By Trustha Rembaka
The
opportunity to visit Alor island is a blessing from God as well as a challenge
because this program ran in a challenging situation. The ongoing Covid-19
pandemic and recently hit by the Seroja hurricane in early April had an impact
on the East Nusa Tenggara region, including Alor Island, which was hit by flash
floods, became the background for our departure situation. However, these are
not the obstacle, with good preparation and submission to God's guidance, the
activities in Alor can run smoothly. Together with two students from Stube
HEMAT Yogyakarta in one team, it is an advantage because we can share tasks and
complement each other in managing activities in Alor from April 6-20, 2021. The
opportunity to go to Alor was a new experience because the first time to set
foot on the earth of walnuts to interact with students and the local community,
especially support the Multiplicator of Stube HEMAT in Alor, Petrus Maure,
S.Kom. This opportunity brought a challenge for me to do something and leave a
positive and memorable 'footprint' in Alor.
At
first, the activities faced problems because several networks, including
churches, campuses, and students, focused on emergency response to disasters
that occurred in several areas of Alor. They responded quickly to help
residents affected by disasters that cause casualties. In this situation, our
initial activities were mapping the potencies and threats in the Alor area, meeting
with Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta activists who had returned to Alor, and greeting
the youth community in Kalabahi. Next, we moved to the Northeast Alor district,
Air Mancur village as the base for the Petrus Maure’s Multiplication. I
designed activities related to village potency mapping, writing, and public
speaking practice. These activities got a good response from young people and
some of them are already married. It must be admitted that various obstacles
occurred because the electricity was not normal yet, the communication network
was disrupted, and some youth helped the dwellers in disaster-affected areas.
From
the interaction with young people and those who are already married, it was
revealed that the pandemic changed the lives of some of them because formerly
they worked outside the island, and when the pandemic broke out they decided to
return to their hometown. Like or not, farming and gardening became options
that can be done. From this point, we can find a willingness or curiosity about
new things related to the activities they are involved in, for example, those
who do gardening want to know how to cultivate the soil, eradicate pests, and
processing products, those who do farming think about how their fields are more
productive, not just rice, so they do mapping the situation around his fields.
Finally, the concept of integrated agriculture emerged. For young people, the
practice of public speaking became their new provision if they lead an event
later. The unexpected thing happened at night when they were still eager to
share ideas and write the findings, even make interesting writings to read. The
surprise continued when I returned to Yogyakarta I received a photos message on
WA that shows writing from youth in Alor. He wrote down his ideas on a piece of
paper and then asked his friend to send photo of his writing to show that he
had transferred his ideas into writing.
Based
on my experience in Alor, Alor regency has comprehensive potencies from its
islands, hills, plains, rivers, beaches, and oceans. Also, the uniqueness of
culture and traditional heritage, fauna, and flora including various
agricultural products and the human resources with their high spirit to develop
themselves. I am optimistic if Alor youth get a learning space, find new knowledge
and opportunities to take part, they will become the backbone of the progress
in Alor and improve the life quality of Alor society.***
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