Covid 19 Life

Nothing is certain except everything you know can change.

You worship the sun but now can you fall for the rain?

London Skies, Jamie Cullum

On Februari 1st 2020, I was attending Market Outlook 2020 by Jouska in Jakarta. They were talking about Indonesia's current potential economic growth in the upcoming years. Dr Aviliani said, China had Covid 19 outbreak and it may disrupt global economics. Now, July 8th 2020, I didn't know it was gonna be this disrupted.

We are facing with the condition we never met before (at least as long as I have lived), a pandemic. A pandemic that makes people scared to gather and travel. Giant companies are having financial trouble or even have furloughed their workers. The tourism industry ranging from hotels, art attraction, airlines, rental cars are hit the hardest. Airlines park park their planes on dessert in order to escape from airport parking fee.

Pizza Hut files for bankrupcy. It's really sad to watch Pizza Hut and Pizza Hut Delivery selling pizza on the street and no one buying from them. Their pizza tastes so good yet twice expensive compare to their rival, Domino's Pizza. At the end, I will opt for Domino's because of the price. In my opinion, symphaty-buying will not last for long.

Growing up, I was told "You should work as doctor or as petroleum engineer, they make good money!". I didn't choose that path. Every now and then, we heard that medical workers strikes demanding their salary to be paid. BPJS Kesehatan is state-own medical insurance that is built to be a charity. Not built to take profit. No wonder, BPJS Kesehatan is always in deficit.

At the end of April 2020, the price oil futures went negative for the first time in history. Saudi closed its door for Mecca Pilgrimage cause Saudi to lose income. Saudi then increased oil production to make money, but Russia didn't want to decrease its production. Covid 19 decreased demand for gasoline as less and less people travel. Overflowing supply and little demand, made the price went cheaper. Even negative. Company will pay buyer to take oil from them because the limited storage they have. I knew my friends who work as doctor and petroleum engineer are the smartest, most dilligent person. I hope they are doing well.

Corruption and fall of oil price had turned Venezuela into crisis. Venezuela is heavily depend on crude oil export and commodity price decrease. They're in humanitarian crisis for some years now. Gasoline now is rare for people. In Feb 2019, the military burned the trucks of humanitarian aid. It's so crazy. I hope Maduro is no longer president of Venezuela when I read this blog post in the future.

Public transportation isn't a mass transportation anymore. The amount of passenger is cut because people have to do social distancing. The animals in zoo are in hunger because the zoo management has less money to feed them because nobody is paying for zoo ticket.

Life is uncertain. My rainy day fund is safe for a year and I don't have debt, so I can sleep well at night. Even tho my stock portofolio looks like it's on fire because I had to cut loss some. Plus, some are still having floating loss. That's okay, it's the risk I'm willing to take. I hate to say, during this financial crisis, I cut back on my education budget. I stopped taking Japanese Language class and opt for stock learning mini classes instead. Learning Japanese isn't the best thing to do because the Japanese Govt is also postponing JLPT test.

Many people had their first online Eid Fitr. Ramadhan is supposed to be the most consumptive month of the year. People used to spend money for charity, to celebrate Ramadhan with family and friend, and to travel visiting relatives in village. This year Eid Fitr was bitter. Many people are afraid to travel. Including my family. It's sadder when my aunt Partini passed away and I couldn't console and be there for the family. 

This post is my reminder of Covid 19. I hope we all can survive this. Remember, nothing is certain. It's okay to postpone or change your direction. Remember to fully build your rainy day fun. Remember your beloved aunt or anyone that loves you want you to live your life to the fullest :)

Sugarcoating Phenomenon

Once upon a time, I attended a writing workshop held in Cultural Studies Faculty, UGM. It was refreshing to learn something other than engineering, haha. The key speakers were Windy Ariestanty and Seno Gumira Ajidarma. Just my two favorite writers ever!

The theme was Sastra Perjalanan or Travel Literature (gosh, it’s not easy to find the english term for that). Sastra term here is not just the one in book form, but also in ‘status update’, ‘tweets’, and ‘photo caption’ in social media. Those two writers were concern about the recent phenomenon.

