Yahoo – AFP,
June 30, 2017
Former US president Barack Obama arrived Friday in his former childhood home Jakarta, where he met Indonesia's president at the end of a ten-day family holiday.
Former US president Barack Obama (L) walks next to Indonesian President Joko Widodo (R) during their a visit at the Botanical Garden adjacent to the Presidential Palace complex in Bogor on June 30 |
Former US president Barack Obama arrived Friday in his former childhood home Jakarta, where he met Indonesia's president at the end of a ten-day family holiday.
Indonesia's
President Joko Widodo met with Obama at the presidential palace on the
outskirts of Jakarta, with Obama delighting local media by greeting Widodo with
"apa kabar" -- how are you in Indonesian.
The former
first family arrived a week ago on the resort island of Bali and then visited
the historic Yogyakarta city in central Java before coming to the capital.
President
Widodo took Obama to a cafe in the botanical garden next to the palace, where
he sampled traditional snacks and ate a bowl of meatball soup.
Obama spent
four years in Indonesia in the late 1960s in the then-sleepy capital Jakarta
after his mother married an Indonesian man, following the end of her marriage
to his Kenyan father.
Many
Indonesians feel a strong bond with Obama because of his early exposure to
Indonesian culture, and a two-metre (six-foot) bronze statue has been placed in
his former school.
The statue
of "Little Barry" -- as Obama was known to his Indonesian school
friends -- depicts a young Obama dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with a
butterfly perched on his hand.
Obama is
travelling with his wife and their two teenage daughters.
Prior to
Jakarta, they toured a Hindu temple wearing traditional sarongs, walked through
terraced rice paddy fields and white water rafted in Bali.
They also
visited ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples on Yogyakarta.
Obama is
expected to give a speech about pluralism and tolerance at an Indonesian
diaspora convention on Saturday before wrapping up his tropical holiday in the
world's most populous Muslim-majority country.
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