Ketika perut ingin jadi bagian dari masyarakat ‘modern’ di negara Indonesia, nasi jadi simbol yang tepat untuk merepresentasikannya. Padi pun ditanam atau dibeli dengan hasil kebun yang kini tergantikan nasi sebagai makanan utama. Apakah orang Timor semakin jauh dari jati dirinya?
Banyak yang menanyakan saya momen yang paling berkesan selama perjalanan di NTT. Semua berkesan, kalau tidak saya tidak akan bisa menuliskannya kembali. Tapi kalau yang dimaksud adalah momen yang menempati lapisan paling dalam memori saya, dengan mudah saya menjawab ketika bertemu Pace, Lot dan Daniel.
Seketika saya merasa berhutang. Saya harus bertemu dengan saudara-saudara saya di pelosok Indonesia. Perjalanan mengelilingi Nusa Tenggara Timur ini baru permulaannya saja.
When we embrace this kind of ‘local’, it doesn’t matter what accent people speak, as long as they communicate seamlessly. It doesn’t matter who eats what for lunch, as long as they can share their dining table. It doesn’t matter who enters or leaves, as long as the community maintains, shapes and keeps redefining their locals.
Somehow, I didn’t care about the menu mistakes, the #meh coffee and all the tiring talks about religions and politics in this trip, but that LOL with a stranger perfectly ended my trip to Kei Islands.
Because relationships do not hold back, they liberate. Relationships do not lock in, they provide safe harbor to set sail and return to refuge. Relationships do not keep the person the same, they should cotribute and help the persons to grow.
I consider myself lucky as I could share my life and my time with those people with whom I could be vulnerable and grow together. This trip gave me ways to proof and live it.
I am not sure if these students at UI came out learning anything from me. But I am confident that teaching – challenging, guiding and facilitating – others for their own self discoveries is high in my list.
