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I stood among the debris falling apart in Peunayong, a Chinatown in Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province. Half my body covered in black water came out from the deep sea flooded the city. On the right and left sides people try to pull out the bodies lying on the rubble and cars were stuck on top of power pole. Cries endlessly sounded from the corners of the remnants of life in the city of the dead. Helicopters and airplanes passing busy. Trucks transporting corpses from and to mass burial sites. Animals also took part. Elephants came down the mountain try to help lifting large wooden logs spread across the main streets of the city. Aceh and the tsunami, December 26th 2014. Story will run to tens of years on our homeland, my father whispered in between sobs next to me.
June 6, 2010, i began my resolution. I arrived in Yogyakarta, another special region in Indonesia. But for an Acehnese like me, staying in Jogja is an irony. I am a native Acehnese who was genuine and raised in the land of Aceh while now I decided to settle migrate to Yogyakarta, home to three of the five former president of Indonesia, which in its history has a bad impression to conflict in Aceh because all the three president : Sukarno, Suharto and Megawati had held military operations in Aceh with a variety reasons.
But it is undeniable that Jogja, and whole of Java island is the lighthouse of knowledge in Indonesia. That’s the main reason i came here. Like it or not, I should be able to adapt, even to love my new environment.
Because of the reason too everytime i go home to Aceh i’m always feeling like there is a cupped handful of emotion in my longing for Yogya. It feels like every corner of Jogja city calling me afar from three thousand kilometers distance away take me to drift back to the the days of nostalgia towards “joss” charcoal coffe, horse drawn carriage, “Angkringan”, sitting cross-legged on a crowded sidewalk, old times bicycle convoy and melodious voice street musicians. Her quiet environment makes me feels at ease, with the still very strong local culture.
I almost lulled by it and wanted to ask my parents for permission to return home hastily. Not the home birth, but instead my dissimilar home away but close to my heart, to dope my heart which began to desolate.