Sunday, February 28, 2021

I love Monday! - Oops #Day1

Today is Monday. It may suck for some people to hear 'Monday'. That's why I hear many people around me, particularly my colleagues, say "I hate Monday" and "I love Friday." It makes me wonder why should some people hate Monday and love Friday? They are just days, aren't they? 

I am sitting on my own and reflecting on this. Well, Monday is the beginning of the week for work or school or any other routines that people have in general. That is why it is common to call Monday - Friday as working days and Saturday and Sunday as weekends. The next question is why some people hate to begin the week, which means to begin their work, to begin their school. Oh, wait! Hang on a second! There might be something wrong in their work because it seems like to begin the week equals to start their sufferings. That's why they hate it. Do they really suffer during work? or maybe during school? I cannot imagine if it really is the matter because if let's say they do suffer, how much longer they would bear with this suffering? Days to days, weeks to weeks, months to months, years to years, and finally the death comes. Seriously? Isn't it such a shame to live like this? And yes, it is definitely not about the name of the day 'Monday'. It turned out even some of my colleagues still hate any day which starts their work of the week. Anyway, our work schedule keeps changing every three months with random days off. Then, here we can see why they say "Thank God, it's Friday." That is because they are ending their suffering of the week. Oh, but don't forget! Another suffering is coming as soon as the weekend is over and they are back to work. 

Anyway, if this kind of  'to hate' some days and 'to love' the other days happen to you, you may have to start reflecting on what is actually wrong with those days and figure out what you can do about it. Just like what I said, if it is because of your work, then maybe you can try to find another job that you like and suits you. Or, maybe at school, there is a subject that you are not good at on that day then seek some help to support your learning. Telling yourselves particularly to 'hate' a certain day, even before knowing it, would not make things any better, it may even do the opposite in some situations. The thing is, if you love what you are doing, you will always be happy and excited about whatever you are doing on any day. Working days would be as fun as weekends. 

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This morning I realized that today is March 1st and my friend reminded me of our pact to write for 30 days this month. We want to challenge writing skills as well as boost our spirit again in writing. So, I made a calender and printed it out for me to keep on track. By the way, no specific topic we have for this writing challenge. It's theme-free. It can be anything. Let's see what's happening in the next 29 days. Oh, I got the idea of I love Monday from my friend's chat by the way. Inspiration can come from anywhere, right?


Saturday, February 27, 2021

Pursuing an international career: Why not?

How did I start?

About the end of 2018, I started thinking about working abroad, especially in Malaysia. There was no specific reason or motivation why. It was simply because I was in a relationship with someone who was at the time working there and I thought it would be a good idea if I were also there so that we could be together. He was the one who told me that he found many Indonesians working in Malaysia, so it would be possible as well for me to work there. Since then I started to look for a job in Malaysia for Indonesian speakers. Why 'Indonesian speakers' became a keyword? It was because I am a native speaker of the Indonesian language and this skill is what others from other countries don't have despite my educational background and working experience that I had. As far as I remember, I applied to many job vacancies available on Google starting from those on the public job portals such as Jobstreets and Linkedin to those on the outsourcing company portals such as Manpower (he was hired by this company anyway) and Kelly and many others.
 
The offer to work in Malaysia came a few times, maybe around three times, but the other two did not go well maybe because my educational background and/or working experience was irrelevant. As far as I remember, they needed someone who has an educational background in business. Finally, the third time I got an offer and an interview by phone was arranged. Guess what? I had the interview on a bus from the airport to my rent room in Jakarta. I was on my way back to Jakarta from my hometown in Lampung. Unexpectedly, my flight delayed for about one or two hours. Well anyway, it went well. I got the offer the next day by email and I said yes right away. Was I excited? yes, but I was not too excited because my boyfriend vanished in January with no reason until at that time. Nevertheless, I was sure I would be okay in Malaysia without him. I changed my purpose and motivation for going, not because of him, but because I wanted to get more experience in life and if possible to continue my Ph.D. there. For your information, after a week of my arrival, I was thinking about inviting my ex for a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, it turned out he got married already. With who? With an Indonesian girl from Wakatobi. The worse part was that they got married on April 21st, my birthday when I was flying to Malaysia. Anyway, the ticket I had was supposed to be a two-way ticket for a short vacation in Malaysia to be with him celebrating my birthday, but no one knew what would happen next, right? I came here to Malaysia for work and just let the other ticket go because it was not refundable. It was a cheap flight ticket for a vacation promo that kind of thing. 

