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Gas station | Toraja, Sulawesi

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September 1, 2010

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Olympus Trip 35 | Kodak Tri-x
Most people I met in Sulawesi had never encountered an American, so I was constantly barraged with questions. This could range from "Do you agree that Barack Obama is Indonesian?" to "is free sex part of the American teenager lifestyle?" to "Why don't you look like an American?"

Perhaps my favorite question was Awal's, who told me he'd seen in movies that people sometimes drive up to a gas station and fill their own gas--BUT HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!

This is just a country fill-up of course...you drive up to an individual's home that has gas for sale displayed in glass bottles and tell them how much you want. Cities, even smallish ones, have the usual gas pumps and uniformed attendants.

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