In a
sense, we saw the children before we even saw the island. There were dozens of them, in brightly
colored clothes, standing with their toes on the very edge of the little port,
looking expectantly at our approaching fishing boat.
Our friend from college, Fitria, had been living in Desa Indong for 6 months teaching them as part of the Indonesia Mengajar program. Our arrival was an event. They don’t usually get visitors.
As soon
as we alighted on dry land, they crowded around us and followed us everywhere. They
ran ahead of us, tailed behind us, played alongside us. They would just look at
us curiously, but when we talked to them they would shy away. One or two just sat
outside on our doorstep, staring at us endlessly. Their main entertainment was
simple: rubber elastic bands. They either
twisted it to different shapes on their fingers, or they made a long chain of
rubber bands to play skipping with. For hours and hours they would play in the
scorching heat of the Maluku sun. Poor
and completely happy.
The
next day we taught at the school. At some point during the “what do you want to
be when you grow up” session, Fika asked them whether they knew what a lawyer
is. Nobody knew. And then she said ooh
well we have a lawyer here who can explain what it is! I stared at her
resentfully. I started sweating a little
bit. Thirty pairs of little eyes were all looking up expectantly at me.
“A
lawyer is…” I began desperately, “… well… similar to a police officer! Who
wants to be a policeman?”
One
little hand shot up.
“Good!
And what do the police do?”
“They
catch bad people!”
“Why? What
did the bad people do? Give me an
example!”
Scattered
voices. And someone said “stealing!”
“Stealing! Now is stealing bad?”
“Yes!”
“Says
who?”
“Allah!”
they said in unison.
I
smiled. “Okay. Yes. Very good. Who else says it’s bad?”
“Pak
Ustadz!!”
I
grinned. “Yes, very true. Who else?”
Confused
silence.
“Have
you ever heard of rules, laws?”
Some
uncertain nods.
“Well
the government makes all sorts of rules and laws that people have to follow.
And when people break the rules, they get caught by the police. And what
happens to them then?”
“They
go to jail!” said someone at the back.
“Immediately?”
I asked.
Silence
again.
“Not
immediately,” I said. “First they have to go to court, where there’s a judge
who decides whether they really broke the rules or not. Because sometimes people are accused of
things they didn’t do, and sometimes actions that seem bad are not always
wrong.”
I was
on fire. But only for half a minute.
“Now,
a laaawyeeer… a lawyer… a lawyer… reads the rules and knows all of it! And a
lawyer can help judges tell whether someone really broke the rules or not. A
lawyer reads a whole lot of books!”
One boy
was now staring out the window. Another
one was singing to himself.
I
carried on bravely.
“Because
not everything that seems wrong is wrong according to the law. For example, is
lying wrong?”
“Yes!”
they said.
“And
sinful,” I added, to blend in a little. “But it won’t always make you go to
jail, unless the lying caused harm to someone else.”
Fail.
Around
about this time Fika perhaps realized what she had gotten me into and attempted
to save my ass by calling on our other friend, Adra, to explain to the kids
what advertising was about. Advertising!
After
Adra attempted to explain “product essence”, we quickly turned the forum over
to Aji, who had been sitting quietly at the back observing everything.
Tactfully,
Aji preferred not to explain his real occupation and decided to tell the
children that his occupation is as an “adventurer”. They got excited as he told
them of the many places there are all over the world. At the end he said, “Do you want to travel
the world?”
“Yes!!”
they all said.
“And
do you know what you must do so that you can travel the world?”
“Yes!!”
they said.
“What
is it?”
“Pray!”
After
Aji explained that prayer comes third after first study and second hard work, and
the guest teachers had all finished laughing inwardly, Fitria the resident
teacher could be seen shaking her head at us with a smiling look that said, “you’ve
ruined my kids”.
