"Muslim students were taught by a Muslim teacher, and Christian students were taught by a Christian teacher," said Effendi, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.
Obama took few kids to his home, just members of an inner circle who were trusted to see his secret pets: crocodiles that lived in a concrete tub, about a foot-and-a-half deep and a yard long, surrounded by chicken wire. The biggest croc was almost as long as its home, recalled Adi.
Obama's stepfather "was breeding crocodiles in his house," he added. "Not many people knew about it. He only had one big crocodile, but they had many smaller ones."
The family's pets included a turtle as big as a cookie tin and an ape named Tata, which Obama's stepfather brought from New Guinea. Soetoro worked for Mobil Oil and was a "chubby, and relaxed kind of guy," Adi said.
Obama spent most his spare time hanging out with Adi and other friends at the home of Yunaldi Askiar, a classmate. They used to play a kind of fencing game using sticks, kick a ball up and down the narrow dirt lanes or go swimming in the river behind the school, said Askiar, 42, a car mechanic.
Obama was taller and better dressed than most kids in classes where shoes and socks were still luxuries, so he stood out from the start. As an African American, and the only foreigner, he suffered racial taunts and teasing but never turned to violence. "At first, everybody felt it was weird to have him here," Dharmawan said. "But also they were curious about him, so wherever he went, the kids were following him."
In "Dreams From My Father," Obama describes coming home one day with an egg-sized lump on the side of his head because he had challenged an older boy.
The boy hit Obama with a rock, so his stepfather brought out two pairs of boxing gloves and sparred with him. "You want to keep moving, but always stay low -- don't give them a target," he coached Obama.
Instead of using his fists, Obama gained respect -- and friends -- by using his imposing stature to protect weaker children against the strong, Dharmawan said.
Obama's Indonesian teachers all said he was a leader at a young age. Fermina Katarina Sinaga, Obama's third-grade teacher, didn't have to quiet her pupils before class because Obama did it for her.
"When the kids lined up before entering the class, he would step forward and lead the whole class," said Sinaga, 57. "He inspected the line, and he was acting like a teacher. I could see his sense of leadership back then."
Sinaga asked her class to write an essay titled "My dream: What I want to be in the future." Obama "wrote 'I want to be a president,' " she said. During a later writing assignment on family, he wrote, "My father is my idol."
paul.watson@latimes.com
