Eight years a go, we are still remember the terrible Tsunami disaster had rocked Aceh and some other countries such as Thailand,Malaysia, Maldives, Srilanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, Kenya, Myanmar,India and Madagaskar.
In Aceh , more than one hundred thousands people were died , more than thirty thousands people missing and more than five hundred thousands people had lost their houses. Their live extremely changed within only few minutes and Allah had showed us that how weak and fragile we are, as human.
Then, how about my life when 26 December 2004 ? well, I must say, digging up my memory about something happened in past need the courage to be published in this room .
Eight years a go, I was fighting with my love-sick, my heart crumbled into pieces and my live was so horrible. I was like the most useless woman in this planet and my head and mind being covered by how to leave my job and how to ignore my ex-fiance's face after he cancelled our planning to get married while my position as senior producer , script-writer and Radio DJ in one of female radio station was on the rise. The day when tragedy tsunami rocked Aceh either rocked my heart, the only thing that I wanted , running to Aceh, giving my heart and love to those who are really need to be helped but it seemed no way out. For me, Aceh was like invisible island which impossible to be traced from the city where I used to worked, Malang, East Java.
Day by day , I tried to wake up and took back the pieces of broken heart by getting closer to Allah. In every night praying, my tear dropped easily, my life was very complicated, sometime I felt so lonely but sometime I enjoyed my precious time with Allah that I never had before. Losing my fiance did not means I had lost my friends even Allah had sent me more good guys to help me, support me and they were be there whenever I need them, they are my truly friends, Alhamdullillah !.
Just remember some ayah in Surrah Al-Insyirah ; 5-6, So verily , with every difficulty there is relief. Verily, with every difficulty there is relief . Yes, Allah had has proved to me .
And one of my best friends who inspire me a lot is Yudi Siswanto , a low-profile and simple guy but very positive and hard to giving-up for anything . My obsession to become volunteer in Aceh had been up again after he sent resignation's letter to my boss in radio company because one of INGO's ( International Non-Government-Organisation ) in Aceh recruited him as volunteer. We stayed in touch each other and he sometimes gave me some information about the vacancy in some INGO's and UN ( United Nation ) in Aceh. I forget how many times my application's letter rejected by more than ten INGO's but I kept trying over and over again ,my mind just keep saying " I want to get out of him and new girl friend who get married soon after two months we broke up ".
Finally, after two years kept trying on sending application's letter to many INGO's , one of them had responded my letter. I had call from an Islamic Relief Human Resources' staff in Jakarta. She asked me to come immediately for interview test. And "Alhamdullillah, I passed !", after waiting for almost three months and I did zero expectation because my rival much better than me. They sent me to Meulaboh area in West Aceh. An unknown place that I was really blind about. My parents was shock after they knew my decision to exchange job in Aceh, off course they are really worry because their single daughter will be thousands miles away living separately from them and will learn how to be single fighter in vulnerable disaster and conflict area. Alhamdullillah, my parents agreed with my decision, coming to Aceh after explaining them that I had some good dreams previously and beside that, I had good intention for it.
At 05.00 AM, my father took me to Juanda Airport, Surabaya, I must say that he is my gentle man in this world. He said good bye to me and said , "Please call us after you arrived there !". It was touching moment when I have to saying good bye with my beloved parents and start living far away from them in different island. To be honest, It was my first time in my whole life, travelling with the plane. I am the last person who never took the plane before among my family members. I fought my complicated feeling as if they would blow up soon. Only I, me and myself fought the battle inside and off course Allah as my sufficient.
At 06.00 AM my flight took- off and took transit in Jakarta first, then transit again in Medan and Landing in Banda Aceh at 01.00 PM. What a long journey and great adventure !
Subhanallah.... Isn't this situation is one of your dream before ?Isn't this job used to be in your pray lists ?.Allah showed me his miracle, then what are you afraid of ?" .
But still, I could not control my heart beat got faster whenever I thought about my new job description.So many excuses and questions crossed in my mind. I was really don't know what was supposed to do. Feeling worried if I could not handle my job haunted me.
I was introduced to some staffs including my senior officer and orphan assistant. They showed me the room for orphan's staff that shared with watsan ( water sanitation ) staff. One of the staff said that the Watsan coordinator is from Macedon , An unknown country that I just knew recently is near by Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Balkan area. A country where Alexander the Great were born.
Three days after, I was sent to Meulaboh, West Aceh as my contract for the orphan officer of Meulbaoh based. Banda Aceh to Meulaboh takes about 9 hours by car but I changed the trip with helicopter due to miss-management schedule from admin staff . "What ?!! Helicopter ?! ". My heart was screaming .To be honest, it was my first and last experience ever travelling with helicopter.Unfortunately, I did not record it because I had not a camera. Just regretting my mistake why I did not have courage to borrow camera from Daniah. Well, I must say, travelling with helicopter was so exciting, it flied very low and I could see the land of Rencong , other name of Aceh, fully covered by beautiful sea and hills. So green and blue color interchangeably I could see from the helicopter. One thing that I never knew before was we could open the window from the helicopter and the cloud is very close, I was really want to touch the cloud if it allowed. Travelling with helicopter was so noisy, so I must put on earphone that is available in the helicopter. My seat was like in micro-let and mostly of the passengers were expatriate from UN and INGO's. "What a cool experience !". My love-sick boiled away instantly.
***************
Meulaboh, November 02, 2006
Day by day , I tried to wake up and took back the pieces of broken heart by getting closer to Allah. In every night praying, my tear dropped easily, my life was very complicated, sometime I felt so lonely but sometime I enjoyed my precious time with Allah that I never had before. Losing my fiance did not means I had lost my friends even Allah had sent me more good guys to help me, support me and they were be there whenever I need them, they are my truly friends, Alhamdullillah !.
