Tag: selfreminder

Jakarta – Doha

Published on by Izza DinillahLeave a comment

I am sure that Irene will LOVE this flight. They gave “sponge bob” merchandise to children passenger. Yeah, I wish I were a kid so I can get the merchandise and give it to Ireno!

Ha! That is just the fun prelude. This is what I found during my journey from Jakarta to Doha: I saw some “TKW” or women worker. They went to other countries to work. I saw a few of them in the waiting room before we got on the plane.

A women came to me and I could tell that she is scared from the look of her face. She sat and asked whether that is the correct waiting room for a plane to Dubai. Well, the plane was surely goes to Doha. I looked at her ticket and she needed to transfer to another plane in Doha. I explained this to her and she got confused. Well, after three times trying to tell her that, I gave up. I said, I will help her to find the plane to Dubai after we arrived in Doha. Then she asked permission to send a text to her sister. I found out that this woman’s name is Mrs. Nur. She told her sister to take care of her kids. Well, what a life. I wonder how this woman feels. Maybe worried, maybe sad. I don’t know. I can’t even imagine.

However, I was sure that this woman was scared. She told me that she was left alone and was separated from her friends. She didn’t know what to do, couldn’t speak the language, and that was her first experience. When I asked her whether she knows her employer or not, she said that she didn’t know. She didn’t know who will pick her up in Dubai Airport and didn’t know who to meet. I wonder how she can survive.

I am sure that if I am in her position, I must be scared to dead. In Doha International Airport, I found even more women worker. They tried to read the flight information board. I helped them to find their gate. That was the only thing that I can do. Those women worker working so far away to earn money for their family. They sure have a very big and brave heart. I pray for their welfare and well-being. I hope they can always find strength whenever they are.

Sep 24, 2012

The Garden of Heaven

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Eid Mubarak!

Yes, it is late but Syawal month hasn’t end yet. The Holy Ramadhan month had passed. I am satisfied with what I did during the Ramadhan. Anyway, I experienced something unusual last Ramadhan when I did i’tikaf.

I’tikaf means staying in a mosque. It doesn’t have to be at night but because of the chasing of Lailatul Qadr night and the best time to be close to Allah is at night, people usually do i’tikaf at night. Last Ramadhan I did i’tikaf once. It was fun and nice. What I notice when I first came was that most of the people there was old.

I think it is quite common that those who are diligent to pray, coming to worship places, and religious are old people. What I am amaze of is their spirit. They are so excited to pray. Really… Praying in Ramadhan needs a lot of energy, not to mention the staying in the mosque all day long part. It can be really tiring. However, they looked so happy. I was kind of embarrassed.

During the night, we did Qiyamullail. We prayed at the end of the night, at about 3.00 am. People were tired and sleepy. We were half awake. Guess what, the old people, the grandmas are all wide awake and psyched to pray. Wow! Then I heard a grandma said something. Something beautiful that made me realize that praying is not what you have to do but something that you like to do, that energize you, that makes you happy. She said, come on wake up. Let’s visit the garden of heaven.

Praying is not a burden, not something that will make you tired, not something that you can choose not to do it. Praying is visiting the garden of heaven. It will make you calm, it will clear your head, it will do nice things to you. Maybe, just maybe when young people realize that as the old people do, then there are more and more young people who are diligent to pray.

 Sep 12, 2012

Euro 2012!!

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This past 3 weeks the world has been mesmerized by a giant event, EURO! Well, I support Germany team but unfortunately they can’t make it to the final round. I am a bit disappointed but that’s life, right? You can’t always win. However, I still support Germany! Yeay! Deutschland uber alles!

Am I gonna talk about Germany team? Or even Euro? Nope! Haha… I am inspired by one of the match that I watched. It was Germany vs Portugal if I am not mistaken. It was one of the first matches in Euro 2012.

So here is my thought

During the second half of that match Germany was still leading. The score was 1-0. I could sense the pressure felt by Portugal team. It was like they need to, they really want to make their score even. Within very limited time left, the team strive, push hard, and put their best effort. Suddenly I felt like everybody was time-conscious. They were super aware of the time; how much time they have left, what they can do in such little time, etc, etc. At the end, Portugal lose.

Seeing that football match made me think about time. Yes, in the part that everyone seemed to be very time-conscious, I thought about human condition. In a football match; we know, every player; knows the duration of the game. The players know how much time left so they can make a good use of their tie in order to achieve their goal, winning. And even so, the players, the supporters, are nervous. They are afraid to lose. They want to win but they don’t know whether they will win or not. What they can do is just showing their best performance.

What about life?

As we all know, we don’t know the duration of our life. We unconsciously know but rarely realize, rarely really aware of that. And what do we do? We don’t know how much time we have left but we don’t even try, we don’t (well, I don’t and often forget) to put my best effort. I believe that all humans want to win. And as in afterlife, because I believe in afterlife, winning means heaven. My goal, most people’s goal is heaven. With unknown time limit, off course we should prepare for the worse.

