God Save Them Ever and After

Dark, foggy, cold, horrible, anxious and panic. Those were the proper situation to describe when the volcanic eruption happened. One of the victim, with initial name AR, said that her day was welcomed by the grey street and plants in front of her house. Nobody passed that way. Merapi had subdued everything and everybody not to go out from their house.  

Merapi eruption happened twice. First was on September 10th, 2010 and second was on October 26th, 2010. The first eruption was not as terrific as the second one. AR lived quite far from Merapi, but she also felt the sand of the eruption. She even said that the sand spreaded until Solo and Purwokerto.

When the first eruption happened, she thought that lecturer would pause the lecturing for a moment, but it still went on. She hoped that the class will be paused, so that she could stay in her home without feeling scared of the situation. However, on the second eruption, the lecturing was paused for around two or three weeks. She really enjoyed that, because the situation outside was totally horrible. She always checked on social media about the latest news. “Jalan Kaliurang of 6km was closed. There were many places used to evacuate the victim who lived very near from the volcano, such as stadium and even one building of my campus was used for the evacuation,” she revealed. 

When she was asked whether she and her family decided to move for a moment, she answered, “Firstly, my family and I wanted to go to Bantul, but my mom said “Live or die, we’ll stay here”. I could not do anything. That was why I really hoped that the lecturing will be paused, and thankfully, my prayer was happened.” 

She also told an awesome experience from her mother.

When people found the corpse of Mbah Marijan, the spiritual guardian or juru kunci of Merapi, with kneeling position, and it was brought to Sardjito hospital, her mother helped the doctor to strecth and clean the corpse. “When I heard my mom’s story, I can imagine how scary I will be when I looked at it”, she said.

“One thing that I really apologized for everything was I could not join people to be a volunteer, because it was impossible to go near the location while I was afraid to go outside. But, at least my family and I can help people by giving many masks on the street for people who were passing us. It was enough I guess, because we did not have to go to the location to help people. I always hoped that God will save them ever and after,” she said happily.

 

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Fountain, why are you smiling and staring at me?

I like being in a silent situation. I like reviewing and rethinking what has just happened a few minute before. However, I sometimes do not think about anything in silent situation, just empty my mind, let the wind wipe my sweat, and let every creature move around and do their activity, and let any sound fill the emptiness of my mind. I like sitting with nothing to do in a loneliness and silence with the water-flowing sound from a fountain to the pond. One day, I did it again. I watched on one spot with nothing to think. Firstly, I do not realize about fountain sound beside me. Until I changed my spot to watch and look at the fountain which tried to greet me and said :

F (Fountain) : Good morning, big creature with bright rays from eyes.

M (Me) : smiled.. Morning..

Damn, I think people will consider me as a crazy one, because I smiled at a fountain and pretended that we had a dialogue. But, s’okay. At least, it will be better rather than I empty my mind and watch on a dead thing. So, I continued..

F : What are you doing?

M : nothing. I just look around.

F : Is there any more important thing to do by yourself?

M : hmm. I guess no. I am not sure. Hhh. Just relax. Stretch my body.

F : well, okay.

Silence in a moment

M : Hey, do you feel annoyed with me sitting here?

F : Li’l bit. But, fine

M : Thanks. But, FYI, I like sitting here, so I wn’t moce though you feel annoyed. Why are you staring at me and smiling?

F : I smile with everyone passing me. I know that I’m only a dead thing, nobody cares when they pass me. But, when they do like you are doing now, I know that I will not be forgotten to be stared. Some of them do not relize my greeting, but they smile at me after they watch on something. What do you feel being next to me?

M : Well, I feel as if I am in Eden when I’m alone in a silent place. You make it more perfect. Thanks.

F : It’s nothing. I am created to put in a beautiful place, like on a pond in a garden. And I am put to make the view more beautiful.

M : whoaa. But, be ready because one day, you will get alga on your body. Haha. Go and leave it...  

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Malioboro now and then. Which one is better?

Malioboro is the most famous place in Yogyakarta. It has been an icon of Yogyakarta. It becomes the first destination for tourists visiting Jogja, from foreign tourist until domestic tourist.  There are a lot of things selling there with cheap price, but the seller will offer their things with high price if they know that the buyers are not originally from Jogja.

As I have seen the picture of Malioboro in 1990s, there are many changes of that place. What has changed there? First, now Malioboro is full of visitor from Indonesia and other countries. The street and its sides are very crowded and full of walking people and vehicles. At the past time, as been captured in the picture, the people were not as crowded as now.

Secondly, there are many sellers there. The fulfill the sides of the street, so there is traffic jam usually. As I saw on the picture, there were not as much sellers there. People may not feel chaos when walking on the side of the street.  

Then, the road was wider in 1990s, probably. I am not sure about it. It might because of the situation which was not as crowded as now. The government did two-ways system for the traffic. If it were done for today, the traffic jam will be worse, that is why the government makes one-way system for the traffic.

Fourthly, there were no department stores, hotels and restaurants or Cafes at that time. There were only traditional markets there. Nowadays, we can see many department stores, hotels, and restaurants in Malioboro, such as Malioboro Mall, Ramayana, Ibis Hotel, and Artemi Gelato.

Moreover, there are many transportations now. However, there were not many transportations. They used to use traditional transportation such as andong, bicycle, etc for their transportations.

Last but not least, the situation of Malioboro today is more green than at past time. There are green benches for sitting, there are a lot of trees on both sides. On the picture, there were no bench, and less tree there.         

 

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Little Things Called Experience

I like english very much since I was in primary school. I always got the best score in english lesson than others lesson. The highest score on my school exam in my primary school was english. I did not realize that I have an ability in english. I like watching english movies, and I like singing english songs. On the other hand, I often joined some singing competitions since I was in middle school, and I liked singing english songs in my competitions, besides many people like english songs, it also had big point. 

I also ever became the third winner on speech contest in my high school and joined some english competitions held by other high schools. I still felt confused whether I would continue my english adventure in my university or I took other field and let english be my partial skill. Then, I decided to take english field as my major in university, and I put it in the first choice in UGM. Before the announcement had been out, I tried others institutions. However, my heart still dream for studying in STAN (Sekolah Tinggi Akuntansi Negara), STIS (Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Statistik) and AMG (Akademi Meteorologi dan Geofisika). I guessed nobody does not dream to study in one of those three institutions. We can get a great job directly after graduating, so we do not need to think what job I will gain after graduating. I really expected to be there. I lived in a boarding house in Bintaro, near STAN to join a course for USM STAN (Ujian Saringan Masuk STAN) preparation because it was quite far from my house, it would be exhausting if I did round trip everyday. I did it during my long holiday. That was why it is not my first time to live by myself in boarding house, but at least I did not live by myself, but I lived together in one room with my friend.

Well, I did not pass them, but gratefully, I gain UGM as my university. Thank God. I live by myself in Jogja for a long period. The thing I could not believe was I will take care myself. I have to survive without my parents’ help, except money and pray. I wondered with myself because I did not cry because of separating with my beloved family. I feel really comfortable with this situation, the people and the culture. Mom, dad, I love being here. I also got myself changed. This condition changes me to be a better creature. In addition, studying in faculty of cultural sciences makes me realize one thing about the diversity in this world. I become a woman who never see a diversity from a point of view, because diversity is really important as the colored pencils. It is impossible to only use one color, we need all of them to create a beautiful thing.

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