A Little Something

I just bought a book entitled Indonesia Mengajar yesterday. Even by reading half of the book, I already got so many inspiring stories. Recommended! This time I want to share one of my favorite which made me realize how often I’m whining about things that, somehow, unattainable for some people out there. The story was written by Erwin Puspaningtyas Irjayanti. She was Pengajar Muda in a little town (hmm maybe not “town”, somewhere in outlying district) called Passau, south of Sulawesi. In Passau there are only 60 houses (according to Erwin’s writing in the book), electricity is available by genset (generator set) only at 19.00 – 22.00.

Here I write down part of the story, if you want to read the complete version, you can buy, or borrow, the book, or find the story on www.indonesiamengajar.org (but I don’t know the complete link. On the prolog of the book, Anies Baswedan said that the book is based on the written stories by Pengajar Muda via blog on the website).

MEMBACA INDONESIA RAYA

By Erwin Puspaningtyas Irjayanti

“Apapun yang tidak membunuh kita, menguatkan kita.” Nietzche.

Saya menuliskan cerita ini live di atas bukit pada sore yang terik. Keringat pun bercucuran. Saat itu saya sedang duduk putus asa. Saya ingin berteriak kencang. Saya lelah berjalan dari satu bukit ke bukit lain untuk mencari air bersih agar bisa diminum sekeluarga. Selain itu, saya suka harus berjalan dari satu bukit ke bukit lain untuk sekadar mencari sayur, kacang panjang, dan syukur-syukur dapat kacang tanah untuk dijadikan lauk nanti malam. Jika tidak mendapatkan apa-apa untuk makan malam, terpaksa kami mengambil daun langurru’ dan batang rotan untuk dimasak jadi sayur. Rasanya? Jangan tanya. Sayurnya licin selicin daging tanaman lidah buaya. Buat menelan saja butuh perjuangan.

Ya, saya ingin berteriak, setengah putus asa karena akan pulang dengan tangan kosong. Saya belum mendapatkan apa yang kami cari. Dan, dada saya kian sesak mengingat orang-orang sini melakukan kegiatan ini setiap harinya. Suatu komunitas yang tinggal di rumah panggung, di pedalaman bukit-bukit, jauh dari gemerlap apalagi teknologi. Saudara kita. Satu tanah air. Beginilah susahnya keseharian mereka, dulu, sekarang, dan entah sampai kapan.

Just wanna say to everyone in this world bahwa jika hari ini pekerjaanmu melelahkan, alangkah indahnya jika kamu bersyukur karena keringat dan jerih payahmu itu dihargai lebih dari sekedar air bersih, sayur, kacang panjang, dan batang rotan untuk menyambung hidup.

Dan, jika kamu hanya makan “apa adanya“ atau makan yang tidak sesuai seleramu, syukurilah karena itu hanya hari ini saja. Atau bahkan, itu hanya KALI INI saja.

Maka, jika nanti malam kamu akan beranjak tidur, sampaikan salam hangat yang paling hangat dari saya untuk kasur empuk dan mungkin AC di kamarmu. Baru 7 bulan lagi saya akan meninggalkan papan tidur dan bertemu kasur tidur seempuk kasurmu malam ini.

Dan, jika saat ini, besok, atau esok dan esoknya lagi kau ingin mengeluh karena listrik padam, bersyukurlah karena itu hanya akan 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, atau 10 jam saja. Di sini, listrik pun bahkan tak ada.

Oh ya, jadi ingat sama uang Rp18.000,00 di dalam kantong.

Yah, saat 10 hari lalu saya ambil Rp50.000,00 dari ATM dan hari ini masih tersisa Rp18.000,00, saya jadi ingin memberi tahu bahwa pendapatan rata-rata per bulan di sini adalah Rp150.000,00 hingga Rp200.000,00/KK.

Jadi, hari ini kalau kamu ke restoran entah apa namanya dan membayar setidaknya Rp150.000,00 untuk santapan yang tersaji di mejamu, ingatlah bahwa uang sebesar itu adalah penyambung hidup kami di sini selama sebulan. Lalu, bersyukurlah atas apa yang kau punya.

......

So that's what got touched me :')

Glad to See You again, Ramadhan!

