Sumba: Adventure and Longing

Participant’s Reflection on Exploring Sumba Program

(Susana Ulandari)

Tuesday, July 9, 2019 was the first time I set my foot on Sumba island, one of the islands in eastern Indonesia. I remembered one day before, I was so excited about traveling by a minibus from Yogyakarta to Surabaya and by plane from Surabaya to Waingapu. Along the way I was full of curiosity about new experiences that I would find there. After nearly three hours flight from Surabaya via Denpasar, the airplane began to have lower altitude and finally landed at Umbu Mehang Kunda airport in Waingapu. From the plane’s window, a view like Africa scenery that I saw only on television, now I could see by my own eyes. "Wow, amazing" a whisper in admiration came out of my mouth when I saw the endless hills and savanna.

In Waingapu I stayed in Apriyanto Hangga’s family, one of Stube-HEMAT Sumba team, who provided information about Sumba and the village in where I would live for few weeks. Arriving in Tanaraing, I accepted warm welcome from the family of Rev. Katrina Remihau, the pastor of Church of Sumba in Tanaraing. The next day I attended Sunday service with local church members who welcomed me warmly even though I came as a stranger. The church youths also welcomed me well, introduced ourselves, chatted, joked and took pictures at the beach.

The following days I did activities with local community and youth related with the topic 'Peer Counselors'. Being a peer counselor is not easy because there must be a mutual trust. During the program I always found something new and fun in every meeting. One time I did not understand what they were talking about but they said everything that was said was good about me. So, I tried to learn that I also had to trust others and in my opinion to trust others was not wrong.

'Peer Counselors' is very important to understand among teenagers so that they can pay attention to each other. When they are open with each other, they can manage their problems better, because they get input from their friends. In addition, they will be able to re-embrace church youths who previously rarely went to church to be active again in church environment, or teens who rarely talk in family want to commit pay more attention to their own families. Entrepreneurship activities formerly were not included in my plan but I suggested these when the church youth plan to raise youth funds and they could do it.

For me, being in Sumba and living with the community are like a journey to find myself and life, to find myself exploring, to meet lots of people, to share stories and to laugh together. During my journey in Sumba, I felt sense of ‘Longing’ that always follows, sense of longing to the atmosphere of my home in West Kalimantan, the moment of having jokes with family members, having my mom's meals, massaging my dad, playing with my nephew and even fighting with my brothers. They are important people in my life and I want them to be happy as I feel. I hope that the feeling of togetherness and attention through 'peer counselor' will have impact to young people in Sumba, especially Tanaraing.