Short getaway to Kali Dosay

We planned to have refreshment after having TOEFL ITP test last week. Swimming was a good choice. However, for some reasons, we canceled it and never thought to swim anymore. I did not realize that it would be a long weekend, and as always, I did not come up with any plans at all. It might be because I had something planned out beforehand – attending an all-night prayer gathering (from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.) and going to church afterwards at 10 a.m. On Friday, the weather was not really friendly with us doing laundry. We were busy finding place to hang our clothes since there were not much space available. We cooked, ate, washed dishes, had conversations, baked cookies, went to the local market to get the almost-running-out-of-supplies in the fridge, and many more little details. Those days were my productive ones ever since I lived here. I felt lively :D

I supposed to go to my student’s birthday party but I ended up sleeping for 15 hours after lunch from the church. Kak Mici counted hours we stayed awake (which I didn’t even think of doing :P). We stayed wide-awake for 11 hours; of course, our bodies were so tired and needed extra sleep than usual. But 15 hours of sleeping were quite scary too, ha-ha. Thank God, it was still holiday and nothing to be worried about or else…

Long story short, the weather was finally on our side on that sunny Saturday. We decided to get soak into the clear water from the nature itself. We have many rivers in Papua, in Sentani specifically. Talking about our destination, the wind brought us to Kali Dosay.

Kali Dosay is located in West Sentani District closed to Kertosari area. There is no sign at all to point specifically where Kali Dosay is. So, if you plan to pay a visit, make sure to bring some friends along with you who knew or ever went to Kali Dosay before. It was only around 20 minutes by motorcycle/car with at least 60 km/h.  But, since the road was very bumpy, we decided to play safe by driving between 20-40 km/hour. You will meet two not proper bridges along the way. They were still using wood and the metals felt like they almost loosen up.

Kak Mici said it was free when the last time she visited Kali Dosay 17 years ago. And yes, I know what you are thinking. Now, you need to pay 10,000 Rupiahs or around $1 for motorcycle-ride to enter the place. When you arrived at the location, you are free to choose whether you want to rent the cottage or not. The cottage itself costs 200k Rupiahs or $15 with the recent currency. If you go with big groups and you need more than one cottage, do not worry, because it will not cost you more than 200k Rupiahs. Instead, they will give you the largest one for your group to stay at. Kak Mici and I decided not to rent any cottage since it was quite expensive for us and we did not bring any money (what a confident we had!). I only brought 100k Rupiahs and I planned to use it only to buy some fruits on the way since it is cheaper to buy fruits there than in Sentani. We crossed the river to get the spot that we thought safe enough since there were only two of us and we did not get any cottage to keep our stuffs. When we got there, there were not many people so it was nice that we could play around with the water without need to worry with our belongings. I recommend you to come between 9 or 10 in the morning to get the best peaceful atmosphere, sun rays, and unpolluted water. Not to mention, make sure you packed your own food because no one sell food in the area. Luckily, we brought wafer, four pieces of banana, oranges, and one liter of mineral water because we planned to eat lunch at home (we cooked already). Some of the families that we met even grilled their own fish or chicken and ate lunch there, which was so tempting (at least for me).

Well, after all, it was a good day. I did not think that a river has ever moved me in such a way that I did not want to leave. The whole greenish scenery along the way was like heaven on earth. The beauty just touched my heart so deeply.

After all, Kali Dosay is definitely worth another visit, again and again. The river is too long with much more things to explore that 2 hours trip is not enough J

Ps: There is no place where you can hang hammock, so better not to bring any. If you are sleepy and want to sleep for a little, you can either rent the cottage or sleep on top of big rocks. The view of the first sun ray in the morning between the leaves are wonderful.

Feel free to ask me anything. I might forget some info that you need to know. Simply comment down below!

Have an adventurous day,

All Is Well

The last time I remembered, I cried because of the never-ending problem I had at work.

***

***After school hours. My phone rang.***

“Yes, Ibu, can I help you?” I answered.

“Hello Ibu Golda, are you busy now?” I could tell that she was smiling on the other side.

“I am not busy. What’s up?” I, too, smiled.