What's my background?

At that time, I had graduated from my Master's program a few months earlier, exactly in August 2018, and I started teaching in a university (where I studied for a bachelor's degree) as an English instructor starting in October. At the same time, I was still teaching part-time at English First Pondok Indah, Jakarta. So, it was a big decision for me to make at that time leaving the English teaching career that I had had in Jakarta in the last 8 and almost 9 years (since 2010, the second year of my bachelor's as an English private teacher). Especially at that time, I was an English instructor in a university a.k.a lecturer. I really love my students. We were like friends sharing stories and learning together. I also loved my colleagues who always had stories about many things such as other colleagues, teaching materials, and even about our students. Haha. We had a name for students, like good-looking ones, annoying ones, naughty ones, cool ones. Sadly, I was just there for one semester. I still remember that one day my supervisor, Ms. Widdy, asked me if I was sure about my decision and what I would actually do here in Malaysia. Honestly, I had no clear idea at that time and I just said whatever written there in my job descriptions. How it would look like? No idea at all. But, life must go on. I was ready to take another challenge leaving my comfort zone in Jakarta and to have another fight in Malaysia. Just like what I did before, leaving Lampung and fighting in Jakarta. Just like when I left my village to the capital city Bandar Lampung to fight for my high school. One fight after another I take. What for? I am not even sure what it is for? but what I am sure of is that a lot to learn in every single step I take.

Many things have happened since I graduated from Sampoerna School of Education, now well known by Sampoerna University with more faculties, not only education. I started teaching at Rumah Bahasa only for a few months then decided to leave due to its unprofessional HR management. Then found an opportunity on the internet, again not sure where it was from, I applied to English First and got hired. I still remember that the HR person Ms. Pram thought I was a model because of my previous school names, MIN Model (Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri) and MAN Model (Madrasah Aliyah Negeri). In fact, this word 'Model' was to represent that the school was a role model for other schools in the region. It's funny, isn't it? after one year of teaching there I started getting bored and no challenge in my routine so I decided to continue my Master's degree part-time at UIN Jakarta (Universitas Islam Negeri). Well, the distance was not far from my rent room, to EF and to UIN, with my motorbike. During my master's, I tried to take this opportunity as much as I could, especially to do things that I couldn't do during my bachelor's. One of them is to present some papers of the assignments at some international conferences and to request the university to financially support me. Well, not bad, I went to Malang, Singapore, and Thailand supported by UIN. Other than that, I actively contributed to the student council conducting some projects such as TOEFL and TOAFL preparation classes for master students there considering they needed to pass the minimum score to graduate. Also, recognizing me in attending some international conferences, some lecturers in my faculty sought my assistance to be a part of the committee in international conferences conducted by UIN. It was great that I could get the experience not only as a participant or a presenter but also as a committee member. Because of my close interaction and relation with the lecturers there, I was awarded as the best master's student in 2016 in the faculty. Oh, last, I got involved in some research projects with Ms. Ratna and Ms. Desi. A lot of things I did, right? 

Any challenges I got through?

Well, the very first challenge was to find a place to stay. Luckily, I knew a friend from an English community that I joined a long time ago www.speaking24.com. He was studying for his Ph.D. in Malaysia. Surprisingly, there was a vacant room at his unit. The old tenant just moved out a month before, so I took the room. The problem was that I was not familiar yet with the surrounding, especially the distance from this place to my office and any transportation available. It turned out, its location was quite far. It got even worse because my work schedule is uncommon. I work in shifts, morning, middle, and night, and the schedule changes every three months. I am sure it would be much easier at that time for me if I knew someone from Indonesia (especially female) staying in Malaysia who could help me. Yes, at that time I had a friend but I didn't want to trouble him too much. What I thought in the first place was that so as long as I found a place to stay, then that's fine. After three months of staying there, my transportation expense was quite much so I decided to leave the place. You know what? I didn't know and I wasn't familiar with the tenant agreement at that time which some say the minimum period of stay is 6 months. The thing was that he didn't tell me clearly about the terms and conditions. Finally, I gave him one month's notice, left the place, and moved to a room at an apartment near to my office. See? It's complicated.

