How I Became a Keynote Speaker without even Knowing the Topic

Yesterday, after a harrowing time waiting for a taxi that didn't come, we arrived finally at the Campus "Satu" ("One) that will be my teaching venue, which is about 30 minutes from the campus near our house.  I only knew I was to be part of a "panel discussion."  Imagine my surprise when kind, intelligent Bu (Mrs.) Vina (pronounced "Fina" and not to be confused with wine), told me I was keynote speaker and showed me that next to my name on a banner that adorned the stage, were those very words.  The only way I was saved was that right before that in the few minutes I had before calling the taxi, I opened my email to find a very helpful message from Susan Reed-Kelly telling me about the new Frontline series, "God in America."  That became the subject of my talk, er, keynote address.
 There were two other panelists, one from Spain and one from here in Indonesia, making for an interesting international mix.  Even thought the students, grad students in an M.A. program in Islamic Studies, were not fluent in English, and certainly not I in Bahasa Indonesian, we communicated as they asked terribly difficult questions about the Qur'an burning, why did Islam disappear from Spain, and What is terrorism? and How do you solve it? Also an interesting question about Max Weber's "Protestant Ethic" and whether it could be applied to Indonesia's poverty.  I felt he was wondering if good Muslims could become more like hard-working, thrifty, saving Protestants, the ones who made America the capitalist power-house it is today.  Hmm. . . It was good to get into the minds of these serious students, even if only briefly and with guesses at what they were saying.