Rita with one of her twin girls with me at the then Hyatt Aryaduta, Jakarta...
This was the name and situation on September 11, 1991
At the Borobudur in Yogyakarta
Rita with the twin girls Lola and Loly (3) and son Lauren who was 5 at that time and husband Aboel.
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On April 27, 1991 we met Rita and all three cute and talented, singing and dancing children at the Yogyakarta airport.
We had a long wait and delay for our departure to Jakarta, due to President Suharto who was coming for the opening of part of the restored Prambanan temple.
Finally we are boarding and upon arrival in Jakarta, Pieter discovered that he had left his The Bridge bag in the seat of the waiting room in Yogyakarta...!
Excerpt from Pieter's diary:
At such a moment you would like to be all sorts of things at once, almighty, you would also like to sink into the ground and you should be a little less sloppy and... None of it helps. We get a lot of help from Rita, which is especially important when calling Yogya and making it clear to the people there what it is about. Minutes seem like hours, but the redemptive word comes; the bag has been found and is safe in the office of Bouraq Airlines with Mr. Ulun.
However, they refuse to give it to anyone (due to the amount of cash inside!), we will have to pick it up in person. Is there another flight on this chaotic day? With Rita's help, I get an open ticket for Rupiah 199,700 (Rita paid Rupiah 50,000) and run to the plane... leaving Mariette behind.
In Yogya, Ulun already knew who I was and the manager was proud that his people had handled this so well. They happened to have a Pieter Ve(rmeulen) on their passenger list so they had not thought about the simultaneously departing Garuda flight. And of course we in Jakarta did not inform Bouraq Airlines!
The flight back is packed but with an additional payment of Rupiah 25,000 and some help from the Bouraq manager I manage to be on board in the nick of time.
It's a good feeling to have the bag next to you again complete with a full Rupiah 8,000,000! We got all our travel expenses paid out in cash...
Mariette in the meantime had already arranged everything in Jakarta, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines cancelled, arranged for the Garuda flight from 21:00. She typed a neat thank you note on her portable wordprocessor for the helpful Garuda staff. Yes, speaking Bahasa Indonesia was VERY fruitful that afternoon!!!
At least 25 times we tried to call Rita, no success as the line is constantly busy or gets broken off.
Called my Parents to inform them about our later arrival due to a much later flight...
And so we flew from Jakarta to Abu Dhabi, with its fairytale airport (mosaic mushroom). We even found Mariette's favorite eye makeup but turned out later, that the wrong one was inside that Yves Saint Laurent box... of course; how could it be otherwise on this fateful April 27...!
On our way to Rome and then Amsterdam...
Pieter celebrated his Birthday on the 29th in The Netherlands with family and we flew back to Atlanta, USA on May 4.
Rita's brother came with her and her kids to the Aryaduta Hotel where we handed her the money back and a Makkum tile... This was on September 11 of 1991.
For our earlier work period in Indonesia, Rita was in Medina... so we could not meet her.
Rita with the twin girls Lola and Loly (3) and her sisters...
We were so happy to see each other again!
Rita was such a wonderful woman, very firm and helpful for us to obtain for Pieter a ticket...
Would so LOVE to find her via Internet as we lost contact.
Through the robberies in Wonosobo, her letters with address got lost...
ANY HELP will be appreciated!
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