What if, tomorrow my time ends? Am I going to win? Will I get injury time? Will I achieve my goal? Not sure! Then what am I doing? Why don’t I try hard, show my maximum performance, like those football players as if there is only 1 minute left to win the game?

I guess it is true that life is a game. Work hard as if we only have 1 more minute before the final whistle is blown because we won’t know whether we win or lose.

Jul 01, 2012

Mata Hati Telinga

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I’ve thought about writing about this song for quite a long time. When I heard it the first time, I didn’t really notice about the lyrics. However, when I noticed the lyrics, I realized that the song is very meaningful. Here are the lyrics:

Satu cerita tentang manusia
Coba ‘tuk memahami arti cinta
Benarkah cinta diatas segalanya
Hanyakah itu satu-satunya

Yang menjadi alasan untuk menutup mata
Tak melihat dunia yang sesungguhnya
Dan menjadi jawaban atas semua tanya
Yang kita harap mampu mewujudkan sebuah akhir bahagia

Buka mata hati telinga
Sesungguhnya masih ada yang lebih penting dari sekedar kata cinta ooo..
Yang kau inginkan tak selalu
Yang kau butuhkan mungkin memang yang paling penting
Cobalah untuk membuka mata hati telinga

Adakah kau rasakan kadang hati dan fikiran
Tak selalu sejalan seperti yang kau harapkan
Tuhan tolong tunjukkan apa yang ‘kan datang
Hikmah dari semua misteri yang tak terpecahkan

 

There are two thing caught in my mind when I listen to this song: my student’s field experiment and my family gathering event.

Last week, my class had an outing event. It was a field experiment for science subject. We went to a dirty river near Menteng area. Well, the river is super dirty. The color of the water is black and it is stinky. While I was planning the field experiment, I only thought that it will help my students to understand about water pollution. It turned out that my students can learn much more than that. When we got there, my students were amazed by how dirty the water is, how bad the pollution is. They could actually see and smell the pollution. But then, some of my students couldn’t stand the smell and the view. One of them even vomited during the field experiment. I didn’t anticipate it. Luckily my partner could handle it while I continued the whole field experiment. That was not the only thing that happened during the field experiment. I also saw that some of my students were curious and friendly. They tried to have a conversation with some garbage men who were cleaning the river; they thanked them, and did some nice behaviors during our trip.

Half of the field trip shows how pampered and spoiled these rich children are. They can be rich, they should be rich; but they also have to be sensitive to their surroundings. Half of it shows that some of my students have a high social awareness. They care about other people and not scared to blend with others who come from different background. I am so glad. It is stated in the lyrics that we have to open out eyes, heart, and ears. This experience shows me that observing our surroundings, looking and listening to other people is important. Not just that, we should also include our heart in our observation. We need our heart to move our observation to the next level. We need it to care. I am really glad that I took my students to the field experiment. That way, they can learn how to open their eyes, ears, and heart.

As I said, the second thing that I remember when I hear the song is my family gathering. In my family gathering last Sunday, my uncle gave a speech. In that speech, he said that when we tired of thinking, we should do dzikr and when we tired of trying, we should be grateful. Yup! That’s because we can’t always get what we want, even after we tried very hard. That’s why gratefulness is important. It allows us to think about what we have, what we had, and be thankful that we have those. In spite of that, we should actually believe that God always gives what’s best for us.

This is such a long blabbering from me. Yeah, because I spent such a long time before I write this and I am kind of want to express what I have in mind. But the thing that I will always have in mind is that I have to keep my eyes, heart, and ears open.

Apr 26, 2012

Sustainable

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Sustain (v) to keep sb/sth alive or in existence

(Oxford Learners Pocket Dictionary)

I was thinking lately about this word. Sustainable. The first time I really involved with this word was when I had to teach my private student about 8 goals of MDGs. Well, quite a hard topic for a junior high student. But then, it turns out that I have to use the word more often.

A week or two ago I went home with my friend from school. In this case, school is my place of work, not where I study. I had a chat with her about some of my students. We were wondering why are their scores in so many subjects bad. We thought about three reasons; unclear explanation from the teachers, unprepared students during the test, or inability to absorb the materials and extract them when they are needed.

If the reason is unclear explanation from the teachers, then there will be so many teachers at stake here. There is one teacher for one subject and we doubt that all teachers are that incompetent. No way. They are hired as a teacher for some reasons and the reasons must be good. They should have a capability, skills, to handle the children and transfer the knowledge. Nope, I don’t think that the teachers are the reason.

Students preparedness of the test should be worked out by teachers and parents. At school they study. As soon as there will be upcoming exam, the teachers prepare the students. There are exercises and homework given out so students get used to answering written questions. The experience say that those students were able to do both things well. They had good results for their exercises and homework. So what went wrong? There is still one more preparation that should be done; preparation at home. Well, the homework should prove that they prepared themselves at home, right? I am quite sure that the parents were aware of the upcoming exam and asked their kids to learn. Well, at least the kids told so.

