The Waterfall of Hope

Village Life

One morning in a village in West Sumatra, the sun is still shy to reveal itself. Leaves bathed in morning dew. The bamboo trees whispered in the wind. The cluster of hills forming a ring is the background of this village and the trees are the decoration. In the distance, the excited apak-apak and amak-amak are already heading from their houses to their fields to work. The children run cheerfully like deer from the edge of the village to the border. They are free to do anything. There are no tall buildings but only high hills. There are no vehicles noises but only the sounds of animals in the nature.

Haikal opens the door of his house and he feels a gentle breeze kisses his cheek. He puts on his jacket as he walks to the shed of his house to get his bicycle. Haikal is humming as he continues pedaling his bicycle. He doesn't forget to wave and says good morning to everyone that he meets, either on the road or working in their fields. He says, "Good morning, apak Merkis. Have a nice day." Apak Merkis replies, "Good morning too, Haikal. Have a nice day too."

Soon he arrives at a cocoa field owned by his parents. "Good morning, ayah. Good morning, bundo. I've arrived," he greets his parents and announces that he has arrived. Haikal's parents leave early in the morning to their cocoa field to prepare water and takes out the fertilizer sacks from the small shed beside their field. His ayah and his bundo smile at him when they see him and wave their hand to their son to join them. Haikal immediately parks his bicycle near the small shed and starts helping his parents. He starts watering the cocoa trees one by one while paying attention to the pests that usually nest on the cacao stems. He doesn't want the pests to destroy their cocoa because soon the harvest season will arrive. If there are lots of pests on their cocoa, they will get low prices or the worst possibility they will not be able to sell them at all.

In another place in the middle of rice fields that are soon yellowing and ready for harvesting, Fauzi and his younger brother, Erizon, are sitting and guarding the rice fields by moving a scarecrow if a sparrow is about to perch on the rice plants. Fauzi really enjoys working to look after the rice fields on the sidelines of his school holiday. He feels happy because he can help his parents. While Fauzi and Erizon look after the rice fields, their parents and their younger sister, Ella, are feeding tilapia in the rice field. Yes, you heard it right. Fauzi's family owns rice fields and they raise tilapia in the rice fields. This system is called "Mina Padi". The rice fields will grow together with tilapia and they can be harvested simultaneously.

Another case with Fauzi's family, Dina's family raises fish next to their house. Early in the morning, Dina walks to the side of her house while carrying a bucket of pellets. Then, Dina puts it on a rattan bench near the concrete ponds. Dina walks towards the four concrete ponds, measuring twenty meters by ten meters with a height of one and a half meters, and starts cleaning the leaves that fall on the water of the pond. Her ayah and younger brother then come carrying a large fishing net. Dina's ayah begins to stretch the net into one of the ponds and lifts it when the fish enter. "Dina, Markoni, look at this catfish. Soon the catfish in our ponds are ready to be harvested," says her ayah. "Is that size enough, Ayah?" asks Dina. "Yes, this size is almost enough. Well, now let's feed them," says her ayah. Dina and her brother immediately split up to feed the catfish.

Febi and her parents are struggling in their cauliflower field because many pests attack their cauliflower plants. Dina's parents are spraying a natural pesticide that they make by themselves on all the cauliflower plants. Meanwhile Dina is catching the pests manually using long tweezers and putting them in a jar. She looks at each plant carefully and doesn't want any pests to be left on her cauliflower plants. Dina and her parents do this because it is about time to harvest and they don't want to experience big losses.

Rado is sweeping the yard of the village head's office. He also helps apak Zainal to raise the red and white flag. "How are the scores of your national examination, Rado? Must be all good, right?" asks apak Zainal. "Rado's grades are good, apak. All Rado's score are above 90," says Rado proudly. "Good then. Continue to do it when you are in junior high school. Ok?" apak Zainal says. "Okay apak," replies Rado while showing a big thumb and smile.

In the afternoon, the five children gather at the foot of the hill in the east of the village. There is a tree house which became their headquarters. They built the tree house together and they designed the tree house so that the five of them could enter. Rado starts talking about where they are going to adventure again. "It seems that we have explored almost all corners of this village. Or is there any place we have not explored?" asks Rado. "Yes, I think so. But maybe we can go to the forest in the south of the village," says Fauzi. "Oh yeah, I remember when we got there; we are forced to return to the village again because of the terrible storm," says Dina. "Let's continue our pending adventure," Haikal says. "Let's goooooo," says Febi excitedly. "Hmmm ... okay how about the day after tomorrow? There is a wedding party for uni Ayi and uda Hen tomorrow," says Rado. "Agreeeee" replies the other together with a laugh. They spent their afternoons playing at the headquarters, looking for forest fruits, monitoring forest birds that are rarely seen around humans, and then return to their homes before dark.

These five children plan their adventure but they will not know what awaits them in the future.

To be continued...

Foot Note:

- Apak is a call aimed at a man who is married and has children in West Sumatra.

- Amak is a call intended for a woman who is married and has children in West Sumatra.

- Ayah is a call for father in West Sumatra.

- Bundo is a call for mother in West Sumatra.

- Uni is a call for sister in West Sumatra.

- Uda is a call for brother in West Sumatra.