“When will you go, dear?” My mom asked me.
“Tomorrow morning. I will go at 07.00 am tomorrow. Indra will pick me up, we are in the same team.” I answer her question while checking everything that have to be brought to the ‘new place’, where I have to live in for about a month.
“Is everything okay honey? Have you prepared everything? Could I reach you by phone?”
“Sure, we won’t live in a jungle Mom. don’t worry, you can call me every night and day as you want to” I hold her hands to make her sure that I will be fine.
“Promise me that you will always inform me. But how about your part-time job?”
“I have talked to the supervisor, he said that it’s okay for me not to work this month, but I can’t get the salary as the consequence of course. I’m sorry Mom, I can’t get any money this month.”
“Hey, why did you say like that? It’s okay. I’m just afraid that you will be fired because you can’t work for a month. Okay, forget it, you have to get sleep now. You have to wake up early tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry Mom, all is well. Okay Mom, after I checked all of these things, I will sleep tightly.”
“Good night, then”
“Night Mom.” Then, she left me in my room and went to my younger brothers’ room.
In the next day, I woke up early and prepared myself to go to the new place, a small village in Garut for having Kuliah Kerja Nyata (KKN), such an obligatory (rural) social action internship for advanced university students.
“Mom, I have to go now, take care of everything, promise me you’ll be okay.”
“The person who have to tell those words is me. Yes, I will be alright here, you can trust your brothers.” Answered her and then glanced at my brothers.
“Sure, Ilham, Arif, don’t be naughty! You have take care of our lovely mom!” I talked to my brothers who stood beside my mom.
“Hey, you don’t need to ask us to do that! Sure we will. Now, just go, we will have a party when you go, right Arif?” Ilham answered me in sarcastic way, yeah he always like that.
“Yes, sure” answer arif, supporting his elder brother.
“stop fighting, you guys! It’s time for you to go, dear. Indra has been waiting for you.”
“okay Mom, I go, bye all.”
After saying goodbye to my mom and my two little brothers, I went to my campus with Indra, my closest friend. Fortunately, I can be his team-mate. We have been good friends since the first year of study in this university. We will go there by bus from our campus. There had been many students gathering beside the buses. After everything have been ready, we went to Garut at 08.00 am.
Long story short, we arrived in the new place, a small village named Sukalilah, Garut. There are about 20 persons in my team, 11 girls and 9 boys, including the leader, named Doni, from the Faculty of Agriculture. All members of the team were checking their stuffs.
“Wi, Have I help you to pick all of your stuffs? They look so heavy.” Indra asked me after discharging my bags.
“No, I can handle this, help them would be better I think.” I smiled sarcastically pointing the pink girls. I call them pink girls because they are ‘pink’. Yeah, I mean, overly feminine. That’s why, I’m not close with them. Indra is my only best friend at college.
“Are you kidding me? No, I won’t help them.” Indra answered me.
Then, we went to Mr. Ismail’s house, where would be the place where we live in this village. He has six children, four sons and two daughters. The family welcomed us warmly. The boys of our team would live in the vacant house. It’s far enough from Mr. Ismail’s house.
Mr. Ismail is a wealth person in this village. He has a large house. This is the reason why his house was chosen for us to live in. The girls are divided into three rooms. Unfortunately I had to be in the same room with two of the ‘pink’ girls. It would be boring because they always talked about the same things all the time, if not about boys whom they admire, they would talk about new stuffs to be bought after KKN, or about accessories and something like that. Those are not familiar with me. It was very difficult to be adaptable with them and their habitual activities.
We have been lived there for about a week. As I have promised, I called my mom every day, after I finished working on the projects with the other team members. I had been chosen to be the project officer of education program. I come to every school around the village to complete the data. Indra became my partner in this project.
There were many facts that I found in this village. Most of youths did not continue their study to the higher level. They generally just studied until senior high school. Furthermore, it’s different for the girls. They had no other choices when their parents asked them to get married with the man who came to propose them. Some of them have got married at the age of 16 or 17 and most women at the same age with me have got children. It’s very weird for me.
