Bisa Bahasa Inggris?

Selama pandemik Covid-19 ini, aku telah dirumahkan (furlough) secara resmi mulai 1 Juli s/d 31 Desember 2020. 

Tiap hari aku bangun pagi-pagi antara jam 3:00-5:00 am membuat air panas untuk bikin kopi, aku suka kopi hitam sedikit gula. Aku belum bisa berfungsi normal kalau belum minum kopi, kaya ketagihan gitu. Hanya setelah minum kopi, aku masak nasi pake rice-cooker, cek lemari makanan dan membersihkannya dari sisa-sisa makanan semalamnya. 

Kuambil tas kecil yang berisi uang serta HP ku lalu pergi ke Warung Bu Desi untuk membeli bahan-bahan makanan untuk dimasak. Tidak ada banyak pilihan untuk memasak sesuatu yang pancy. Aku suka membeli ayam potong, buncis, dan labu jepang untuk sayur kuah. Tahu-tempe, dan makanan jadi berupa gecok belimbing yang sangat disukai ayah dan ibuku.

Setelah semua masakan selesai, aku nyapu di dapur, di halaman rumah dan jalanan di depan rumah, lalu siap-siap berangkat ke ladang di ujung desa. 

Sesampai di ladang, aku taruh laptop di kamar tidurku, kumatikan lampu-lampu yang masih menyala, serta hidupkan listrik untuk menaikan air ke tower air dari sumur bor sebagai sumber air untuk masak di rumahku dan untuk nyuci pakaian, dan mandi. Ayahku sering memakai air dari sumur bor tersebut untuk memandikan sapi-sapinya di sawah yang berada di sebrang ladang kami. 

Ayam-ayam berkerumun di sekitarku untuk diberi makan, dimana kuambilkan segelas beras dan sebarkan di halaman untuk ayam-ayam tersebut. Biasanya ayam-ayam itu berkelahi dulu sebelum memakan biji-biji beras yang kusebarkan. Kenapa ya? Mereka akan berpencar kemana-mana setelah mendapat makan dariku. 

Aku ambil sapu lidi serta serok untuk menyapu halaman pondok, garase, serta pura yang ada di ladang kami. Hanya setelah towernya penuh dan halaman sekitar bersih, aku mulai membuka laptop, memeriksa email yang masuk. Pertama-tama yang kulihat adalah Horoskopku karena sangat penting bagiku untuk mengetahui apa yang mesti kulakukan tiap hari dan apa yang akan terjadi padaku setiap hari. Ramalan bintang tersebut sangat akurat, jarang sekali meleset dari apa yang tertulis dalam Horoskopku. Kadang aku malas membaca, lalu kuhidupkan tool "speaker" nya, aku tinggal dengerin aja. 

Terkadang aku juga masak nasi merah di ladang, karena kuubah bagian depan bekas kamar adikku menjadi dapur untuk masak, bikin kopi, serta menyimpan air minum. Tak jarang aku hanya tinggal di tegal seharian karena semua kebutuhanku tersedia di sana. Tempat tidur, meja kerja, listrik, Internet semuanya sudah kusiapkan, supaya bisa kerja online. 

Suatu pagi, aku pulang ke rumah membawa cetakan laklak (Balinese pancake), dalam perjalanan aku bertemu dengan beberapa anak muda yang bukan dari kampungku. Mereka menyapaku,

"Mau bikin apa, Buk?"

"Mau bikin laklak", jawabku sambil melanjutkan jalanku ke rumah. Sebenarnya aku belum pernah membuat laklak sengan benar, aku membawa cetakannya pulang karena ingin belajar dari Ibu Wawan, tetapi saat itu Ibu Wawan sibuk dengan upacara Odalan, jadi kutangguhkan pelajaranku untuk membuat laklak.

Aku duduk dengan ibuku di Bale Daja (meten) sambil membuat sesajen harian. Tiba-tiba anak muda yang kujumpai tadinya datang ke rumah bertanya,

"Apa laklaknya sudah selesai?" salah satu dari mereka bertanya

"Belum", aku jawab sambil keluar menemui mereka yang duduk di berandah rumah Bale Dangin. 