Another challenge was the currency. I needed a calculator most of the time when I wanted to buy something to at least compare and contrast the buy value between here and Indonesia so I could decide if it was cheap or expensive to buy something. Seriously, it was not easy. Each currency has its own value attached to the general values applied in its country or region at least. A higher price here in Malaysia does not always mean it is more expensive than it is in Jakarta. It may have a higher price but the value is just the same in the general value applied to the people and community here. Anyway, I am not good at talking about money and I may confuse you here. But, the thing is it is difficult to decide if something cheap or expensive. Even until now. That's why I don't think too much anymore about it now. I get tired of it. I will get what I need. That's all. haha. I don't care if there might be some friends who have been here long before me making some jokes on how stupid I am to buy certain stuff at a certain price which they may consider to be too expensive. I don't care. It's fucking difficult. Oh, by the way, now the currency from RM 1 is Rp 3,500, or in other words, 1 x 3. But, in my mind what's written is not like that, simply I put 3 zeroes at the back. Let's say I buy a snack costs RM 2, what I have in mind is like Rp 2000, which is totally possible to make me broke because in fact it actually costs Rp 7.000. Can you see what I mean?

Here comes to me dealing with the people here Malaysians or those who look like Malay. Most people think that Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu are the same. I'd personally rather say that they are similar, not the same. If they are the same, they are totally and exactly and absolutely and definitely the same. Well yes, some are the same, but some others are different. This difference sometimes makes me confused whether I better speak Bahasa Indonesia or Malay or even in some situations English. A few times I tried speaking in Malay, but the person I talked to could easily notice it and right away think that I am Indonesian from my accent. There was nothing wrong with it of course. But, by then they would refer to me as a low-educated person who works as a housemaid and does not know English. How do I know? From the questions that they asked me. It's terrible, isn't it? At the other time, I spoke in English, especially with Chinese because even some of them sometimes do not know Malay. The thing is that there was a time when I spoke English and the person I talked to started asking where I was from. As soon as he knew that I was from Indonesia,  he started preaching about language saying that it was disrespectful to speak in English, not in Malay or Bahasa Indonesia in Malay land. So, what should I do then? Tell me.
 
The next challenge is when I had to deal with the diversity around me, especially at the workplace. LGBTQ is something common among colleagues and superordinates. It was my first time dealing with people who openly declare themselves to have a certain gender identity or sexual orientation. I am okay with that. We are all humans living together in this world, so let's be human. The thing is that there might be at some point where I am confused about what stand should take in how much support I would give them. Sometimes there is some kind of contradiction between what I believe to be a human and what I believe to be a Muslim. But anyway, despite all diversities at the workplace, we get along and work together really well for the best performance. Let the personal preferences be personal, and together be professional. 

How do I survive?

This job is a job that I have never done before, but I believe that I can always rely on my educational background and working experience. In the first few months, I tried very hard to get to know how things work exactly at the workplace. Any mistakes I made? A lot. Many times. But, each mistake I made let me learn things one by one. I observed and learned until I got the main idea of what it wants from me at doing the job, especially in terms of quality and quantity. What kind of quality I should have and how much quantity I should do. Trials and errors I have been through. Did I ever feel like giving up? Of course. Many times. It would be much easier for me to get back to school teaching lovely and fun students, right? But here I am not a teacher. I am a totally new student in a new work environment. If I can be a good student here, I will definitely be a good teacher here as well.

