Tuesday 19 June 2007

My students

For me, the hardest thing about changing job is leaving my students behind. For a year I've been teaching a group of lovely and enthusiastic students. Teaching them was such a wonderful experience. Look at the gift they made for me.

Monday 18 June 2007

Holiday -- Tipang

I'm having a month of holiday.

In the beginning of this month, my parents and I went to North + West Sumatra. As some of you probably know, my grandfather came from North Sumatra. The thing is, he went away from home in 1914. Everybody thought this teenager was dead. Imagine their surprise when 40 years later he was on his way back, with his wife and his two oldest sons.

My father was 6 years old when his father brought him there. None of him and his siblings has ever gone to the village since.

Last year, when I was on business trip to North Sumatra, I took extra days and tried to retrace my grandfathers footstep. I found Tipang, the village where he came from, surprising the entire family. I also found our relative there, a second cousin of mine.

Was it easy to find Tipang? For our family, it was like telling an Indonesian who has never been in NL to go to Matenweg in NL (without mentioning that it is in Enschede!) ... but when I was in Balige, I found out that it was as if you happen to be in UT and asked where Matenweg is.

Tipang is situated by Lake Toba, in the non-touristic part of the lake. The scenery is very beautiful (forget Parapat).

I must confess that the road was not good though. At a certain point we had to turn around because it was not passable. Imagine turning the car in a road where its width is the same as the car's, the mountain is on your left, a cliff is on your right. :p And after it, we found 3 buffaloes on the road (yeah, lagi berkubang!).

The road condition was worse than last year. My parents were muted, praising God that their daughter was save on her adventure last year.

So, finally we reached Tipang in the afternoon. The waterfall, the rice field, the lake, they're still as beautiful as I remembered. This time, I brought my parents ... and history was made. :-)