In late May 2014, Ibu Dani, a long-term interlocutor of mine, came to visit me in my home in Leiden. As soon as she entered the house, I noticed how exceptionally upset she was. She handed me a bag with ingredients for the kangkung, tempe, and babi ketjap we were planning to cook that evening and exclaimed, fuming: ‘Too many ignorant foreigners live in this country! This is too bad … too bad I tell you. Are you writing about this!?’ She then explained what caused her outburst of anger.

On the way to my house, Ibu Dani had stopped at the local supermarket to buy the ingredients for our meal. Walking between the aisles, she accidentally brushed past a woman she referred to as ‘black allochtoon, Surinamese’. Later on, being in a hurry to get to my place, as she explained, she tried to pay for the purchase as quickly as possible and continue on her journey. At that point, ‘the Surinamese woman’ told her she should watch her manners and stop pushing her way around, claiming that Ibu Dani was trying to push in front of her in the cue for the cashier. The comment about her bad manners outraged Ibu Dani. ‘Me, bad-mannered! Me!? I am not just any brown woman! I am Balinese! Everybody knows we are kind, polite people … I have lived here for 20 years, I know my way around!’ She continued to explain how she did not want to be bossed around by a ‘Surinamese woman’ when it is a known fact that Surinamese people are problem-makers. Ibu Dani made this clear to the woman with whom she was having the argument. ‘Do you know what she said?’ continued Ibu Dani. ‘“You bloody Wilders [Geert Wilders, right-wing politician, leader of the Party for Freedom] voter, you should all go back from wherever you came from.” She said that to me! To me! Sometimes I think Wilders is right. Some foreigners are horrible! Really horrible.’

Ibu Dani's encounter with ‘the Surinamese woman’ neatly encapsulates how everyday situations can become sites of struggle over home and belonging and over claims to Balinese people's self-image as being kind and polite.