Other than my work, there are surely things out of my control coming from the management side. Some decisions are made changing from time to time, sometimes with a notice in advance and some other times in short notice. Well, what more to expect? No matter I go, in which institution or company I work for, the change would always be there. It was one of many things I remember from what Sir Anddy said (my supervisor in LRC SU). Any changes are the dynamics and what I always believe is that change happens for a reason, or maybe some reasons. Sometimes I know it, sometimes I don't, even though there must be some kind of feeling within me wondering why certain things happen. Well, we can't force ourselves to know everything, right? So, what I can do is to always see the big picture of something and its bright side in dealing with any dynamics. Some say that it may be me who may lose, but who cares? I don't care. Well, I may care, but that's none of my control and none of my business. The story would be different if I still have a chance or a way to fight for it. Anyway, as long as I live, I am happy and grateful for what I have and keep doing a good job. 

To work abroad does not mean to earn only money but also a lot more than that. After three months working here, I started thinking about teaching. I missed teaching so much. It took me to Myprivatetutor Malaysia on the internet where I could register myself as a teacher of English and Bahasa Indonesia, and connect me to students. Until now I have got students from Italy, Korea, German, and even Malaysia. It's interesting, isn't it? Other than teaching I still got involved in a research conducted by Ms. Ratna and Ms. Desi on Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia and Singapore. I tried to find some Indonesian migrant workers organizations in both countries. Here, I started to be in touch with Edukasi Unntuk bangsa (EUB) and International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF). Before the pandemic came, I voluntarily taught English conversation with Ibu Sri to Indonesian migrant workers. Sadly, no more classes until now because of the pandemic, and the school SIKL (Sekolah Indonesia Kuala Lumpur) is closed. In IDWF, I have been actively involved in some events as an interpreter for Bahasa Indonesia and/or English. These opportunities have made me in close contact with Indonesian migrant workers family here. It is great. Some of them are elder than me who treat me just like their daughter and little sister, and some of them are younger than me whom I consider like my little brothers and sisters. Additionally, I joined some voluntary teaching programs conducted by my company Accenture in collaboration with  Teach for Malaysia and SOLS 24/7, which allows me to broaden my network here as well as share knowledge and impact. These all are self-rewarding. 

So, for those of you thinking about going to work abroad, why not?

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Last January I was invited by my old university, Sampoerna University, to share my experience of working abroad with the students there. I was with my other two friends, Agnes and Sahlan, who are also working in another country, Agnes is in Malaysia and Sahlan is in Thailand. It was an honor and a pleasure for me. May they and you all find this information useful. Here are the PPt slides. 


Tuesday, February 16, 2021

How struggling are Domestic Workers (DWs) in Indonesia?

In 2004, there was a woman named Sunarsih, a 14-year-old girl who worked as a domestic worker in Surabaya, Indonesia. She ate only a package of instant noodles a day, had no day off, slept on the upper floor where clothes were usually hung to get them dry. One day she was starving and took some rice from the kitchen. It was a bad day for her as her employer found it out. She got beaten and her neck was tied at the staircase until finally, she died on Feb 12th. The worst thing is that her family didn't even know about it. How could anyone know? she could not even talk to her family. She was blocked from the outside world by her employer. What an inhumane person her employer was! Her death was uncovered on Feb 15th and since then this day became the National Domestic Worker's Day to commemorate her death. 

And guess what? What happened to Sunarsih didn't stop there. There are still many other DWs in Indonesia, including those who work abroad, experiencing abuses and exploitations by their employers. Some of them may be fortunate to be employed by a generous and kind employer. But, shall we rely on 'fortune' here? I don't think so. What is still happening out there to DWs is that they work for long hours. It is like they must be ready 24 hours at anytime their employer needs them to do anything. They start their work as soon as they wake up and only stop when they get to bed late at night. What a pity situation they are having! Worse than that, they have no weekly rest or let's say day-offs. Then, we can tell that they work 24/7. And, what about the salary? no specific rule which regulates how much their minimum salary is so that the employer can pay them as much as they want to give as long as the DWs say yes. Anyway, who would say 'no', most of them come from poor families with a low level of education, what more to expect than some money to support their family. These are not all, there still have been many cases and stories in which DWs face a number of abuses mentally, physically (just like what happened to Sunarsih), sexually, and economically (what I mentioned about salary). From all of these, we can see that, DWs do not get their rights as workers, are not even recognized and treated as workers. Is this what we call slavery in this modern era? 

