Minangkabau Joe is not his real name, but he reminded me of my Uncle Joe back in Kansas – another effortlessly competent farmer-athlete who walked with a swagger not because he was trying to swagger, but because that’s the way he walked.
I’m no expert in the intricacies of Sumatran cow racing, but I sensed that Minangkabau Joe – MJ, if you will – was a pacu jawi Michael Jordan, mixing intensity, focus, knowledge of the contest, and raw talent to dominate the playing arena.
Granted, pacu jawi isn’t about the jockeys (who are more or less the equivalent of rodeo clowns) – it’s about the cows – but MJ’s skills on the bamboo racing-plow had a way of making all the cattle perform just a little bit better than they might have with another jockey. Farmers clearly sought him out to race their cows for the judges, presumably to attract a higher market price, and Minangkabau Joe was constantly out on the racing paddy.
I’m not sure why MJ sought me out – perhaps it was because I was one of the few foreigners in attendance – but in the rare moments when he wasn’t racing he’d come over and chat me up. I had no idea what he was saying (my Minangkabau stops at “How are you?”), but it didn’t seem to faze him. He kept pantomiming to me that he wanted a cigarette, and I had difficulty explaining that I am, apparently, the only male currently on the island of Sumatra who doesn’t smoke. (All the Sumatran guys I’ve profiled here thus far – Ganda, Boymen, Ari – were gung-ho chain-smokers.)
I last glimpsed Minangkabau Joe as I was departing the event. The races were winding down, but he was still out there on the racing plows – tirelessly and skillfully making run after run in the mud-sloshed paddy.
Note: “Dispatches” are short vignettes, profiles, and mini-essays written and posted from the road, often in tandem with my Instagram account. For more full-formed writing, check out my book Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, or the Essays or Stories archives on this site. I don’t host a “comments” section, but I’m happy to hear your thoughts via my Contact page.
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