“Ibu Golda, when will be the last day for this academic year?” the voice started to sound hard.

***I cannot breathe. I mean, what? Why?***

“The first week of June if I am not mistaken, Bu. I kind of forgot, I will check it tomorrow and get it back to you.” My voice got even harder. I slowly replied.

I had these weird feeling since last week. My brain just could not work with me to figure out what was it until that conversations.

***The caller continued explaining to me the story***

“Ok, thank you, Bu Golda. We will talk again later about this.”

“Okay, Bu. Have a good night. God bless you.”

***The call was ended***

***

“Why, Mbak?” laughed the estheticians.

I was having my weekly facial treatment when I received that phone called.

Dang!

I could not hold the tears, my eyes burned out. I cried. Out loud.

“Can you finish faster? Aw, it hurts. I want to go home.”

“But we have not finished yet.”

“Ok, you can continue, then. Sorry, Mbak.”

***

It is well with my soul because I trust the Lord’s plan more than anything; for good reasons – for God’s.

Forever in my heart,

Daily Bread: Commitment, Discipline, and Becoming a Hero of Faith.

“Lord, teach me so that I can be Your tool to help and spread Your love.”

***

Alarm was set to 5 a.m.

*snooze* “That is not right” *stop* “30 more minutes, God.”

My every-morning-scene. Bargained with God and ended up prioritizing my things above God’s, unless I have something really important to talk with God.

Last night youth fellowship’s sermon was such a bomb to me. The illustrations of World War II scattered in my mind, looking so real, making me so exhausted. I actually am not a big fan when it comes to action or thriller story/movie/conversation. I used to be an expert in slowly and unnoticeably disappearing from such talks, but not last night. I was too weak that I did not have enough energy to carry out my escape plan – going to the bathroom.

We were talking about a verse from Ephesians 5:14 (FYI, last night was the very first official meeting of the youth fellowship). The verse was written by Paul to tell us, young generations, to wake up from dead. It was a big slap on my face. I know that my body is wide awake but my mind and my soul are still dead. Body, mind, and soul are the very interconnected aspects that build us, human. We need all three to be able to understand our faith in Christ and the presence of Christ in our lives. They are one and inseparable.

Truth be told, my spiritual relationship with God has been like a light’s switch. Whenever I need God, I turn on the switch. When I don’t, I keep the switch off. You can somehow see it happens in my classroom as well. We usually keep the lights off since we are in a perfect spot to get enough sunrays. We thought that we do not really need the lamp unless during rainy/cloudy season. Difference is noticeable when we turn on and off the lamp. And that is how my relationship with God has been. As off yesterday, I decided to surrender my whole life into God’s hands. There is never been too late to take such decision. If you experienced the same thing as mine, let us grow together. Let us commit and discipline ourselves to read the Bible and most importantly to act it out. Not for the sake of humans’ acceptance but because we know that God never take us for granted and that we need Him every seconds!

***

Paul said, “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day –and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:8 (NIV).

On Monday morning, May 2^nd, 2016, God taught me about the purpose of our lives. In this broken world, it is hard to love and forgive others. But on that morning, God reminded me to start spreading the love of Christ to the people I met, whoever they are, regardless how big or small the action of love might look like. God challenged me to choose to live becoming a hero of faith until that time comes when I get to see Him. I chose to live out a life that inspires others and exemplifies Christ; A live that is not according to my own understanding. As I reflected on today, I could see how God’s spirit carried me through the day. I got less angry and grumpy towards my students. I felt less exhausted, and instead, filled with more spirit, more smiles, and more loves. When I reached my room, I felt so “free.” No burden. There was only joy of knowing and experiencing that I walked with my God and I am so longing to walk with Him for my entire live. So, I guess this is what it meant by walking with God. I know, the road will not always result in happiness but I know it is going to worth the travels. Let us be impactful to the nation! Spread the loves!