The surprising fact was that Nina, the youngest daughter of Mr. Ismail’s family, told me that she couldn’t continue her study. Sunday evening, I came to her bedroom only to talk with her. It was the best idea to avoid talking with the pink girls.
“How is your study Nina? You’ve just finished your final exam, right? Which university will you choose?” I asked Nina in her bed room. She was ironing her clothes.
“University? Impossible! I can’t continue my study.” She looked very upset.
“Why? I know that you are smart girl. You deserve to accept that.”
“No, it’s impossible. Actually, I really want to be like you. Smart, well educated, and be independent. But it’s impossible for me. Next week, the man who has come here before will propose me. I will get married soon after I’ve graduated.”
“What?? How can? You are too young. You have rights to get a better future.”
“I can’t refuse my father’s order, you know. Sinta, my elder sister, got married when she was at the same age as me.” She answered sadly.
“Don’t worry Nina, I will help you.”
“What will you do? My father is such a stubborn man. He won’t easily change his decision.”
“I don’t care, I will try.” I left her and tried to find Mr. Ismail. He was in the garden that time.
“Good evening sir, what are you doing?” I asked him in the best manner.
“Good evening Dewi, I am trying to move this flower to the backyard.”
“May I help you?”
“No you don’t need to, It is almost finish.” He smiled at me.
“Okay, but…sir, could we talk?”
“Sure, tonight, we can talk.”
At night, I tried to talk with him. I told him about Nina who wanted to continue her study. I tried to persuade him to cancel his plan about his daughter’s marriage. He looked little bit angry after listening to me.
“This is my prerogative I think. You don’t have any rights to give such suggestion. This is the norm in this village that if there is a man who wants to propose the girl in the family, we can’t reject him. You know, it’s the main job for the woman to take care of the household, the family, the children. She doesn’t need to study to the higher level.”
“I don’t think so. My mom is one of the victims of this thought. She got married when she was very young. She only graduated of elementary school. Now she has to be able not only to take care of the household and the children, but also have to be the breadwinner, because my father passed away when I was a second grader of senior high school. Luckily, my father was a civil servant. We still can depend on my father’s pension fund, but it’s not enough. I have to help her earning money to fund our living. That’s why she doesn’t want me to experience the same thing with her. What if the same thing happens to your daughter?” I told him about my background. He looked agreed with everything I said. But he kept silent and didn’t say anything.
“Okay, this is your prerogative, but I wish you could make the decision wisely. Your daughter’s future is more important than the norm in this village. I’m sorry for saying this, but it’s for your own daughter’s sake. Good night sir.” I left him and went to my room. I didn’t know what I’ve said. It seemed that I had in hand too far. But I don’t care. I can’t only be quiet seeing such thing in front of me.
In the next week, the man came to Mr. Ismail’s house. He came with his family bringing much stuff for the girl in the family, Nina. Various kinds of foods have been offered on the table. Then, the most important moment began. However, surprisingly, after they asked Nina to get married with the man, Mr. Ismail answered,
“I’m so sorry. I can’t answer this, because the person who has the rights to do so is Nina itself. It depends on Nina’s decision. Nina, I won’t force you to do the thing that you don’t want to.” His left hand, held Nina’s hand who sat beside him.
“I…actually…I…I really want to continue my study. I…I’m so sorry. I don’t want to reject you, but… I have a dream and I want to make it come true. If you really want to marry me, it’s okay for me, but not now, because I want to reach my dream first.”
The man and all of his family looked very disappointed. Some of them looked very angry and then left the room. However, the man’s father wisely said that they could accept Nina’s decision. They were proud of Nina’s braveness in delivering her decision. Finally everything went well. Nina looked very happy because his father could understand her views.
We spent the rest of the days in the village happily. I finally could be adaptable with the pink girls. I could work together with them cooperatively. I found many interesting things to be shared with my whole family in Bandung. It seemed very short that the time for coming back to our real lives was only several days left. We had to leave this beautiful place. We went home after having farewell party with them. Nina and I still keep in touch until now, because she has a plan to study at the same university with me. It was such a great thing for me.
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