Monday, August 29, 2005

Acheh 2: Morning in Subunussalam

20 July 2005


I was awakened from a deep sleep by the loud burst. It was still dark outside. “GAM??” My heart skipped a beat, and inside I was constantly praying. The story about the couple that was held by GAM’s soldiers crossed my mind, where the husband was killed and the wife taken away just few days before. I saw some people from our group outside on the road, heading towards the vehicle in front of ours.

“Tayar pecah la..”

Phew. Moments of relief. As far as I can remember that was the fourth stop we made that night. I went to the toilet before that when the group stopped at one mosque. It was a long and tiring journey, I remembered waking up once or twice when the van hit bumpy roads. We were told that we had a flat tyre before that, and despite, I didn’t moved a pinch when they stopped to exchange the tyre. What a good sleep. Nyaman banget..hmm..

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Ini kerja-kerja menukar tayar pecah dan bukanlah suatu kemalangan ngeri

Speaking of which, we were traveling along the footsteps of a mountain, so we had our natural air conditioning from outside. The weather was really nice, despite the rain and the iced cold morning air. I never had imagined surviving this long for a journey without air-conditioned vehicle, and yet there I was enjoying every single moment of it. Though it was not the most comfortable seat I had, and the thought of the four guys sitting comfortably in the Toyota Kijang while we suffered from dislocated hips and vertebraes trying to squeeze in this small seating van was sometimes demotivating, nonetheless, the big picture of Nagroe Aceh Darussalam overrides all of those. Enthusiastic, eh? Anyway not long after that it was already approaching dusk, so we headed to the nearby mosque for fajr prayer.

Subhanallah it was a beautiful morning in Subunussalam. Thin rain started falling down, there were birds chirping, almost like in a movie you say. We stopped for breakfast at one stall. I couldn’t eat much, well I have some restrictions in eating during traveling, just to avoid any problems concerning the bowels throughout the journey. But the sayur tempe they served with the nasi lemak surely looked delicious! (Sekarang baru nyesal tak makan..)

Having the stomachs filled in, full tanks of gas, we were all geared up. But first, repair tayar kempis dulu ya bu..- Pak Miko

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Pimping our ride Aceh's style

We waited in our van while the other van went to a car workshop nearby. I got my chance to appreciate the morning better from my window seat at the rear end of the van. It was a working day for the people in Subunussalam, so the morning was busied with people in roda dua, kids in school uniforms walking in the same direction and elderly in nice clothes going to work. I spontaneously called 2 girls who were walking nearby and asked their permissions to take their photo and they agreed. I then asked “Sekolah di mana?” With a nice smile they answered, “S.M.A.” I thanked them for the photo and bade my farewell, not intending to waste their precious school time anymore. It was basically a bless just to sit there and observe, though up till now I’m still unsure what S.M.A is..

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Shiapa mahu kuliah akuntasi, sekretaris, manajemen bisnis dan mekanik otomotif di Kabupaten Aceh Singkil, sila daftar sebelum ketinggalan...

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Tranquille Subunussalam morning

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The two sweet S.M.A girls

Then the journey continues. I had my alternate moments of consciousness, just to avoid myself feeling nauseated by the hard corners along the way. Albeit, my keen observations on the sceneries outside continues. Having the chance to travel this far, I realized how lucky I am to live in a country like Malaysia. I don’t think I’ll find such views like what I saw there, even in the most rural areas back home. We all knew the fact that Indonesia has one of the largest source of oil and gas, the vast land for agricultural opportunities, the spectacular volcanic areas and not to forget beautiful beaches for tourism, and yet the country’s wealth doesn’t seemed to be equally shared to many groups of their citizens based on their horrible living conditions I witnessed along the way. I am not well versed in politics, but I guess everyone knows the problems with Indonesian’s rulers; bribery, kronisme, etc. Deep in my heart I prayed that Malaysia won’t turn into that one day, wa naudzhubillahi min dzaalik..

Albeit, one thing that we should learn from Indo is their good way of keeping the mosques. Along the way, I could see that for each few kilometers or so, there was always a mosque present. It was just some simple four-walled mosque, not too big, but complete with a huge dome on top of it. Initially I was in wonder why there were so many mosques there, later one of the makciks told me that only the bigger ones were mosques, the simple ones I saw were more like surau over there. Huge ‘owh I seee…’ I must give my compliments to Muslims over there, for in their lackness, they still keep Islam in priority. Having the thought of the situation in our country, going to the mosque for the daily jamaah prayers is almost out of trend nowadays, only people that lives long enough with no health restrictions are sometimes present. It’s not the issue of building a mosque, it’s keeping it alive that matters. And I wonder if their out of trend reason will still be in trend when God asks them about it during the Judgement day later.
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Halfly damaged mosque on reconstruction works

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Another small musolla

Then it was time for (what else but) food again, we stopped at Tapak Tuan for lunch. It was a simple restaurant by a scenic beach, kind of remote from other areas but nice I say. I had my es jeruk kurang gula (read: limau ais kurang gula), influenced by K.Kusyi’s keen interest on it. Tasty! But I must emphasized on the ‘kurang gula’ bit more, coz for whatever reason there is, Indonesians seem to savour sweet, I mean really really sweet drinks. I guess they need the sugar for their hard manual labour works, so realizing that, as someone who was going to be sedentary for another half a day or so, I avoided the large amount of unused sugars before they turned into fat later. There goes Dr Collins biochemistry lecture (which I hated so much before). You’ll never know when you’re gonna use it..

