Exodus

Every year, a few days before and after the Iedul Fitri holiday, tens of millions of Indonesians travel far and wide in this huge archipelago to meet their parents and relatives. This collective annual pilgrimage is amazing in its scale and speed. 8 millions of Jakartans, for example, leave Jakarta within a week before and after the Iedul Fitri (also called Lebaran in Indonesia) which this year occurs on 30-31 August.

The pull to go home during Lebaran is very strong. It is the only opportunity in a year to meet relatives at the same time. It is in fact a rational decision due to several reasons.

Indonesians do not have a month-long summer holiday. Contrary to what you might think, Indonesians are hard workers. I see myself they have to wake up at 5 in the morning, take sometimes a 2-hour commute to work, spend 9 hours of work, and then take the long commute heading home everyday. They only get a 12-day holiday per year and they often decide to take them during Lebaran.

University students do not have a 4-month long summer holiday either. They get at most a 2-month holiday per year. Since Muslim calendar is lunar, the 2-month holiday often does not coincide with it. Students who are not from Jawa island might as well decide to wait for Lebaran to travel home.

This annual exodus creates a massive traffic jam of tens of kilometers long along the intercity roads and highways in Jawa. Airports are congested as well for people leaving Jawa for other islands - Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Lesser Sunda islands, Papua and other islands numbering in thousands. Train stations are brimming with people to the platform edges as trains are the cheapest means to travel intercity within Jawa.

The logistics associated with this mass exodus must be staggering. Gas stations need to have enough gasoline for 2 weeks for those traveling on road. Hotels are fully booked everywhere, except Jakarta. (Jakarta will in fact be empty during the 2-week time as 50% of its inhabitants are gone that long.)

The 8 millions of Jakartans gone in 2 weeks show how the money circulation in Indonesia is still concentrated in Jakarta. It is a bad policy since Indonesia is as large as the US.

This exodus - or called affectionately "mudik" which literally means going home - is a labour of love. It costs a lot of money to take the trip but Indonesians still do it dutifully every year. They renew their hope for their children and ensure they do not lose contact with their grandparents and relatives.

It is a cultural tradition we inherit and rhapsodize. Right around this time Indonesians - who are extreme foodies - crave for all traditional food we eat along the road trip and back home. Lebaran is euphoric since most Indonesians fast for a month before the holiday. I understand why Indonesians abroad always romanticize the Lebaran food. I understand why Mudik remains a romantic affair we Indonesians would keep doing year after year.

Sogok

Pertama kali menerima sogokan (kickback) bisa terjadi secara tidak sengaja. Tiba-tiba pelaksana proyek meminta nomor rekening anda lewat sms karena dia merasa dibantu. Terus anda mau gimana?

Jika anda tidak mau memberi nomor rekening, rekan anda bisa berujar tidak baik itu, menolak rejeki. Atau dia bisa bilang ini sekedar ucapan terima kasih karena anda sudah sangat membantu dia selama ini. Atau dia bilang tidak usah takut, ini kan wajar. Atau ketiga-tiganya.

Kenapa tidak? Toh proyeknya sudah selesai, pasti anda berpikir demikian. "Jika saya menerima hadiah ini, maka ini tidak berpengaruh buruk kok ke kualitas proyek," pikir anda untuk meluruskan langkah menerima hadiah yang ditawarkan.

Kenapa tidak? Berarti keuntungan pelaksana proyek sangat besar sampai bisa menawarkan memberi hadiah. "Bagi bagi lah, saya kan juga perlu uang," pikir anda sambil mungkin menyitir pikiran Milton Friedman tentang perilaku individu untuk memaksimumkan kegunaan atau melihat kebutuhan sebelum Lebaran.

Kenapa tidak? Sudah waktunya anda menikmati jerih payah kerja. Bos anda baik orangnya tapi kurang memberi gaji. Anda sudah sekolah berlama-lama dan merasa kurang mendapat apresiasi selama ini. Anda melihat teman-teman sekolah sukses dan ingin seperti mereka. Anda pasti juga berpikir: enak juga dapat uang tanpa kerja seperti ini.

Kenapa tidak? Anda berpikir rekan anda ini sudah menjadi teman baik. Tawaran dia sekedar datang dari teman untuk teman. Teman itu berbagi keuntungan jika dapat. Teman semestinya berbaik hati dan tawaran ini akan merekatkan pertemanan kita.

