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..

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

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..

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

Tranquille Subunussalam morning

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.

Halfly damaged mosque on reconstruction works

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..

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.

Don't say they didn't warned you!

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

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.

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