I am amazed for knowing that there are many activists working together with some NGOs to fight for the rights of DWs. What they want is simply that they do not want other DWs to become another 'Sunarsih'. There are around 4 million DWs in Indonesia (the biggest DWs provider in Asia) and more than 80% of them are women, even in some cases some children under 18 are also employed. One of the big efforts that they have done is by formulating and drafting the Bill of DWs' Protection to be proposed to the Parliament to be enacted. In addition, there have been a lot of campaigns held to support the ratification of ILO (International Labour Organization) Convention - 189. What about now? Is there any progress? Sadly not at all. Even though the Bill was ready in 2004, the changing of government period every five years have a big impact on its' process to be passed. Can you believe it? It has been 17 years. In addition, it seems there have been some conflicts of interest in the Parliament to enact this law. One of the concerns in this issue is that, since it is mentioned in the Bill that the government must provide social security for the DWs, it means the government must spend pay for its expenses which results in an increasing national budget. Anyway, to fill this gap, Indonesia's Ministry of Labour launched Ministerial Regulations to at least provide some protections for DWs and to minimize any abuses, violations, and exploitations by the employers. It starts by providing the definition of DW along with the requirements and job descriptions. But still, it is not strong enough. Also, the implementation of these regulations is still not well done by respective stakeholders. In other words, it is questioning.

I am very proud of the Phillippines which has done a great job in protecting their citizens who work as DWs in their country as well as those who work abroad with laws namely Batas Kasambahay. In addition, the Philippines ratified ILO C-189 which covers the labor standards of decent work for DWs in 2012. The existence of this law has been beneficial not only for DWs as workers but also for employers.

Now, the question is how much longer must DWs wait? Hopefully, we hear good news in March from the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) in the Parliament. 

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Two days ago, Monday, February 15th, 2021, I was invited to be an interpreter (from Bahasa Indonesia to English) at an online event Webinar on Cross-border Exchange: Paving the Way to Decent Work for Domestic Workers in Indonesia and Phillippines. This event was held by the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) in collaboration with JALA-PRT (National Network for DWs' Advocacy) and UNITED (a National Union of DWs in the Phillippines) to commemorate the National Domestic Worker's Day in Indonesia. The speakers of the event representing NGOs and government from Indonesia such as Tunas Mulia DW Union, Indonesian Women Congress (KOWANI), Golkar Party, Nasdem Party, Maju Perempuan Indonesia, and from the Phillippines such as Congressman of the Philippines, DOLE (Department of Labour and Employment) of the Phillippines, and ILO Geneva. 

Monday, February 8, 2021

Ngaji (Keadilan Gender Islam)

Di bulan Ramadhan kemarin aku ikut Ngaji KGI (Kajian Gender Islam) yang disampaikan oleh Ibu Nur Rofiah. Aku tertarik untuk belajar tentang gender ini di awal Ramadhan dan minta rekomendasi Zakia, teman masa SMA yang aku perhatikan bergerak aktif di bidang hak perempuan. Pas sekali Ngaji KGI membuka pendaftaran untuk ngaji terbatas lewat Skype selama 4 hari berturut-turut. Ini Seri 1 katanya, ternyata ada seri 2 dan 3. Di sini aku ingin cerita sedikit rangkuman dan refleksi ku di masing masing sesi. Karena waktu itu masa ramadhan dan aku juga hadir ngaji sambil kerja, jadi catatan ku mungkin tidak terlalu lengkap dan mungkin ada beberapa hal yang terlewat. Ditambah lagi kebetulan koneksi internet di rumah terkadang ngadat.

