To my beloved family, mom dad santhy and sherley… In a couple of days I’ll be 1 year older. With out you I won’t stand as what I am now… I miss you all so much and wish that all of you were here to share the celebration cake with me… Alhamdulillah ya Allah, in this world I am glad I have you…
Love has no boundries. No ras, ethnic, economic status, nor religion…
Starting March 2006 I share an appartment with Shuwen Deng, a dermatologist as well as mycologist from Xin Jiang, China, who is doing her postdoc at mycology institute in Utrecht. At the same time I have new office mates at IRAS, 2 PhD students: Ilka Noss from Germany and Lot Bannink from the Netherlands. Within less than 2 months we become very close friends and share good and bad times together.
Recently I got a new project. At the office Ilka and Lot surpised me by presenting a celebration cake with candles on my table in the morning when I arrived. And today, it’s been almost a week that I postpone telling Shuwen the fact that I have to leave Utrecht somewhere in autumn. The next thing I know was she was crying on my shoulder. “Eva, on one hand I am happy for you, but on the other hand I don’t want you to leave…” For a few seconds I was speechless. I knew she’ll be sad, but her reactions made me realized that God blessed me so much with so many loving people around me. To Shuwen, Ilka and Lot, for sure I’ll miss you!
It’s not a movie story played by Julia Roberts. It’s a true story of my best friend Fatima de Bruijn, whom I knew for the first time in front of the mosque at Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, 2002.
“Hi, are you from Indonesia?” asked a beautifull girl to me
“Mm, yeah, how do you know?” I replied surprisedly
“Well, my mom is Indonesian, from West Java, so I thought you might be Indonesian too,” and then our stories begin…
Fatima is a half Dutch half Indonesian girl, who started living by her own when she was still very young. Though, she succeed to made her way becoming a trained paramedic staff at a psyciatric institution in Capelle, Rotterdam. When I had no place to go and no sponsor for the last two months of my Master program, she welcomed me to stay at her place almost for free. We had real good time and become sisters. When I had to go back to Jakarta in September 2003, she accompanied me to Schiphol. We had a teary farewell, although we knew that we’d meet again when I return somewhere in 2004.
Time flies. In Aug 2004 she called me to Jakarta. “Eva, I’m getting married with Youseff in Marocco!” I was very happy for her. Finally she’d start her own family and found a good man to share the rest of her life with. When I returned in Dec 2004 she was pregnant already and in Aug 2005 they got a beautifull son, Sabir Amir. I was very busy at work and living in Utrecht restrained me from visiting them. I only saw Sabir two times before they decided to move to Deinze, Belgium in Dec 2004.
Then, mid March at night I got a surprising call. “Hi Eva, could you come to our wedding at Deinze city hall, on April 1st at 10 in the morning? It’s for official registration according to Belgium law…” I thought it’s an april mop, but she’s not the type of person who would like to fool other people. So, after 4 hours trip on and off the trains, Youseff picked me up at Deinze station. It’s really nice to have Sabir ‘welcoming’ me infront of the appartment door. He’s 7 months already and turned out to be a very cute little guy.
The next morning, I met the Bruijn family who also came all the way from Rossendal. Michele, Fatima’s father, would be the witness from Fatima’s side. Unfortunately, half hour before the ceremony started, Ruben, Fatima’s brother who was supposed to be the witness from Youseff’s side, called from the highway that his car was broken. Fatima looked at me, “Eva, do you by any chance bring along your visa with you?” So, there I was, unexpectedly witnessing my best friend’s wedding.
I hardly believe in quincidence, because everything happens in every single second is carefully planned by God. Meeting her in the first place is one of the best things happened to me during my stay in the Netherland. She’s a loving person with high confidence in her self, who is daring in taking chances and risk to start something new for a better life. All best wishes for you Fatima!