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Tapak Tuan

Had a small chat with Pak Miko who said, “Semuanya gendut-gendut belaka dalam mobil itu jadi bagaimana tayarnya nggak asyik kempis saja,” when we asked why the other van had 2 flat tyres last night. Hehe funny guy. So we continued our journey. Few kilometers ahead the vehicles halted, only later found out that there was a landslide ahead of us. Yet another obstacles, but we took it quite OK. Some of the guys went out of the van to help clearing the way. Not long after that the road was accessible again, alhamdulillah.

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Don't say they didn't warned you!

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While waiting for the road clear-out. That was Indonesian's Red Cross lorry.

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Our brothers van, the infamous Toyota Kijang and Pak Husin

After 21 hours of journey, 2 flat tyres and a landslide, we finally reached the small town of Meulaboh late in the evening. Greeted by the PKS members, we (the sisters) were given one room for exchange and rest at the back of the PKS office. At last, I could happily straightened my crooked legs from the long hours of seating in the van! After considering the pros and cons of going to Kg Suak Timah (our final destination) on the same night, we decided to spend the night there first and started moving earlier the next morning. So another laid back night for chit chatting and strategy planning.

So I slept, and I slept well, for I didn’t know when was the next good sleep I’ll have for the trip.

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PKS's office

End of Part 2.
*****
When I talked about the prayers up there, it brings tears to my heart learning the fact that many people around me have started taking prayers lightly. Having the chance to live in a non-Muslim country overseas, I learn the precious price for time for prayers, I know the value of praying areas, musolla, surau, whatever you call it, all of which people in this so called Muslim country have taken for granted. It saddens me that people numbered prayers last in their to-do list, and whom at a certain angle when u think about it are better than some who have totally forgotten how to pray. And when the annual figures for pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancy, HIV AIDS and such come out, we started pointing fingers to other people for the alarming rates. Why don't we get back to basic, get ourselves to pray and do good, get people around us to pray and do good, coz a soul that has a heart to remember his Creator for five times a day is a soul that can recognize the thin line between good and evil.

"Sesungguhnya solat itu mencegah dari perbuatan keji dan mungkar."

So figure out the outcomes when you treat your solat lightly..

Or perhaps we do need to be sent a reminder from God then only we know how we have been all these while..

Wallahu'alam

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Jerebu

Yesterday my 6 years old nephew Naqib shouted "Yay, esok Akib tak sekolah!" as soon as he entered the house after my dad fetched him from school. "Acu jangan bagitau Mummy tau, esok biar Mummy siapkan Akib pastu hantar Akib gi sekolah. Bila sampai sekolah je baru Akib nak kasitau, 'Mummy sebenarnya harini teacher kata tak yah gi sekolah, jerebu..'"

Good plan. It's been few days now since it looked so murky I could barely breathe going outside the house. As alarming as it is, mum's not going to school today, Naqib's not coming to the house, K. Rina has her school closed too, so Ariff's probably not going to come either. It's basically a free day for us.

Time like this brought me to remember the 1997's haze, when I was in high-school in the midst of KL's polluted air. Waking up in the morning looking far into thin air searching for the twin towers was always my own method of indicating the index quality of air each day. I remember we were so happy to be given the masks to wear during classes, that we could pretend talking whilst having some chocolates or sweets in our mouths, unnoticed by the teacher and the blue-blazers. And that for you who don't know, because the strict rules of the school that forbid us to eat inside the class, na-ah, not even a single sweet.

Speaking of which, MERCY's been giving away free masks to public for 2 days now. Expect to see few weird-looking people at your nearest LRT stations handling the masks, and don't be afraid to ask for one. We don't bite. Again, it's free, percuma, gratis, and I still don't get it when people asked "Kenapa percuma?" when I gave the masks to them.

Perhaps in time like this, it's good to look out and ponder. Why God created such fog? My nephew would say it's because God wants to give the schoolchildren an extra holidays, the unbelievers would blame the Nature for such a disaster, what say you, people of faith?

Perhaps the free holidays given by God was not meant to be taken alight, so think, for God creates your four lobes of brain to think.