Ngaji KGI Seri 1
Di awal sesi ini Ibu Nur memaparkan secara detil dan satu per satu hal mendasar dalam memahami konsep keadilan gender yang nanti akan dibahas lebih lanjut. Memang secara fisik atau biologis perempuan dan laki laki berbeda sejak dari sononya dibuat sama Tuhan dan memang harus diakui dan diterima begitu adanya. Ternyata perbedaan ini yang akhirnya menjadi penyebab dalam kehidupan sosial dalam bagaimana memperlakukan keduanya. Sayangnya, perlakuan yang banyak terjadi adalah ketidakadilan yang diberikan ke perempuan. Padahal tidak ada sangkut pautnya antara peran dalam hubungan sosial itu dengan perbedaan fisik pada perempuan. Beberapa isu ketidakadilan dalam sejarah pun disampaikan oleh beliau sejak zaman kerajaan romawi, beberapa yang terjadi di Eropa, Inggris, India dan bahkan hingga saat ini pun masih terjadi banyak perdagangan perempuan tanpa kita ketahui atau sadari. 

Pada salah satu bagian, disebutkan bahwa ketidakadilan ini terjadi karena adanya sitem patriarki yang dianut oleh masyarakat dimana perempuan diposisikan sebagai objek bagi garis keras atau perempuan sebagai subjek sekunder bagi garis lunak. Dan dalam hal ini, kesetaraan yang dimaksud adalah dengan menempatkan keduanya (laki-laki dan perempuan) sebagai sesama subjek kehidupan.

Dalam sistem patriarki, berbagai ketidakadilan terhadap perempuan yang muncul diantaranya berupa pandangan bahwa perempuan sebagai sumber fitnah (stigmatisasi), adanya nikah paksa (marjinalisasi), perempuan sebagai objek seksual (subordinasi), kekerasan baik di dalam maupun luar rumah, dan berbeban ganda dengan bertanggung jawab atas urusan domestik sekaligus publik. Di sini, ada kecenderungan menjadikan pihak yang lebih kuat dalam sebuah relasi sebagai standar bagi pihak yang lemah. Misal mayoritas ke minoritas, dewasa ke anak-anak, orang muda ke orang sepuh, non difabel ke difabel.

Sejauh ini sudah ada beberapa tindakan yang berpihak ke perempuan seperti ada gerbong kereta khusus perempuan, cuti hamil dan/atau menstruasi. Terlepas dari upaya tersebut, perempuan dan masyarakat perlu sama-sama siap untuk mewujudkan keadilan yang hakiki dalam pengalaman kehidupan sosial. 

Ngaji KGI Seri - Relasi Gender dalam Bahasa Arab
Sangat menarik. Ibu Nur memulai pembahasan ini dengan menunjukkan Surah Al-Ikhlas dalam versi Bahasa Inggris, Bahasa Indonesia dan Bahasa Arab. Dalam Bahasa Inggris hanya terlihat penggunaan He untuk merepresentasikan Allah didalam surat ini. Kata ganti He dalam Bahasa Inggris digunakan untuk menunjukkan laki-laki, meskipun tidak bisa pula kita katakan bahwa Allah itu laki-laki. Kemudian dalam Bahasa Indonesia, terjemahan yang ada tidak ada indikasi yang menunjukkan ke perbedaan gender laki-laki ataupun perempuan, yaitu Dia. Menariknya, dalam bahasa arab sendiri, terdapat 12 kata didalamnya yang bisa diidentifikasi untuk menunjukkan gender perempuan ataupun laki-laki. 

(Penjabaran di atas adalah rangkuman dari Sesi 1 dan sedikit dari Seri 2 saja. Sepertinya aku tidak membuat catatan di seri-seri berikutnya. Sayang sekali)

Bahasa Indonesia ramah gender
Setelah mengikuti serangkain seri Ngaji KGI ini, aku merasa beruntung karena udah terlahir di negara Indonesia terutama karena dari segi bahasanya pun gak membedakan antara laki-laki dan perempuan secara ekstrim. Karena iya juga sih, ketika bahasa yang digunakan aja udah mengandung pembedaan-pembedaan terhadap kelompok tertentu, ketidakadilan pasti akan rentan banget terjadi. Contoh, Bahasa Jawa Kromo Inggil itu versi Bahasa Jawa yang dipakai untuk berkomunikasi dengan orang yang lebih tua atau orang yang punya status lebih tinggi dari segi jabatan. Nah, ini nih salah satu hal yang masih melekat kuat di aku dan orang-orang Indonesia, yaitu memberikan penghormatan yang setinggi-tingginya kepada kelompok tua ini dan mungkin banget penyalahgunaan kekuatan dan kekuasaan oleh mereka terjadi. Alhasil, kelompok yang lebih muda dan/atau yang punya posisi jabatan lebih rendah kemungkinan mendapatkan ketidakadilan. 

