ALONE

As a foreigner in another country life has its advantages and disadvantages. If you're a guy in a city like Jakarta, life is good -- you'd never run out of attention from local girls, either because of the assumption that a foreigner is filthy rich or simply because a foreigner is 'foreign'... You can't be eating the same food every day. However, regardless of your sex, living abroad sucks when you're sick. Especially when you have to be hospitalised.

Most of my time last weekend was spent in a hospital, taking care of a mate who's working here -- alone and sick in a foreign land. He was not only in pain, but he was also lost in translation even if with his good command of Indonesian. He was in an emergency ward at midnight, transferred into a room within an hour and 8 hours later into the next day, he was on an operating table for kidney stone removal.

When he woke up and still slightly drugged out, I told him off for letting the pain and the disease go that far without seeing a doctor. He later confessed that a few days back, his urine was the colour of tea. I was like, WHAT????!! And yet, work seemed more pressing and he ignored it until that fatal night when the pain weakened his knees forcing him to the ground. He said that he didn't want to be a bother to people. And yet, he spoke about being alonge without a girlfriend -- generally feeling sorry for himself. At about the same time, I kept on getting inquiries from the nurses, the doctors about his relative and friends; or rather the lack of it.

It is one thing to be alone in a distant land. It is a choice. It is his choice to be sick, alone. He wasn't lonely. He has friends.
My phone wouldn't stop ringing. There are numerous offers from his friends to take care of him. A place to stay while he recovers. Regular meals which will help the wound to heal. My friend chose to be alone. He wanted to get well in solitude. I tried. Believe me, I did. Then again, it his life, his sickness.

So I stood as a good friend should. By his side. Just in case he forgets, that he is not alone.