Acheh I: Medan

Tuesday, June 19th 2005

"This is it," I said to myself as soon as the plane touched down Polonia Medan at 9.30am. "Can't believe I'm in Medan," I whispered. Everything looked the same to my eyes, as in I was still in KL. Medan Airport is much smaller and simpler than what I thought it would be. "Macam ni lah airport ni masa K.Ros datang sini 10 tahun dulu, tak berubah langsung," said K. Ros, one of the 33 members of this mission. She is the chairperson of Amal M'sia's wife, whom soon asked us to call her Ummi, which I thought sounds more respectable on her.

We were greeted by Pak Jasmiko and Pak Suffian, members of Parti Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) and Komunite Kemanusiaan Indonesia (KKI) in which Amal M'sia liased with in going in and out of Acheh since the Tsunami striked. To be exact, they were the ones that were going to drive us from Medan to Meulaboh with few other pak supir, translated as drivers. Pak Miko was a funny and easy-going man, he came wearing a fisherman's hat and a t-shirt, with Amal M'sia's black cargo vest on top of it embroided the name Azmi on the left chest. On the other hand, Pak Suffian who was older than him looked more reserved, but he has the calmest and fatherly look ever.

A moment of chaos happened when we had 15 bags and boxes unreturned, alhamdulillah I saw mine as soon as I walked out from the kamar kecil (read: toilet). Some of the victims were Tiqah, Jazree, Shu'ib, Imran and amir of the trip himself, Dr Hatta. Tiqah was beyond comfort, worrying about survival without her clothes and stuff, Jaz looked more calm while Dr Hatta had a great time teasing the victims about having to wear kain batik and kain pelikat all the times if they still have their luggages unreturned. Not long after that we were told that the missing luggages will be returned by AirAsia at 8.30pm along with the night flight to Medan. Relieved. "Kamu baru hilang beg sekejap, akan dapat balik pun beg tu malam ni, dah nak menangis. Bayangkan mangsa Tsunami tu hilang pakaian, harta, semua, tak dapat balik sampai bila-bila," Dr Hatta tried very hard to pick on us. Albeit, he was very right indeed.

Pak Pian's Stories
Pak Pian bercerita

On our way to KKI's office (KKI is pronounced in Indo as ka-ka-e), I appreciated Medan from the back seat of the red van the ladies travelled in. One word; packed. With people, vehicles and buildings. Medan drivers drove recklessly on the road, they honked in every second to every car passing by. As reckless as they are, I was told that they're so skillful in driving that the rate of road-traffic accident is not high in Medan, at least not as high as in KL. There were huge mansions right in the middle of the town, scraping the small wooden houses nearby from our sights. You should see the parabola (read: satellite dish) on every house, they're as big as the one in Pusat Penyiaran Asia. OK I'm exaggerating.

Medan
Medan from inside the car, this slot is not sponsored by IndoCafe.

There were the earlier group of students resting at the office when we reached there. They just got back from Meulaboh the day before, and were going to return to KL the day after. I heard some stories about Meulaboh and its people from them, just before the group called it for lunch. First nasi padang experience, not too bad. Still unsure why it is called nasi padang, my wild guess would be the many varieties of side dishes they served. We had about 9 plates. And we touched a little from each plate, only to know later that the norm would be to touch only what you'll eat. The ones untouched would not be charged in the bill. And it got worst when Farah asked for the bill from the waitress, and she made a confused face. And later we found out that we were charged as a group. Phew. Hidup Amal Msia!! Hehe..

Rumah Makan Bahari
Rumah Makan Bahari, please call for reservations. Hehe.

Lunch was followed by rapat umum (read: meeting), had a brief ta'aruf of each group member, and the flow of the journey were laid out. The plan was to leave right after the missing luggages were claimed that night, we had to leave at night in order to be at the perbatasan during daylight to avoid problems entering Wilayah Acheh with GAM and such. I almost forgot to introduce the members of this particular mission. Most of them came from Amal Malaysia, including an engineer and a cook, with Amal's main mission of putting the foundation for the building of a mosque in Kg Suak Timah and panti anak yatim in Kg Cot Darat, both in Meulaboh. The other group would be, us, the medical team consist of 8 medical students from PPIM's Student Chapter UK, Ireland and Egypt, along with 3 other doctors from Amal.