Just remember some ayah in Surrah Al-Insyirah ; 5-6, So verily , with every difficulty there is relief. Verily, with every difficulty there is relief . Yes, Allah had has proved to me .
And one of my best friends who inspire me a lot is Yudi Siswanto , a low-profile and simple guy but very positive and hard to giving-up for anything . My obsession to become volunteer in Aceh had been up again after he sent resignation's letter to my boss in radio company because one of INGO's ( International Non-Government-Organisation ) in Aceh recruited him as volunteer. We stayed in touch each other and he sometimes gave me some information about the vacancy in some INGO's and UN ( United Nation ) in Aceh. I forget how many times my application's letter rejected by more than ten INGO's but I kept trying over and over again ,my mind just keep saying " I want to get out of him and new girl friend who get married soon after two months we broke up ".
Finally, after two years kept trying on sending application's letter to many INGO's , one of them had responded my letter. I had call from an Islamic Relief Human Resources' staff in Jakarta. She asked me to come immediately for interview test. And "Alhamdullillah, I passed !", after waiting for almost three months and I did zero expectation because my rival much better than me. They sent me to Meulaboh area in West Aceh. An unknown place that I was really blind about. My parents was shock after they knew my decision to exchange job in Aceh, off course they are really worry because their single daughter will be thousands miles away living separately from them and will learn how to be single fighter in vulnerable disaster and conflict area. Alhamdullillah, my parents agreed with my decision, coming to Aceh after explaining them that I had some good dreams previously and beside that, I had good intention for it.
At 05.00 AM, my father took me to Juanda Airport, Surabaya, I must say that he is my gentle man in this world. He said good bye to me and said , "Please call us after you arrived there !". It was touching moment when I have to saying good bye with my beloved parents and start living far away from them in different island. To be honest, It was my first time in my whole life, travelling with the plane. I am the last person who never took the plane before among my family members. I fought my complicated feeling as if they would blow up soon. Only I, me and myself fought the battle inside and off course Allah as my sufficient.
At 06.00 AM my flight took- off and took transit in Jakarta first, then transit again in Medan and Landing in Banda Aceh at 01.00 PM. What a long journey and great adventure !
*****
On the way to my new office, I saw many cracked buildings left after earthquake and mass graves for tsunami's victims evoked my emotions at the time. However, the real Banda Aceh in front of my eyes was absolutely different from my imagination previously. Some funded houses and public buildings was being constructed . Our trip from the airport to the Islamic Relief office in Lueng Bata, about 20 minutes, my feeling was so complicated after getting of from the car. The huge building in front of me and when I entered the office I saw some staffs were bit indifferent and some of them are expatriate who look very busy doing something.
Banda Aceh, October 30, 2006 at 01.00 PM
It was Monday afternoon, My flight , Sriwijaya Air landed at Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport, Banda Aceh.
"Welcome to Banda Aceh Alhamdullillah !", I said to myself.
Then, I searched the guy who was told by HR staff previously will pick me up at the airport. . Finally I found the guy was holding a paper written my name on it. This guy was cold and he is from Aceh and he took my baggage ,then pleased me to enter a car which is inside there were two other Islamic Relief staffs that just left to their hometown for annual leave .I remembered that day was a week after Eid .
It was Monday afternoon, My flight , Sriwijaya Air landed at Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport, Banda Aceh.
"Welcome to Banda Aceh Alhamdullillah !", I said to myself.
Then, I searched the guy who was told by HR staff previously will pick me up at the airport. . Finally I found the guy was holding a paper written my name on it. This guy was cold and he is from Aceh and he took my baggage ,then pleased me to enter a car which is inside there were two other Islamic Relief staffs that just left to their hometown for annual leave .I remembered that day was a week after Eid .
Subhanallah.... Isn't this situation is one of your dream before ?Isn't this job used to be in your pray lists ?.Allah showed me his miracle, then what are you afraid of ?" .
But still, I could not control my heart beat got faster whenever I thought about my new job description.So many excuses and questions crossed in my mind. I was really don't know what was supposed to do. Feeling worried if I could not handle my job haunted me.
I was introduced to some staffs including my senior officer and orphan assistant. They showed me the room for orphan's staff that shared with watsan ( water sanitation ) staff. One of the staff said that the Watsan coordinator is from Macedon , An unknown country that I just knew recently is near by Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Balkan area. A country where Alexander the Great were born.
Three days after, I was sent to Meulaboh, West Aceh as my contract for the orphan officer of Meulbaoh based. Banda Aceh to Meulaboh takes about 9 hours by car but I changed the trip with helicopter due to miss-management schedule from admin staff . "What ?!! Helicopter ?! ". My heart was screaming .To be honest, it was my first and last experience ever travelling with helicopter.Unfortunately, I did not record it because I had not a camera. Just regretting my mistake why I did not have courage to borrow camera from Daniah. Well, I must say, travelling with helicopter was so exciting, it flied very low and I could see the land of Rencong , other name of Aceh, fully covered by beautiful sea and hills. So green and blue color interchangeably I could see from the helicopter. One thing that I never knew before was we could open the window from the helicopter and the cloud is very close, I was really want to touch the cloud if it allowed. Travelling with helicopter was so noisy, so I must put on earphone that is available in the helicopter. My seat was like in micro-let and mostly of the passengers were expatriate from UN and INGO's. "What a cool experience !". My love-sick boiled away instantly.
***************
Meulaboh, November 02, 2006
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