Then there is the third reason. Maybe they can’t absorb the materials and extract them when they are needed! Humans have brains, right? How can they not be able to absorb knowledge? Then I remembered one of my student. He always get answer for his questions easily. Whenever he is challenged, he step back and choose not to try. He totally shut down. Maybe that is the reason. They always get the answers to their questions easily that they don’t have to think, they don’t have to analyze, they don’t have to strive to come up with an answer. Well, God gives us brain in order to give us a chance to think. As stated in the Holy Qur’an.

Finally I concluded. Sustainable. They were not sustainable. They can’t keep their knowledge exist this whole time and can’t get the benefit of their knowledge. People tend to easily forget what they know or have when they get it easily. I forget that I have 2000 rupiah money when I pick it up from the street (well, this isn’t really happen). These children easily forget what they know because they don’t need to think. The brain doesn’t put the information in long term memory and therefore they were unable to produce the answer in their exam.

I really think that teachers should be able to make the students sustainable. They have to be able to give the students skill to strive in this world. Teachers can easily pass out the knowledge like they are passing hand outs. But really? Is it going to help the children? Give the children opportunity to think. Push them to the edge but equip them with safety tools. When they are skilled, every exam will be as easy pizzy lemon squeezy.

Apr 12, 2012

Days without Personal Vehicle

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These past two days, not as usual, I went to work without driving my personal vehicle. Actually, I am just bored doing the same thing (driving) everyday and day. So, I decided to take public transportation as my way to go to work.

As you may already know, public transportation in Jakarta is.. well… not that good. Compared to other metropolitan cities, Jakarta’s public transportation system is super inconvenient. Even though the government already facilitates the public with Trans Jakarta, people still have to wait for a long time before the buses arrive. Then, there are lots of people using that same kind of transportation so the bus will be full, even overloaded. Some of additional facilities in Trans Jakarta also need to be repaired. In one of the buses I use the door can’t be closed properly. See? Even the best public transportation in Jakarta (well, at least in my opinion) is not that comfortable.

However, I always love the experience of traveling by public transportation. I realized that by using public transportation, I can sharpen my social senses. Well, maybe there’s no such thing as social senses, but I can say so because I can be more conscious about my surroundings. I really like to observe around, see what other people doing, try to guess what they feel, what they did, or what are they going to do. Those things can make me reflect to myself.

On the first day I used Trans Jakarta, I saw the driver of Trans Jakarta stops every once in a while to give street cleaners some food and drinks. I wonder why that driver do that. I really feels like I am being reminded about giving and gratefulness. The driver himself maybe still in need of foods but he gave the food to others. Why couldn’t I do that as well?

Then, when I went home, I used the 612 bus. I used that bus to travel from my house to school when I was in high school. It was a long time before yesterday I used the bus again. The 612 buses are still moving like a snail. It was so slow that 15 minutes normal ride becomes 30 minutes ride. When I was in that bus, I saw three women sitting and talking. Looking at their appearance, it was clear that they are career women. They were going to have dinner and then go back to their office. It was like 7 p.m. and they were having a short break before they continue working!! Life is hard, baby!

By looking at other people’s work, courage, spirit, and will; I can learn so much. Learning isn’t always have to associated with books, classes, and schools because life itself is also the biggest media to learn.

 Feb 10, 2012

Push through the Limit

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It has been a long time since I post something in Tumblr. Well, sometimes people get bored, right? At least bored at writing or posting something, not reading from tumblr. Since I am an English Composition teacher now, I will write in the correct way. I know that it won’t be as “easy pizzy lemon squezy” as my student, Puti, say. Writing in English, which is not my native language, is definitely not easy.

By the way, my above paragraph is out of topic. That is not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about pushing through the limit. I had a meeting yesterday, which was a very long waiting meeting. Haha. I waited for like an hour before it finally started. In that meeting, I heard a phrase.. “pushing through the limit”. Then, this morning, I started to think about it.

I was pushing through the limit. Was, means that in the past, I pushed through the limit. Am I now? Well, i have to reconsider it. I don’t think I am pushing through the limit now. However, I think I should! Everybody should push themselves through the limit to reach their ideal self. Well, nobody is perfect, but everybody should have their goal in life. If not the long term goal, then it should be a smaller goal. How to reach that goal? The answer is pushing through the limit because the world keeps on changing.

I believe that human always want to be better and better. Achieving something, getting better job, getting more money, mastering new skills, all to show that I, we, you, is now better than tomorrow. The question is, do we really notice that?

Sometimes yes, like I am now. Sometimes, we are just too busy to notice. Then, I think that I should remember to push through the limit everyday. How could I? I remember one thing. I forget whether it is a hadist or a verse of Qur’an. I believe the first one, though. We have to be a better person everyday. Today should be better than yesterday and tomorrow should be better than today. That’s why, everyday, we should push ourselves through the limit, just for the sake of our own.

 Feb 03, 2012