Medical Team
Sitting from left: Yusuf (Newcastle), Imran (Cambridge), Jazree (Dublin), Shuib (Ain Shams)
Standing from left: Shu (Dublin), Atiqah (Manchester), Zy (Manchester), Farah (Manchester)

As we were departing in the evening, they decided we should get going as soon as the luggages were claimed. In the meantime until evening? Free times! We were adviced not to sleep during the free period to avoid bright eyes during the journey later in the evening. It was estimated to be approximately an 18 hours journey, with bumpy roads and hard corners. So basically you want to be very tired before the journey in order to be fast asleep throughout the journey, at least the earlier half or so. "Pergilah tengok bandar Medan, belok ke arah kanan hujung jalan ni kemudian terus aja. Kawasan sini pun ada kedai-kedai, tapi pastikan kamu balik sebelum 6.30 petang," said Pak Hamid during the briefing. He was partially wrong, bandar Medan was impossible to be reached on foot, and we hesitated to get there by kereta sapu, afraid to get lost and afraid to be cheated. So we ended up walking in the hot afternoon sun on the streets. I bought a mineral water from one toko (read: shop) for only 1,200rupiah, which was less than 60 cent in M'sia. Super cheap! Farah, Zy and Tiqah had a wonderful time buying biskut panda and carbonated drinks, murah le katakan. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. At that time the exchange rate was approx. RM1 = 2,500rupiah. I exchanged almost half a grant at the airport, do the calculation yourself, and don't forget the fact that I was nearly a millionaire at that moment. Hahaha..

After that we headed back to the office to rest, and the ladies' ta'aruf began. Ustazah Rahmah lives in Penang, she got married with a guy from Acheh who was her classmate when she studied in Banda Acheh many years ago. And she speaks bahasa Acheh fluently, that's a credit! Ummi lives in Kuala Terengganu, for few times she kept telling me how I looked like her first daughter named Izzati. She's in Jordan doing Masters in Islamic Studies along with her husband (at least I have someone who looks like me, married, speaks Arabic, and doing a very good field of studies which I'm incapable of). Makcik Taksiyah is a retired nurse from Perak, and K. Kusyi who's a jounalist and also later found out to be the editor of wanitakini.net. The rest were Tiqah, Zy and Farah from University of Manchester, all one year junior than me, and the most latter is my junior from high-school. Though everyone was so different personality-wise, I think this was the fastest group I ever felt comfortable with. We chatted till evening and laughed our lungs out tried to figure out how to clean ourselves without towels and fresh clothes for the long journey. At that time, the van we put our bags in was away for other business, and we intelligently left our bags in there.

We started moving to Meulaboh at about 10pm after dealing with every problem, had our dinner at the same restaurant for lunch and headed out in 2 vans, a Toyota Kijang (equivalent to Toyota Unser in M'sia), and a small lorry with all boxes and luggages in there. I was praying hardly for the safe journey..

Before leaving for Meulaboh
Before leaving for Meulaboh

Saturday, August 06, 2005

English Camp

The weekend after I got back from Acheh was filled with an English Motivational Camp at a primary school at my hometown in Alor Gajah, Melaka. At the same time there was a Pre-Departure Programme for the new juniors going to UK and Ireland held in Bangi, which left me a hard decision to choose between the two. Of course as told earlier I went for the former, as it was originally my own project with a group of students from Ireland as well. I must thank, I mean, send my deepest gratitudes to other 6 fellows of this so we called English Camp, for if not for them, I was at the verge of turning to a dead end for this. It was really hard to cope as my body was still tired from my Acheh mission, hopping to another programme like this was something intolerable for my used body. Nonetheless, all praise for Allah SWT, my mates blew my dimmed spirit to a brighter one, the one day camp was a success judging from the scale of preparations done. May Allah SWT rewards them for every good deeds handsomely.
Some of the Year 6 students of Sek Keb Belimbing Dalam, Alor Gajah.

The main outcome for the camp was always practising charity, for this is the 'saving account' we'll need later in the here-after. Giving a second thought on it, giving charity almost seems illogical I say if one doesn't believe in the here-after. Well, try this. Would you like to spend half a grant for your journey to a place with people in need for help, reaching there, you spend the days helping the people with all your mights, playing with pain and dirts, and going back, broke, burnt and restless, and again, what have you got from that? If I were you, I would put that money away for my wished iPod Mini in stores. Lagi bagus..So where's exactly the essence of charity lies? My answer; strong faith, and always is. Let's talk about this sometimes later.

Going back to my outcome list, after a day of teaching English, I realized that my English is actually gibberish. I made my own rules of grammar and it got worse when I stick to it. Guess I really have to kick my old habit of not reading. And go 10 years back by starting with the learn-a-word-a-day method. Yikes.

And what more important is, I have proven my parents that my early twenties change from being a huhu-haha-kid to an I-talk-about-the-world-and-its-problems lady is not something I made up. I want to change, and it's important for them to take this seriously and be part of it. Not that I want to sound ungrateful, but my old fashioned pair still prefer another daughter to go out having a total body treatment along with her boyfriend rather than me talking about my plan of visiting a HIV infected adults and children home. And when they defined their meaning of safe boundaries and being protective, I kept on getting more confused by days. Oh well, who said that doing good deed's easy anyway?

May Allah SWT give me the force to continue on..