INDONESIA - Obama visits childhood home

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP):

After two years of waiting, Indonesians are finally getting the chance to welcome back their adopted son. But the euphoria that swept the predominantly Muslim country after Barack Obama's election victory has been replaced by a dose of reality.

Few here now believe he will change American policies in the Middle East or improve United States relations with the Muslim world. And hopes that the two countries would march forward together on the world stage have been cast aside.

Still, Indonesians gathered around television sets all over the country, in their houses, coffee shops and office buildings and watched as he touched down.

"We all stopped what we were doing," said Tito, who uses a single name and works at the front desk at the Novotel Hotel in Balikpapan, a city on Borneo island. "Staff, guests ... It's just so amazing that he grew up here, has family here, and is now the US president."

While Indonesians take tremendous pride in having partially raised the American president, who spent four childhood years in the country, the plans for his long-anticipated homecoming yesterday have been accompanied by a sadness that he is not fully theirs.