Thank you for joining me on this journey. Love always,

Birthday Wish List

Wish list or resolution has never been my thing, not until this year. I am going to turn 23 on June 23 this year, which is just around the corner and I am super excited about it! Last year, I did not feel like celebrating my own birthday because so many things were going on. From the thesis-making, thesis defense, thesis-revisions to preparations for graduation (FYI, we had two kinds of graduation).  Plus, collecting pictures for graduation (childhood picture which was really time and brain consuming since I did not have much of it and, even what I have, had really poor resolutions to be put on the large screen). I also needed to fly way back to my hometown to do fitting for my graduation’s Kebaya. The fact that I went home just for that can tell you how excited I was being graduated. Not to add, I had to make sure I got the invitations to attend graduation ready for my parents and family.

I had my 22^nd birthday two weeks after all those hectic days. However, things about birthday went blur because I got an email informing me that I should come to Papua earlier than expected. Ticket was booked by the foundation and I just could not request for any break extension. I meant, I had not prepared anything for Papua, yet. Besides, I could still feel the exhaustions after graduation, and my brain needed some break by not adding another serious matter to think about. In the midst of all that, I thank God for giving me such super amazing parents. They helped me to breathe. Dad took care with the financial (of course, since I did not get any payment yet), transportations (he was all ready for me anytime I called to pick and drop me up somewhere I needed to go to buy things for Papua), packing stuff and the life lessons along the way too. Mom was always ready to lend a hand with the shopping list. She made sure everything I needed went into bag. She also taught me some simple-made recipes which I can use in case there’s an emergency (you know what I mean, right?) ;).

Birthday was finally arrived. Things that I did not expected happened. My mom told me that we were just going to have a small thanksgiving celebration, since it was the month of graduation, birthday and farewell before I left for Papua. But it turned out to be not as ‘small’ as she told. I thought of just inviting my friends and having a casual gathering as we usually do in our culture. In fact, our house was flooded by my parents’ friends, which I found pretty funny, since I was the one having birthday, not my parents. But, anyway, I know my parents were too excited preparing for this and I just could not break it by showing no enthusiasm. Everyone enjoyed the party. I was gladly exhausted. In the end, it was not a bad day at all J

My birthday is coming, and all I can think of is, to be more focused and relaxed. I want to breathe just a little bit more.

Love,

Did You Know?

My birthday is coming soon!

Is This Love? (Intermission)

I met this person at the church. I barely knew him but I heard people talking about him a lot. In most conversations related to church, fellowship, and spiritual journey, his name was mentioned. I somewhat curious to the person whose name people was eager to talk.

This emotion of this picture is just right to the feeling I had in April 10, 2016.

April 10, 2016 (if I am not mistaken), I met him, eventually. That person’s name always showed up in my mind every time I was with our friends even though we did not talk about him. I do not know why, but hearing his name was somehow comforting. Since then, I have been praying to God about him. I pray that he will become more like Christ every day, and that whoever that will become his life partner will lead him to grow more in the Lord. It is not easy when you actually want someone to be just with you and no one else. However, when we pray, I believe, we do not force God to give exactly what we want, and this applies also when it comes to the person we want to be with for the rest of our life. I trust the Lord’s plans and timing. If he is really the one, then he will not go away from you because God had already planned him to be with you and He wants you to stay faithful until that time comes.

Keep praying!

A Constant Reminder

The view from the water tower at YABN Sentani

Life is full of constant reminder. I do not really know how to describe the feeling I have right now but it surely must be something about reminder.

I just learned that even though your day goes perfectly as planned, there will always be something – no matter how small it is – that sticks out as a reminder for you. “What is that?” you may ask. First, it is a reminder for us to be grateful. In fact, gratitude is a big deal. Second, the reminder reminds us (especially me) about the word privilege. The word privilege, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, explains a special opportunity to do something that makes you proud. Yes, I purposefully bolded out those two words – special and opportunity, because they really represent the life I am living right now; the opportunity I have right now which is the special one, indeed. The reminder also can be something that makes you say, “I am not going to do that again” or simply “not anymore”.

But today, I was reminded that my life is a grace. The fact that I am having a job is not apart from the grace God has given to me.

                                                                   

Well, to be honest, I do not know exactly what is going on with me this week. I felt like writing it down here but I just did not know how to start (finally, I did) but now I do not know how (should I) to end this post.

I think I will just end it right here and will write a more proper one later.

Love,