Naive Traveller's Note

by Elizabeth Godjali (Indonesia)

I didn't expect to find Indonesia

Dear Journal, I often asked myself. Why did I take a travel major? I'm just a little fish inside an ocean, a nobody. How does my travelling could ‘mean something’ for the people around me? Turns out that somehow the universe will meet you with people that could’ve helped you answer your questions. For me, it happened in our college’s community service. We were at a remote village called Cisabuk in the southern side of Bandung City, West Java Province, Indonesia. It was a nice and quiet neighbourhood with wonderful scenery. Waterfalls sprung from its high cliffs and rice field spread as far as you can see. It was all green, a perfect place to found personal peace and releasing my stress. Most of the villagers there worked as farmer and workers at textile factories or tea plantation. On our three days stay; we were on a mission to help the villagers in many ways. Our second-day activity was to help villagers with their daily work. The day was still dark when we walked our way towards the forest to go to the plantation. We were to help an old villager lady called Nini (grandmother) to picked tea buds and earn a little more money at the plantation. Just like many places around the world, lots of lowest plantation workers here are lived under the poverty line. Yet, limited choices restrained them to do another job. Nini herself had been a tea-picker for more than 50 years; she’s now about 70 years old. She and her grandson (he is the only family member left with her) hang their life on this plantation. Every single day, they have to pass the same hard road to pick tea-buds. The large basket they brought could only earn about 12.000-20.000 Rupiah. It’s no more than 1 US Dollar. With such a low income, at times they survived with help from their neighbours. Our walk to the plantation was not easy. It was a two-hour walk through a cliff, a forest, and two mountains. The path was not a fine one, nevertheless. It’s small, steep, stony path above the waterfall stream, with a high cliff on our right and abyss on our left. As we walked deeper into the forest, turns out my exhausted body betrayed my will. Only my stubborn thoughts to help saved me from turned away and went back home. The sun had shone brightly when we arrived at the plantation. Instantly, I'm grateful that I'm not giving up earlier. It was really a heaven on earth. Hills after hills filled with tea, bright blue sky above my head, and a cold breeze blew on my face. Soon, we started to pick up tea buds. As we laughed and joked around, suddenly a simple question passed through my mind. How could Nini and the villagers show us such great hospitality amidst their own difficulties? What would I do if I were in their position? As we spent more time with Nini, the more I amazed with her persistence. Nini was so patient and diligent with her life. It’s such an irony that in a place as gorgeous as Cisabuk and the tea plantation, people who lived in it has to work really hard to thrive and survive. Oddly, the more I think about it, the more I realize that it’s not something that had to be pitied. It’s just life with its beauty and hardship, and somehow it's really mesmerizing. My encounter with Nini and Cisabuk villagers has opened another path for me to believe that there might be a real reason I have to do journeys. It's not only about 'see the world with your own eyes', but even more, journeys meant to learn about life and spread happiness. After all, I believe that joy is the core of every journey. Not only you have to be happy as a traveller, but a journey will also be more meaningful when you could share your joy with the people you met. Now, every time I'm planning my travel, I will always think about Nini and her little kindness that helped me find a right next step towards another meaningful adventure.