Yang hanya membuat anda untuk bilang "Tidak" ke rekan anda adalah keinginan untuk merdeka. Merdeka untuk menilai pekerjaan dia. Merdeka untuk tetap tidak dipengaruhi oleh siapa pun dalam membuat keputusan. Tinggal sekarang berapa harga yang anda pasang untuk kemerdekaan ini. Dan harga anda adalah uang sogokan yang anda dapat pertama kali.

Teaching

By this time I would usually be busy preparing for Fall term courses. Creating a course outline. Revisiting my lecture notes. Meeting with a lab technician. Determining the teaching assistants assigned for my courses.

But I am not doing that this year. I am preparing instead for a workshop to be constructed. Determining a new pay structure. Reviewing draft agreements. Calculating manufacturing costs.

My work has changed and I find both offer meaningful work. Both are sufficiently complex to not bore me. But I have to say that industry job offers a faster reward and punishment feedback, which is thus more exciting.

Teaching a course at a school or university can be repetitive. If the course is right up my alley, then I am excited the first two years I teach it. I cannot hide this enthusiasm from my students and they see it. When I teach it the third time, I am very familiar with it and would be able to teach it well. Beyond the fourth time I teach it, it usually becomes less interesting since it will have become a chore.

I thus marvel at a high school teacher who can have a stamina to teach the same course over many years. He can perfect his course material and delivery style, but both aspects have limits.

I miss teaching though and starting next month I will be volunteering to train math and physics high school teachers. It gives me time to teach and opportunity to give back to people who have been very generous to me.

I have been dreaming of blending industry job and teaching job for a while. Maybe this opportunity can give me a fertile ground to make it happen.

Car

Cars sold in Indonesia are very expensive. It costs about 50% of the price of a nice house. (In Canada, a car costs about 7% of a nice house.) When I have engine oil changed yesterday, I learned a new Isuzu Panther costs about Rp 270 million. That's almost USD 32,000! With that money one could get a nicer VW Jetta with a turbo diesel engine.

Prices of same cars in Indonesia and Canada are identical, yet the cost of living is a lot cheaper in Indonesia. I can only conclude that the government of Indonesia taxes too much for each imported car and motorcyclists are the smart people on the road. (Where does that tax money go, by the way?)

We use a beat-up 1999 Isuzu Panther. It has a great fuel economy (13 km for 1 liter). It is great during traffic jam since nicer cars don't have the guts to tangle and lock horns against it. Toyota cars, in comparison, have a really bad fuel economy (8 km for 1 liter). I don't know why Indonesians still buy Toyota despite this poor fuel economy. I'd rather buy a Hyundai since it is cheaper and has a better fuel economy.

Buying a new car is a losing proposition. The only strong reason I have heard for doing such is that a new car is new: there is no hidden mechanical problems or other problems. But that is bullshit. I bought a new car back in 2002 and I was afraid of exactly these potential problems. I then bought a used 1998 car. Both cars never gave me serious problems. The only difference is that the new one cost me CAD 15,000 more. It all depends on how I select the used car I want to buy. I can pay a mechanics I trust to check. I can run through the car thoroughly to see if it's been flooded in or its chassis had been welded after crash.

Indonesians worry about depreciated values of their cars. That's why Toyotas and Hondas still dominate the market. Personally though, if I feel I might have to sell a car in 3 years after I buy it, then I cannot afford it. A car is worth buying if I can use it for at least 15 years. Otherwise, it is not worth buying at all.

Dull

Last year when I was in Indonesia for my sabbatical leave, I made suggestions in academic conferences and workshops that Indonesian academics focus on practical applications of their science and knowledge. Bringing clean water to poor people at very cheap cost. Creating microhydro electrical generation unit, or solar thermal, or anything else that can provide cheap electricity. I should have said to make my message clearer: "Forget our academic pretensions that we do research that matters since we don't; and let's not (fucking) kid ourselves." But I didn't. I was too polite, sadly.

We become inactive although we live in a society that rapidly changes. This can happen to me now as well. My brain can become dull if I do not remind myself constantly that time will pass me silently if I remain as usual. I moved to Indonesia to shake my life a bit. To start a mission: to practice what I have been teaching in an engineering school, to learn the ropes of business, to start a business with friends I trust, to create real positive impacts to people I lead.

Once in a while, I forget my life mission. I am lulled by routines. By the easy convenience of modern life. Caught up with mortgage, loans, cars, family, brothers, sisters, and high school reunions. Fuck - I said to myself - let's not fucking forget why I am here for. (I often swear. My sons know me well; God bless them!)

