Life Lesson from Tasikmalaya

Tasikmalaya is one of the regions in west java, Indonesia. This region is well-known by people, especially Indonesian, because of the famous Pangandaran beach and the mount Galunggung as a tourist destination. My friends and I were traveling to this place because of the earthquake which happened about a few months before, with the main purpose was to help the local people recovering from the disaster and being ready if something like that happen again, eventually. So, we visited one of the most damaged area, Santana Mekar village. It was located on the feet of mount Galunggung, more than 20 kilometers away from the city.
We was not really doing travelling, we was living there, actually, because we spent almost two months living with the local people. We lived in the village-head’s house along with the family. There was a culture shock at first, but after a week we got used to be. It was easy for us to adapt because the local was welcoming.
The landscape was so wonderful. It was a mixture of rice field, forest, and housing. The road was twisted like roller coaster, the rice field was so green with a blue-sky in the end, and the air was so cool and refreshing. There was also a small waterfall nearby, which was quite hard to reach but it was worth it.
It was a wonderful experience to live there. I had learned so much about their custom, their daily activities, their food, their way of life. It was very different from living in a city. Apart from or program, we were sometimes joining the community gathering, playing with the children from the neighborhood, playing badminton at neighbor’s yard, even joining a traditional music-playing with their music group at night. Most of the people there were a farmer, so they were not rich but still seemed happy. It was not like they didn’t need more then they’d already had, it was like being grateful with everything they had. This experience makes me always try to choose living in a modest way.