Hannah the Homewrecker

Everyone here is into text-messaging, since it's cheaper than calling, and so I too, I'm ashamed to admit, have fallen victim to this plague. Convenient as it may be, though, it offers many an opportunity for hilarity and confusion; the most recent came as a result of a text message from a friend from church. It was from an unfamiliar number, but I figured that since he had just gotten his phone repaired, either he had changed his number and was using someone else's. I texted him back just to say goodbye before I left Jakarta and that he should come visit me in Semarang if he ever had the chance. In reply, though, instead of hearing from my friend, I got this:

Sori ry g ad hp d tgal dri:istriny

This is extremely abbreviated Indonesian which, as far as I can tell, says (roughly) "sorry, you have a handphone that was left behind. This is from his wife."

I was confused; my church friend isn't married. I didn't respond for a minute or two, wondering what was going on. By way of explanation, I got this:

Knp g bls smsny tlg g usah sms sua mi sy klu g ad yg perlu tsk utk pengertiany y hannah ok

This, to my guess, means "Why did you respond to my text? Please don't text my husband. If you don't have what you need, ask for understanding, okay, Hannah?"

I was doubly confused now: who was this person? How did they know my name? I responded with a simple, "I'm confused," and a few seconds later received this next text:

Knp bingung g usa buang2 pls sms k hp suamisy ry bkan ljang dia ud menikah tlg jgn ggu r. tga sy okay sudah y

This means, more or less, "Why are you confused? You've already thrown around texts to the handphone of my husband. He's not single! He's already married! Please do not disturb my home! Okay? Enough, yeah?"

Wow. I realized at this point exactly what was going on--my friend must have borrowed someone's phone to text me, and I included my name in my original text, so this clearly wasn't someone I knew. I texted back that I was really sorry and that I must have had the wrong number, but still felt vaguely guilty, since that's exactly what I would have said if I were actually having a text-message affair with her husband. This poor husband is going to have a wife constantly suspicious of any trips to Semarang.

Oh well, though. I just hope that my texting Indonesian was poor enough that she could figure out that it was a genuine mistake.