I'm not a graduate a university graduate. However, I was a village youth who migrated to the city, after a month after graduating from high school in the sub-district city where I attended school. I am the eldest of five children. My father and mother, are just ordinary farm laborers who work to receive daily wages in other people's fields.
We are very poor, my four younger siblings, two boys and two girls, are still small and need money to go to school. We as a family always eat together, even though we eat modestly which is important. When I was eating together and sitting on the mat, I often noticed the look on my father's and mother's faces, their faces looked older than their actual age. I felt sorry, then I stated my intention to go abroad to the provincial capital which I mentioned by name. My father and mother tried to prevent me from going abroad.
I was determined, I had to wonder no matter what. I, can not live poor in the village. Many neighbors have built nice houses and use electricity as lighting, but our family occupies a house with bamboo walls with thatched roofs without electricity, only teplok lamps as lighting at night. I have to wander. Should. Even if life suffers, I don't care. I persisted, seeking my fortune in the city I was going to.
Finally, my father and mother permitted me to go abroad. In the evening when we ate together before I left the next afternoon, they advised me with a sad heart. My father gave me a piece of paper with the address of his sister who had left the village more than ten years after my two grandmothers died. My mother gave me money for the bus fare and food expenses on the way. I was saddened to see my father and mother as well as my four younger siblings, they seemed to be in tears letting me go abroad. In my heart, I told them to pray for me to be safe and healthy.
At eight o'clock in the morning, after travelling fifteen hours from the village by bus, I arrived at the provincial capital of my destination city. Getting off the bus, I felt strange and didn't know where to go. I was confused, my mind started to race. I went to the ticket counter for the bus that I took from the village to a middle-aged man, the clerk at the bus counter, I asked, handing him a piece of paper with the address my father gave me.
The man studied my look and then asked. " Have you eaten? ". I shook my head, then the man asked me to eat at the rice stall next to the wall of the bus counter. I followed the man into the stall and reluctantly sat down opposite him at a table with the man. I was dumbfounded, seeing several kinds of fish and meat dishes served by the stall waiter on the table. The man saw me and put a piece of fried chicken and poured the curry sauce on my plate.
While eating the man asked about me and I explained who I was and why I came to town to look for work. One thing I was surprised about, everyone who came in and out of the shop always nodded saying "Boss" to the man. I'm shy, I don't want to ask who he is. After eating, I saw the man writing something on a scrap of paper, then it was given to me along with a piece of paper with the address I gave him earlier.
The man asked me out of the shop, then he approached the motorized rickshaw puller who was hanging out looking for passengers in front of the rice stall. I was just silent watching them talk and the man told me to take the rickshaw, but before I got on the rickshaw I reached out my hand to shake hands with the man and I bowed to thank him.
Along the way to the address that the man had told the motorized rickshaw driver, I was amazed to see the ten-story buildings towering majestically into the sky. I can't help but think, because this is the first time I've seen and set foot in the Metropolitan City.
Not having difficulty and a long time, I arrived at my destination according to what my father wrote on a piece of paper. I got down and asked the motorized rickshaw driver, how much do I have to pay? However, the motorized rickshaw driver said he had already been paid. I thanked the motorized rickshaw puller, then I moved closer to the door of a simple house with no yard and knocked on the open door. I knocked repeatedly on the door of the house, not long after a middle-aged man appeared shirtless in short shorts and came up to me with a surprised face. I smiled congratulating him and the man immediately invited me into his house.
That man is my father's brother, I call him father. Father has invited me to sit on a chair, he said that his wife went shopping in the market with her two children. I sat holding my shabby bag containing three pairs of clothes and my diploma, while I watched all the contents of the room in your father's house. Father has served me a glass of water and asked me, “When are you coming home? ". It broke my heart to hear the question. For some reason, I hastily showed a piece of a paper memo to Mr UDA. The memo contained the name and address of a company as well as the words "Please help". Mr. uda smiled cynically reading the memo, it made me even more worried. The next morning, I said goodbye to Mr Uda and his wife to find the address of the company, but they did not offer me a drink or breakfast before leaving. I'm not discouraged, but I'm grateful to be able to stay one night at their house.
I walked, kept walking under the hot sun of the Metropolitan city. Until I finally found the address of the company, after I was tired of searching and asking everyone I met on the side of the road. Based on the memo, that same day I was accepted to work as a cleaner and stayed at the company's mess. I thank God because of someone's memo I was immediately accepted to work.
Images:
https://unsplash.com/photos/bH7kZ0yazB0
https://unsplash.com/photos/N_Y88TWmGwA
https://unsplash.com/photos/3g26gniC_l0
Writer:
