Getting Through the Darkness

by Theresia J Christy (Indonesia)

A leap into the unknown Indonesia

Getting Through the Darkness By Theresia J Christy It was dark and the road was bumpy. I could only see a few meters ahead, the part of the road that was illuminated by our motorcycle's front lamp. The driver was not riding fast, but I could feel the thatches stroke my legs quite hard. It was a bit itchy, but I could not scratch my legs, because I had to hold on to the bike. Sometimes, I saw houses with minimum lights, but then the darkness came up again. I did not know how much longer to be arrived in the place that we were looking for. I only prayed in my heart, putting my life in the hands of the Lord. To be honest, it was a based-on-trust journey. My friend and I did not have any clue about the path at all. We only asked the motor taxi drivers to take us to the place, after that, it was up to them in choosing the way to get there. It felt like hours (although it was probably only half an hour), until I smell something fishy. As we kept on riding, I saw a building. Evidently, it was a place to hatch sea turtles' eggs and the fishy smell was very strong in this area. It was called Pangumbahan Sea Turtle Conservation, located in West Java, Indonesia. Our drivers started to slow down and then stopped in front of the building. After that, our drivers introduced us to our guides. He and the other man led us to the beach. He asked us to be calm and forbid us to use flashlight. "If the sea turtle see a light, she will go back to the sea and find another place to lay her eggs," he whispered. So, we talked in the dark, although I did not like the darkness. We also tried not to be noisy. Luckily, I still could see the bright stars in the beautiful night sky. It was something that I could not see everyday in the middle of the city like Jakarta. At the same time, I felt happy, peaceful, and very scared, thinking that we were sitting in front of a vast and deep ocean, the Indian Ocean. We could only hear the waves hit the beach, over and over again. Well, it was September 2006, almost two years after the tsunami destroyed Aceh and some areas in another countries in Asia. So, I got a reason to be fearful right? After some times passed by, we heard steps. It was more like slow and hard moves on the sand. Our guides still forbid us to use flashlight. When he felt the time was right, he turned on the flashlight. What a view to be seen, we saw a giant sea turtle in front of us. She was still digging the sand. We made calm moves and whispered to each other. Our guides said that we were very lucky, because not everyone could see this. While us, it was our first time at Ujung Genteng, West Java, and we could see the giant sea turtle came to the beach and laid her eggs. I really enjoyed the moment. I took some pictures, with my limited moves. At the time, I did not remember about my broken heart and the troubles that I had to face, I only saw the amazing creature in the amazing nature, created by the Amazing Creator. I hoped and prayed that all of us can save the nature and the diversity inside of it. I just did not want to lose it. When she finally had to come back to the sea, another goodbye had to be said, but I knew she will come back at another time, on another beach. She trusted her eggs to the people, people that she did not know, but maybe still had a bit of goodness in their lives. At that night, the nature taught me a big lesson, "Don't be afraid and sad anymore, for He will always love you through many people and everything surround you."