After graduating from
college, I was placed on one of islands of Riau border with Malaysia, in Meranti
district, precisely in Selatpanjang, not in Pekanbaru as my hometown.
Selatpanjang is the capital of Meranti regency at Riau province which has
strategic location because it is on the shipping and trade route between
mainland of Riau and Riau Islands, as well as the Malacca Strait, the
international route of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. So the city has
allure for investment in economy. Its geographical condition is lowland, part
of swamp and mangrove forest. The trip from Pekanbaru to Selatpanjang takes five
hours by boat along the Siak river, continued by bus and boat again, while motorized
becak becomes public transportation in the city.
The majority of Selatpanjang
recidents is Chinese and Malays with variety followers of Buddhism,
Confucianism, Islam and Christian. There are many Buddhists and Confucians in
this area so the Chinese New Year celebrations are very festive with the Water
War festival or the Cian Cui Festival. It is celebrated by firing water from
their houses to everyone they meet. The becaks are in demand, 'booked' by the
people long before the Chinese New Year, to be used around the city with family
bringing a water drum or a self-assembling water gun from a pipe. To be honest,
this area is difficult to get clean water because the water here tends to be
red, yellow and brown due to the influence of soil types, so every house must
have a rainwater reservoir, like a tub in the ground, or a barrel or drum in
front of their house. At the beginning of my arrival at Selatpanjang, there
were still one or two cars passing by on the street, but now there are too many
cars on the city streets.
Teaching is a struggle
because of communication difficulty using Indonesian language properly that
makes frequent confusion. During one test, students had difficulty to understand
questions, for example "Have you eaten? What do you eat?" The answer
is, "I already ate milk .” Logically, the milk is drunk, not eaten. They
use Indonesian with Hokkian structure, their mother tongue, so that the
structure of Indonesian is reversed, such as saying “half to 11 or 10.30”, it
becomes '10 and a half'. Once a student told me that his mother went to Batam
to give birth, "Miss, my mother went to Batam to give birth her
child". At first I was confused, but then I laughed to myself because I
felt strange hearing the sentence, because the one who will be born was his own
younger brother.
They have not mastered
Indonesian vocabulary, so they often ask new words that they find when I
explain something during literacy classes, for example, difficult, sewer, and
dispensers have been asked by students. I always look for teaching methods, so that
students can understand the purpose of teaching by explaining slowly, using
teaching media and always checking whether they understand the meaning or not.
Sometimes I repeat the material. During the test, I help them by reading the
questions so that they understand the questions. I always peek at their work to
make sure they understand the question, even though sometimes misperceptions
still occur. Another way that I do is inviting them to tell stories and correct
their words so that they have more and more vocabulary and are accustomed to
use Indonesian.
The majority of the
people here is Buddhism and Koghucu followers having faith in gods, and I just
found out that gods also have birthdays, as I have ever seen in some movies. In
one moment they go around the city bringing their gods with music, dance and
fireworks. When they are ill, they do not go to the doctor but askinf recovery
to their gods. If their gods cannot heal and prayers do not work, they will go to Bali island because they
consider that the gods in Bali are more powerful. I often hear such stories
from my students.
This is the reality that
I have to experience as long as I live, teach and struggle in Selatpanjang,
devoting myself to improve the education of students in this city with a
variety of cultures from its inhabitants. Although the writing of this
experience is short, I hope this may give more information and knowledge about
the culture and habits in Selatpanjang. I hope it will also encourage other
friends of Stube-HEMAT that teach in various area of Indonesia. (Eva Saragih).
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