My Blog

Last weekend we had a
friendship soccer game between  Montreal and Ottawa’s team. Please
click here for the pictures. This year, again  Montreal lost
from Ottawa.
But the Montrealers stayed cool and, as always, became a very good host by
serving such a delicious lunch for all players and supporters. I noticed that
the two communities are so different that even though this annual match has
always been meant to bring the two communities closer together, I don’t think
it will ever happen. Looking at how they behave, the Ottawa community somehow
reminds me of the Indonesian elite community, whereas the Montrealers more
represent the working class community, although most of the Montrealers are bachelor,
master, or PhD students; skilled engineers who work in aeronautics; they are
humble and cheerful. Maybe I am too judgmental here, but all I can say is that
I am glad that I spend my 1-year fellowship in Montreal,
not anywhere else in  Canada. Although the country is extremely cold, but you can definitely feel the warmth
of Montrealers’ hearts.

Bravo Montrealers!

When I am abroad, one important event that has always been interesting to join is the celebration of our independence day on Aug 17th.

Landed in the Netherlands in Dec 2004, I was given chance to join the celebration in 2005. I went with Made -my classmate for 10 years since we entered the faculty of medicine- and Shuyuan -Made’s roomate in Utrecht. There are approximately 40,000 Indonesians registered at the Indonesian Embassy in Den Haag. So, the celebration has always been a big party for the community. You can see the pictures on the following link perayaan 17 Agustus 2005 di Den Haag . However, the Embassy does not provide free snacks nor lunch. Instead, there are a lot of food stands with a large variety of Indonesian traditional foods. It’s always interesting because if you convert the price in Rupiahs, you have to pay Rp 10,000 for a small piece of simple snack. Something you’ll never do in Indonesia

Last Sept I flew to the coldest country in the world, Canada. I was lucky enough to get to know with the komunitas Indonesia Montreal beforehand thru their online website. I arrived during the fasting month and celebrated Idul Fitri together with my new friends and family.  I must say that the Indonesian bound among the community in Montreal is very strong, may be because the amount is much less than the one in the Netherlands.

So, yesterday there were about 80 people including children traveling by bus from Montreal to Ottawa to join the celebration of our Independence day perayaan 17 Agustus 2007 Ottawa. We arrived a bit late and thus we missed ‘pembacaan detik-detik proklamasi’ . However, the celebration was nice too, especially with free snacks and delicious lunch Around 4h in the afternoon we returned to Montreal. It was such a pleasant experience. Maybe I should start considering in which country I’d like to celebrate the next independence day

Merdeka!!!

Pagi ini saya bete setengah mati. Bagaimana tidak, baru buka email sudah ‘disambut’ oleh email dari pembimbing yang intinya meminta saya untuk merombak ulang laporan yang sudah hampir jadi. Hasil kerja dua bulan nyaris sia-sia dalam sekejap. Sepagian saya berpikir keras menyusun argumen yang tepat untuk pembimbing saya yang sebenarnya baik hati ini. Di tengah ke-bete-an itu, masuk email dari Eha dan Andi, teman di Utrecht, dengan isi yang benar-benar membuat saya terharu…

Sehari sebelumnya saya memang meminta bantuan kesediaan pasangan perawat muda ini untuk menampung teman saya yang belum mendapatkan kamar di Utrecht selama 1 bulan. Maklum, mencari kamar di Utrecht seperti mencari jarum di tumpukan jerami, alias sulit dan makan waktu. Apalagi teman saya akan membawa putrinya, membuat para landlord berpikir ulang untuk menyewakan kamar single bed kepada ibu dan anak ini. Tak disangka, Eha dan Andi menyambut dengan senang hati kedatangan teman saya. Kebetulan mereka memiliki 1 kamar yang biasanya dipakai sebagai musholla, jadi teman saya dan putrinya bisa tinggal di kamar tersebut. Tidak sampai di situ, Eha dan Andi juga menawarkan bantuan untuk mencarikan rumah di Utrecht karena saat ini teman saya masih di Indonesia. Eha menutup email dengan menyatakan menunggu kabar selanjutnya dari teman saya…

Alhamdulillah, saya tak terbayang betapa senangnya teman saya mendapat berita ini. Dan saya begitu terharu dengan ketulusan Eha dan Andi yang mengulurkan bantuan kepada orang yang sama-sekali belum mereka kenal, untuk tinggal di kediaman mereka selama 1 bulan sampai mendapatkan tempat tinggal yang tetap. Subhanallah, Eha dan Andi, semoga kebaikan kalian mendapatkan balasan yang setimpal dari Yang Maha Pemberi, amiin…

Two months ago I met her for the first time. She was coordinating a fund rising bazaar for refining a mosque in Downtown Montreal. Pak Pipip, who introduced me to her, mentioned that this lady with her organization successfully managed to collect 250,000 CAD for Tsunami victims; more than half was donated for Indonesia. She also has a shelter with a complete facility, free of charge for the needy people. I was totally amazed.

Looking at her, I see a very cheerful, humble, and active lady in her sixty. One evening I gave her a visit just to have a nice chat with her. For the past 6 months she has been working at a small fast food restaurant, 12 hours on every working day. She’s responsible for almost everything: from serving the food, cleaning up the dishes and the shop, to accounting. Around 9.30PM she leaves for home by public transport. She also works as a cosmetic distributor, specially during the weekends, where she invites some ladies for a free cosmetic demo. About her family, she’s married to a French-Canadian convert, an architect, from a prosperous family. So, maybe you’ll have the same questions as I did:

Why do you have to work that hard?
I need the money to give the needy people, as simple as that…

Why are you so devoted to the needy people? I mean you don’t get anything back from them, do you?
No, I just think that it’s a pitty if you think that you only live your life for yourself, whereas at the same time you can do a lot for others. There is a lot of people that needs help, so we have to think creatively and work as hard as we can to help them out. I have no child, so it’s no use to collect money for myself, where will they go anyway if I die?

What about your husband, does he mind with all your activities?
No, I am very lucky to have a very understanding and supporting husband. He gives me freedom to do my activities, because he knows that they’re all for good reasons…

All true and I am glad to have a chance to know this lady in person. But there’s another interesting lesson I learnt that evening. I was helping her closing the store when she asked me to sweep the floor in front of the restaurant as well. For a minute I was thinking that sweeping the floor in a public place is more challenging than giving a presentation in front of a big class. She saw that look on my face and said, "Hey, are you shy? Let me do it!" I was struck and ashamed that, indeed, I was shy to do it. Then I realized how our society creates wrong definitions of good and bad. Our society respects people based on their wealth, education, career, and other social stratifications. Where actually in front of God, we are all the same. What differentiate us is mainly our deeds, how much good deeds we do and how straight the path we live our life…

For sister Sabriyah, thanks for the inspiration…