I am a proud 23-extra-ordinary-students’
teacher. Every day I face different problems and unique situations. Yes,
unique, according to my experience as a non-education based of major study back
then. These kids, mostly, make me went home speechless. Speechless because they
make me feel loved, speechless because they make me mad, and sometimes they
make me laugh really hard until my stomach hurt.
I teach all subjects for four graders in a
border area of two conflict tribes in south of Indonesia, who still had a war
fifteen years ago. Its scars still
marked here and there until the latest generation of these tribes. Robbery,
murder, child abuse, sexual assault, I can’t say no as common scenes in here.
Well, that is sound so scary, isn't it?
Despite all that scary facts, my students are
not scary at all!
They gave me surprises, not a big one, but with
a simple thing. Some of those surprises just happened once in a life time (six
watermelons on the table, flower bouquets, etc.) and one of those surprises
stays as a daily miracle. Daily miracle means it happens every day. It’s daily
letter.
My students not really enjoy write notes in any
subjects. But, when it comes to write a letter, their words are sweet as it
came from angels’ hands. Not just the words, but the colors and some drawings
they put are just lovely. They didn’t care about the grammar, misspell and mix
between bahasa Indonesia, bahasa pasar, and
sometimes bahasa Lole (local tribe
language, specifically Lole).
At the first time they gave me letters, I gave
them a compliment. I can say it was a little bit too much. And their eyes were
like ‘I will write you a letter every day, my dear teacher’. The letters were
about many things. Sometimes they said thanks because I teach them, on the
other occasion they said sorry because they were off the limit and upset me.
Some of the letters were just a drawing of heart-like shape; sometimes I
couldn't understand the meaning of those random words or I couldn't read it at
all because it couldn't be identified as word at all.
In a 4-grade of elementary school, we expect the
kids are able to read and write, at least basic daily use words. But, four of
my students are far from excellence. One of them has a difficulty in hearing
and of course speaking (our communication is like monkey and cat!). One of them
has a focus attention problem. And the other two are trying really hard to read
and write but sorry to say, the result are not satisfying.
Her name is Sefin. I don’t know why everyone in
this village always nicknamed everyone. Her full name is Selfiana Thine. She’s
the tallest girl in class. She never skipped class and always looks for the
first row. She can write anything written on white board. But, it’s really hard
for her to read it or write from her own mind. That’s why she never writes a letter for me.
Until, that day...
“I never gave you a letter. But, now I can say I have. Even
though you knew it isn’t my handwriting. But, I can say that I have gave you a
letter, once.”
I saw her hid behind the door. She was smiling.
12.05.15
~sekarsarkara