Kami pun bercakap-cakap tentang beberapa hal termasuk tujuan mereka pergi ke kampung yang jaun dari kota. Mereka bilang bahwa mereka memperkenalkan product obat alami/herbal untuk menyembuhkan berbagai macam penyakit. Ibuku sempat membeli sebotol dengan harga lumayan mahal ukuran pedesaan.

Saat itu aku mengenakan T-Shirt dengan tulisan "My Life, My Adventure", salah satu dari mereka dengan semangat menyatakan bahwa dirinya suka petualangan juga sesuai apa yang dia baca di bajuku. 

Aku beritahu dia bahwa baju itu kubeli di Jogjakarta waktu ikut tour Merapi Lava Tours dengan mahasiswa dari Minnesota, USA. 

Salah satu dari mereka bertanya tentang pekerjaanku, 

"Ibu kerja dimana?", tanyanya.

"Saya ngajar mahasiswa dari Amerika", jawabku jujur

"Bisa bahasa Inggris"?, tanyanya lagi. 

Aku kaget dan ga sempat menjawab karena aku kira dia bisa menghubungkan antara pekerjaanku dengan kemampuan yang mesti kumiliki sebagai pengajar mahasiswa Asing yang berbahasa Inggris sebagai alat komunikasi utama. 

Aku hanya tersenyum memandangnya. Tetapi ibuku tidak terima kalau anaknya diremehkan. 

"Ini dah ratunya Bahasa Inggris di kampung ini", teriak ibuku dengan nada marah. 

Oh well, mereka hanya tidak tahu dan aku hanyalah perempuan kampung yang jauh dari peradaban kota. 

Note: Furlough 2020-2021

Itu berarti aku tidak mengajar secara rutin seperti waktu-waktu normal sebelum pandemik yang melanda dunia sejak Maret sampai saat ini. Pandemik bermula di Wuhan, Cina tetapi menyebar dengan cepat ke seluruh dunia. Indonesia tidak ketinggalan, walau lambat diumumkan keberadaannya di Indonesia. Sampai kini, pemerintah Indonesia memberlakukan protokol kesehatan dengan ketat, namun masyarakat terkadang tidak peduli dengan imbauan pemerintah. Seperti memakai masker kalau keluar rumah, mencuci tangan secara teratur sesuai anjuran dokter, menjaga jarak dengan orang-orang, menghindari kerumunan orang banyak. 

Florence, 29 July 2014

What is free in Italy?

When you travel in Italy, make sure that you always have a one Euro coin with you, because anytime you need to use WC or toilet you have to pay one euro either to the keeper of the WC or to the machine that guard the door to the toilet. It is a good business indeed, because people can't hold their pee after a long trip, especially when we travel by a bus. We can pee in the train for free.

I just found out today that the cost/fee for using toilet are different depending on where you are. It cost 0,60 euro at the Santa Maria station. In that area next to Mc Donald, a lady with her machine charge those who want to use toilet. If we use one euro, she will give change. It is a fact that the line to the lady's room is always longer than to the men's room. (Insert a picture of toilet in McD)

Later on at Il David, I found out that the cost of using a toilet is 0,70 euro. In that place you need to use the exact change otherwise you won't get the change since no one is there for that. (Insert a picture of toilet at Il David)

While in Venice, we have to pay extra one euro if we want to drink or eat inside a cafe. The waitress will ask us, "to go or here?". If we say here, she would say,"you have to pay one euro extra for that!"

Being tired from walking around, of course we would say, "okay!"

So, things are expensive and nothing is free. By this time I wrote this, I have been tired translating the prices into my own rupiah currency because they all are very expensive. 

Apa Artinya Sebuah Nama

 

What's in a Name!

Apa Artinya Sebuah Nama!

                                                                Yes, I am a Balinese woman

My full name is Ni Wayan Pasek Aryati/Ariati Hunter. If you are familiar with Bali or if you are anthropologists working on Bali or Indonesian studies, you will be able to tell that I am a Balinese from my name. There are two ways of writing my name. First when I was in elementary school, my older cousin registered me as Ni Wayan Pasek. The teacher said that my name is a boy's name, therefore the teacher added "Aryati" in my name. However, when I was in Junior High School (SMP), in my certificate my name was written as "Ni Wayan Pasek Ariati" not "Aryati" 

Anthropologically my name has several meanings as follow:

"Ni" is the gender marker which means I am a woman as the opposite of "I", the gender marker for men.

