Road to Soul Writing

Gili Trawangan Dear Indonesia, Where do I have to start? Should I congratulate and wish you first or scream out all of my concerns out, or should I do it the other way around? It’s not that easy to write, because you and I are no longer who we used to be. I change, you change, some of you are completely different, some are left behind and remain who they were. Anyway, I was born in eighties, when I was younger I saw how your rivers and your ocean were much clearer, I bathed and swam in them, I did walk in the super thick forest where animal cheerfully sing. I played many games that take bamboos, coconut shells, a rag for blindfold or even just a big draw of some shapes on the ground. Did you remember that we used to have Sasak class at school? I even learned how to read the ancient manuscript and now I write you in English. Don’t you think it is odd? A few years ago I met Peter K. Austin, a linguist from Cambridge. He told me that my local tongue, Sasak is one of endange...

Ready for home? A month before leaving, international office had started to give special program to help international students to be prepared for moving back home. This last month, the advisor fully talked about tips and trick to cope with reverse culture shock—a condition when a place that is expected to be home but feels no longer like home after living abroad. During the program there are four words that mostly said. They sound positive, sometimes tense and lifted. People change, you change . Every time I heard these words from my advisor, I already knew that I have to be more acceptant in order to get rid that shock away. As my flight home getting closer, my feet were getting heavier. Iowa looked even much more beautiful than the first time I saw it. I sighed then packed all memories. I brought home photographs, Tunisian t-shirt, letters, shoes, books, the statue of the reader from my mentor family and all tickets from museums that I have visited. May 18, I walk my feet o...