return we also have to help others, but this is just a karma circle: you got help and then you help others.

Facebook page of Indonesian community in Bremen

The thing is, I thought this behavior is just normal. People from other countries will do the same.  Apparently I was wrong.  In my German class, there are students from nine countries from Asia and Eastern Europe, but only me who do the search for people from our home country.  They are not familiar with the system.  Hmmm…

So for example, most of our problem now is finding an apartment for our study later (after the German course).  They, of course, search in internet, but in my case, I have asked the Indonesian community in Bremen and now I have few offers.  And if worst-case scenario happened, I could just go to Bremen and crash to an Indonesian home for awhile.  Indonesian community rocks!