"Wayan" is the birth-order name which means that I am the first child in my family. There are some variation of the first-born child in Bali. It can be Wayan, Putu, Gede, Luh Gede, or Gung Gede depending on the region of where we are from in Bali. 

The second-born child is called "Made, Kadek, Kade, or Nengah".  

The third-born child is called "Nyoman, Komang, or Keming"

The fourth-born is called "Ketut, or Kerut"

Those are names for four Balinese family planning for common Balinese families outside the three gentry groups which have more complicated name because they need to add their gentry title in front of those common birth-order names. 

"Pasek" can be my clan name or just given to me as my parents' teknonymy, where the community members called the newly wed couple like my parents as Pan Pasek and Men Pasek or Mr/s. Pasek, therefore the first child of that couple (my parents in this case) automatically will be name either "I"/"Ni" Wayan Pasek. Since Pasek is a boy's name, therefore people think that I need to have additional name after Pasek. 

According to the ancient belief as what my grand parents told me that having four children in our family is like a building with four pillars which make the building very strong. If we have only one child, when that only child die, s/he will be roasted by the demon in the hell. If a mother doesn't have any child during her life-time, when she dies she will be forced to nurse a caterpillar until that caterpillar transforms into a beautiful child either boy or girl. 

Anyway, what's in a name? 

                                                                        Am I a Chinese?

When first I had to fill in the form during my Junior High School (SMP), I did not know my parents' name because we are not allowed to mention/know older people's name. I just knew that my parents' name were Men and Pan Pasek or the mother and father of Pasek. My grand parents' name were Mbah and Kak Pasek or the Grandmother and Grandfather Pasek. Therefore, I went home to my village to ask my parents about their real name not their teknonymy's name. Then, after i got married and had my first baby boy, people started to call me Ibu Indra, or the mother of Indra since my boy's name is I Putu Indra Ari Mahayasa. 

When I travel abroad, when we have to fill in the arrival form, there are some questions that we need to fill in with our first name, middle name, and last name. I got confused on how I should fill in that form. I just put in the form that "Ni Wayan" is my first name, "Pasek" is my middle name, and "Ariati" is my last name. But this was not good enough, when i arrived in Hawaii in 1994, i was interrogated for two hours because they suspected me as an illegal worker because they found a fax of invitation to teach Bahasa Indonesia in one of the Universities in the USA. Those two officers at the interrogation room asked me my first, middle, and last name. They did not like the fact that i do not have any family name. They messed up my name in the form as "Ariati, Ni Wayan Pasek", which is not correct at all according to my given name. My ancestors will get confused about me. They will ask, "Where is my child Ni Luh Pasek?". 

When I work for a western company, they also messed up my name's order by writing Ariati, Ni Wayan Pasek. Oh well, what to do. As a woman from the third world country, i think that we should just follow what rules being set for us by the super power country. 

                                                                    Am I a Samoan?

In an International conference, someone addressed me as "Ni", she asked the audiences about the definition of "culture", she called out my name, "Ni, can you please inform us what culture is". Well, i was just stayed quiet, because I have no idea that she wanted me to respond to her question. 

In a snail mail, people address me as "Dear Ni" and the letter went to Belize first before reaching me in Bali. 

Thus, I have several names as follow:

Ni Luh Pasek (by most people in my village)

Yan Pasek (my school mates)

Luweng (female) (by my grandparents)

Bu Indra (most people in my village)

Bu Ary/Ari (by our students)

Bu Hunter (by our students)

Bu Tom (in Java people called my by my husband's name, Thomas Hunter or Tom Hunter). 

                               

Who am I? I am wearing a red hijab posed in front of a famous Islamic Boarding School in Ponorogo, East Java. Am I a Muslim woman? 

Now that I have my first grandchild's name is Mitha, people now call me Mbah Mitha, or the grand mother of Mitha.