Being in the field
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
Meeting with ladies in the village has always brought a certain feeling … cozy I guess … though the conversation weren’t going so well ‘coz I only know a bit of acehnesse language, such as “pu haba(how are you)?” or “padum droeneh sinyak di ru moh(how many kids do you have)?” or “pu but bu(what are you doing ma’am)?” hehhehe … and guess what .. I have been falling in love … with an old lady that looks quite young (hmm … at least not that old). Since I told her that she looked young, she called herself as “nek muda (young grandma)”. I visited her house … I like being there and talking with her and her daughters … her grand children … their hospitality was really comforting.
The men … it’s much harder though … they weren’t being so nice to us … they just want us with money or medicine, not else. We expect to have support from every elites those this village has … but the fact said that even the religious man asked us to give medicines to cure the medical problems whose villagers had, such as headache and heart pounding. The heart pounding comes when there are people who wears “army clothes” or people. Is it trauma?? For sure I guess … but the man was not talking to discuss about this with us … He’s talking and talking … just want to be heard without giving a sec even hear, moreover to listen. That’s the biggest challenge I guess … Don’t they need any psychological assistance? The answer is not yes or no … but It comes to the fact that they want to be helped as tsunami’s survivors was helped and also their habit not telling about their feelings and show emotional aspect of themselves. “Boys don’t cry” epidemic is still around I guess … not confronting that it’s wrong though … it’s our culture … traditional culture and even modern one still can’t leave this path, can they? So the question is should we push them to dig in this aspect that every human being must have or we just leave them with their “world” ? Not one of them I think. Giving other perspective in the way that is adapted from their habit and way of thinking is an idealistic idea (and also do no harm) that gives so many challenges … but we absolutely can try. Do you have any idea how to switch their mind? Maybe not twisting but offering new space … a space where there are things that we don’t know and actually others know and we might try to take a look at those things. It might work; it might not … just give some shots?! Who are we to judge what is the best for them … do we want to be told by others what is the best for us?
So far what I enjoy at the most is meeting the nice people, fresh air, being so close by the rice field … many coconut trees around and the challenges themselves J