It is thus funny that I got married young. I am barely older than 40 years old, but my older son is going to university next year. I am still saddled with heavy financial burden of raising growing kids, but I feel better now since by the time I am 50 I should be free to pursue whatever I wanna do in life. I didn't plan it, nor was I aware about it when I got married, but it works out so far.

Having said that, family remains a constant source of stress. Time commitment I have to make and money we have to pay to raise kids. It is a long term investment I make, such as life itself. It is a precious thing and on practical level serves as a fallback position if my personal life mission fails along the way.

Too much focus on family, however, can sideline me from pursuing my life's dream. People who love their families too much don't have activities outside their families' routines.

Besides family, a regular job can dull my mission. When job becomes routine, it is time to move on. It's been 3 months in Indonesia and so far my job is more interesting than being a university professor. I get to interact with all kinds of people - from pipe fitters to managers to expat skilled workers. I get to deal with different types of business in oil and gas industry.

What satisfies me is not material goods. I honestly couldn't care less about them. That's why we moved to Indonesia since I did not feel any satisfaction from owning faster cars and bigger houses. It is the freedom and life's challenges that I want.

Tropis

Iklim tropis itu enak. Tidur di luar bisa; tidak butuh ongkos mahal untuk pemanas ruangan seperti di Canada. Rumah bisa didisain asri dan terbuka. Tidak ada angin dingin menusuk dan salju menimbun. Di kantor, saya mematikan alat pendingin ruangan (AC) karena udara hangat sebenarnya nikmat sangat. Kenapa harus didinginkan? Bahkan tidur pun saya sudah terbiasa tidak memakai AC.

Negara tropis seperti Indonesia lebih enak lagi. Punya banyak gunung berapi dan tanahnya subur minta ampun. Tinggal petik daun ketela dan sawi di kebun, dan goreng ikan asin, serta tomat dan lombok untuk sambal, jadilah makanan yang lezat. Kemudahan ini ada di hampir semua desa di Jawa dan Bali. Di Canada, kemudahan sumber makanan lokal ada di Quebec dan Ontario, tapi hilang sekitar musim dingin dari Oktober sampai April.

Keseharian di Indonesia - terutama di desa - bisa berjalan santai. Ini saya rasakan setiap kali berkunjung ke desa. Tapi begitu sampai di Jakarta, otak seperti berubah pikiran dan jiwa seperti dipacu untuk kerja, kerja, dan kerja. Mungkin melihat ribuan sepeda motor menyemut lalu lalang, ribuan deretan orang di pinggir jalan terlihat rapi di sela asap hitam mikrolet rongsokan, saya termotivasi untuk aktif seperti mereka. Energi kota besar - seperti Jakarta - memang luar biasa, mengingatkan saya akan energi kekal yang tampak di Toronto, Vancouver, dan New York.

Udara tropis ditambah dengan kesuburan tanah luar biasa membelai lembut orang Indonesia. Gaya hidup rileks sebenarnya bukan masalah asal kita semua tetap kreatif dan produktif. Kerja tidak perlu terburu-buru tapi kualitas kerja mestinya bisa sangat bagus. Udara tropis yang konstan mestinya mengajarkan kita untuk tekun dan tidak terburu-buru. 

Puasa

Cukup kaget aku tadi bisa berpuasa penuh di hari pertama bulan puasa. Hari pertama puasa berlalu dengan biasa. Tanpa letih lapar dahaga. Bahkan masih di tempat kerja sampai jam 17:30.

Beberapa hari lalu aku keluar kantor jam 10:30 dan ditanya, "Pak, mau kemana?" "Perut saya lapeerrr. Repotnya kalo gini, saya gak bisa mikir." Tawa berderai memancar dari raut muka ibu-ibu yang selalu ramah ke saya. Ya itu takut saya jika berpuasa: saya gak bisa mikir kalau lapar. Dan ini sudah berkali-kali merusak niat puasa saya.

Saat bergulir ke arah Bogor siang tadi saya sempat terbersit, "Boleh juga tuh, berhenti sebentar, makan di tempat peristirahatan Jagorawi." Tapi saya urungkan karena sudah jam 14:00. Hampir sore. Sayang jika saya tidak bisa tepati janji kali ini.

Jujur saja, jam 08:00 tadi saya makan permen tidak sadar. Tiga perempat habis Ricola saya untuk menahan batuk, baru saya sadar saya puasa. Saya ikhlas kok. Gak berpahala juga gak apa-apa. Saya sudah senang bisa merasakan bulan puasa di tanah air setelah lebih 20 tahun di tanah rantau.