Keluargaku adil
Selain itu, aku juga merasa beruntung karena sudah terlahir di keluargaku. Bapak dan Mamak selalu memberikan dukungan penuh ke enam anaknya (dua laki-laki dan empat perempuan) untuk terus melanjutkan pendidikan setinggi-tingginya, terutama dukungan buatku. Ada penilaian masyarakat terhadap perempuan yang tidak serta merta ditelan begitu saja oleh Bapak dan Mamak. Contoh yang pertama, masyarakat pada umumnya memandang bahwa perempuan tidak perlu berpendidikan tinggi karena pada akhirnya mereka akan jadi ibu rumah tangga. Tapi, Bapak dan Mamak yakin bahwa derajat seseorang akan diangkat oleh Tuhan ketika dia beriman dan berilmu, entah itu laki-laki ataupun perempuan. Jadi, Bapak dan Mamak tidak pernah sungkan untuk memberikan izin ke aku untuk kuliah S1 dan S2, bahkan nanti S3. Semua itu untuk kehidupan yang lebih baik di masa depan. Contoh yang kedua, aku sekarang sudah berusia 28 tahun dan belum menikan, bahkan adik perempuanku (26 tahun) sudah menikah dua tahun lalu. Bapak dan Mamak tidak pernah sama sekali bertanya soal kapan aku akan menikah, karena mereka paham dengan baik bahwa pernikahan bukanlah persoalan usia, tapi lebih pada kesiapan dan kemantapan diri. Tapi, hampir semua tetangga selalu menanyakan hal yang sama, "Kapan nikah?". Secara tidak langsung hal ini menunjukkan suatu persetujuan tak tertulis yang ada di masyarakat, yaitu perempuan harus sudah menikah di usia-usia tertentu. 

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Setiap kali aku mengikuti pertemuan Ngaji KGI, ada banyak sekali pelajaran dari refleksi diri dan observasi yang aku lakukan pada waktu itu. Sayangnya, aku tidak sempat menuliskannya secara langsung. Jadi, sekarang sudah banyak yang terlupa. Itulah mudahnya hilang ingatan, makanya perlu dituliskan secepat mungkin ketika muncul. Dasar manusia!

Berantem ekstrim tapi tetap sayang

Coki (cewek) dan Moki (cowok) suka banget berantem. Kalau berantem, mereka kejar-kejaran, cakar-cakaran, gigit-gigitan, tendang-tendangan, pukul-pukual, tampar-tamparan. Se-ekstrim itu. Tapi, gak lama setelah itu mereka bakal kecapean dan tergeletak deh tuh di lantai, ngadem. Nah kalau energinya udah terkumpul balik, salah satu dari mereka bakal nyamperin buat deket-deketan terus jilat-jilatan gitu. So sweet, kan? Gitu ya kalau kucing, berantem ya berantem, setelah itu baikan lagi dan malah sayang-sayangan lagi. Ya meskipun gak lama kemudian berantem lagi. Tapi kan enak, no hard feeling gitu antara satu sama lain. 

Andai aja kita manusia tuh bisa gini ya. Tapi, sayangnya memori yang biasanya tersimpan di otak kita berpengaruh banget ke gimana kita bersikap ke orang lain, entah itu dengan cara yang baik atau buruk. Kalau rekaman memorinya buruk, ya kita jadi bersikap buruk. Kalau rekaman memorinya baik dan bagus, ya kita jadi bersikap baik dan bagus juga. Dasar manusia!

ATLAS.ti keren! (Day 129)

Aku ke kampus agak siangan buat ikutan sesi training cara pakai ATLAS.ti buat analisa data, terutama analisa qualitative. Keren banget sih t...