As usual Indonesia always has different opinion about when the 1st day of Ramadhan is starting. After watched a long Sidang Isbath on TV, finally the government announced that Ramadhan is begun on Saturday, 21st of July, while Muhammadiyah said the first day is one day before, Friday, July 20. As a good citizen I go along with the government of course :p According to my father’s beliefs, if we live in a place with a head of that place inside (in this case country) we need to follow what the ‘head’ says, thus they will be responsible later when we’re asked by Munkar and Nakir. Wallahu’alam.

So in order to welcome this holy month with a pure heart, I’d warmly apologize for all my mistakes. Please forgive all of my words, misbehaviors, if I have ever hurted you either intentionally or accidentally :’) I also forgive yours so let’s have a peaceful life at least this month! :p Hope God has always mercy on us, and give us His forgiveness. 

Since lately I become so over-sensitive, I want to ask special forgiveness from people who are being around me recently, first from my extra-patient boyfriend Yudio thanks for always smiling even when I’m so rude to you, sorry sweetheart you always be my first victim when I get mad at someone :'p, my best partner ever Mira who is faithfully be bullied by us and never get mad, the best listener ever Satya who left us 2 weeks ago to start her degree in India (I miss you already Kajol, genuinely), and my one and only follower Chika who ungrudgingly hear and share stories about double D :p. Have a blessed month my dearest! :))

Actually the point of this post is my apology to you :) Have you already forgiven me? If yes, danke schön, das ist sehr lieb von dir :) Soo, it’s already 03.30 in the morning, I want to have a sleep. For you who start fasting today, happy sahur!! And for those who are going along with government as I do, have a nice sleep and take your last lunch (lebay) with a delicious one.

MARHABAN YA RAMADHAN! :D

After a Long Leave

Ok it's almost 10 months since my first post. Gosh, I've planned that I'll be continuously writing, but see how I broke my own promise? Hmm. There're soo many memorable things happened in the last 10 months, and now I'm facing my 3-months-holiday!

I've spent more than a month of my summer holiday for... sleeping? I've tried to find some activities which can make me a little more productive, but it's failed. I also didn't take Semester Pendek (SP) because in this holiday I was planning to go to somewhere abroad for a student festival, then if I took SP I'd miss many classes. Unfortunately, there were some problems that made me not able to go to --let's call it-- my dream country. Then can you imagine, not trying to be conceited, but I haven't any plan to do here! Here's the point that slapped me on my face: I'm doing nothing while most of my friends doing internships, organizations, or some green/charity activities.

So inspite of sleeping all day long, I'm doing blog-surfing. I just read a lot of blogs which are soo inspiring! Those blogs are my friends' who have the same age as me, but they've done so many amazing things! They involved in so many organizations, being one of the head of department. They did everything just soo cool. They got so many scholarships to go abroad, either for summer courses or conferences. And they are also a good writer. They were busy in so many activities but their GPA is still cumlaude! They chose to do something outside their comfort zone, such as doing internship faraway from home, or doing Indonesia Mengajar, K2N, they devoted themselves to country. They chose to do something useful not only for them but also for people around.

Then I looked at myself, what have you done, Fathia? Oh, I feel terrible. Actually from those blogs I can learn so many things. Someone could be good at writing but couldn't speak in public, could be good at business but poor in languages, could be good at singing but poor at school, so on. I realized that people really are amazing just on the way they are, so do I. God is fair --although I still can't understand some cases such as a girl that is beautiful, rich, clever, has handsome boyfriend, and (seems like) has a perfect life--. Sometimes fair doesn't really mean equal right, there's always an exception :p

Hmm looking at these outstanding people I'm not gonna say I'm jealous, I'd rather to say I'm suddenly highly-motivated :p. I'll be 21 years old next month but to see back then, I haven't done much! I satisfied with my life, I proud being myself, but I'm just sure that I can do more. I can be better. What I have to do is doing something extra than the others. There must be more outstanding people out there than these persons that inspired me. I don't plan to be better than them, I plan to be the best I can be :)

Yep to bring my dreams into reality isn't an easy matter. I've to go through tortuous way to achieve it (but sometimes it's just a smooth way for some people -.-). What I have to do is keeping the spirit of my glory! But it's not only myself-factor that can realize my dream, I also need supports from people I love. I thank God for giving me such a really lovable family, wonderful friends, patient yet annoying and insensitive boyfriend, and all surrounding people. All the things I've done 'till now are motivated by them, for making them happy, especially for my mom :* I believe that I can be a better girl (or woman?), so to you who might be reading this, please also help and support me on every way, because surely I need it :)

P.S.: Please kindly inform me for any activities I can join, especially in this summer holiday term :)