The most annoying phenomenon nowadays (in literature) is that people tend to sugarcoat everything. People are competing to be the happiest person.

“The real writers don’t sugarcoat. They are able to turn awful experience into an interesting topic,”  Windy said.

We don’t have to sugarcoat everything. Isn’t it weird when you rated A+ for every place you visit?  How many of us feel disappointed when the place we visit is not as beautiful as we were told?

I agree with that statement. Also, I adore people who bravely admit that they are angry or sad in social media as long as they do it elegantly. I respect genuine people.

In the next session, Seno gave us examples. He told us his awful experiences. One of them is his journey in Egypt. The poor villagers and the windy desserts. “When you pee in dessert, you won’t be able to see your urine. They are carried away by the wind before you know it,” he said. Laughter filled the air.

Everyone should be free to be the complete version of themselves. Everyone should be free to express their true emotion. Nobody should force happy feeling, just let it comes naturally.

Embrace every feeling~

Studying Nihon Go

Maybe some of you wandering why lately I’m using some Japanese words in my writing. Yup, I’m taking a Japanese language course in Pusat Studi Jepang UGM. I recently study in small rustic class with only few classmates. Meet my classmates in Level 2, they are Gadiz-san, Dien-san, Crystal-san, Celine-san, Taka-san, Agra-san, Rido-san, and Dini-san. And we have the loveliest sensei, Icha sensei!

Level 2 in PSJ UGM is still categorized as a level for beginners, still N5 in Japanese language proficiency index, which is the lowest level. For your information, if you want to study or work in Japan, you must pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). The lowest level is N5, ability to understand some basic Japanese.

Then there’s N4, ability to understand basic Japanese. Followed by N3, ability to understand Japanese used in everyday situation to a certain degree. Then N2, ability to understand Japanese used in everyday situations and in a variety of circumstances to a certain degree. The last is N1, which is the ability to understand Japanese used in a variety of circumstances. Usually if you want to study or work there, you must pass either N3 or N2.

Hey, do you want to peek the book I found in the library there? Check this out.

It’s the history of Japan. Inspite of it’s awesomeness, I can’t imagine how can Icha sensei survive in Japanese Literature Department learning about Japanese history, she must be tough.

History from time to time

Shinto, Japanese belief

Kabuki -somekind of Ketoprak or Wayang Orang

There is culture class every session, this session we had COOKING! Let me tell you it’s the best part of studying there. We cooked Japanese traditional food such as Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, Sushi, Onigiri, and Yakisoba. Delicious, all-you-can-eat, and free! I can’t be more thankful!

Cooking with native Japanese :)

Everyone is excited

She's Icha sensei! And she's rolling a Sushi!

Oishii desu nee...

You can’t get Okonomiyaki with octopus this much in anywhere else.

Me and Dien-san. Take a look at my Katsuoboshi topping, so many~ Hahaha.

Gadiz-san

Bless My Homeland Forever

Why are these ingenious people willingly spending their time and energy for helping people in Samar village? Hm, that’s a big question.

I still remember when about a year ago me and Andrie went to Tulungagung with Mrs. Wi, Mrs. Maya, Mr. Daniel, and Mr. Mus (our driver). I still remember listening to a whole album of Born and Raised by John Mayer as we're spending 8 hours of car-driving through mountain road from Jogjakarta to Tulungagung. ChAIN center team was having a regular visit and also accompanying people from Samar village that joined a local exhibition. Well, actually Andrie and I didn’t do anything sih but learning to blend and figuring out ‘why we are brought here’.

Then few weeks later after our visit, ibu-ibu from Samar village came to Gadjah Mada. They got mentoring and also practiced cooking in Fakultas Teknologi Pertanian (they’re accompanied by Gama EARTH fellows, no I didn’t involve this time). I keep following their activities though. I know that a couple of months later, they held a cooking competition among groups in ibu-ibu Samar village. This competition made ibu-ibu tried their best to improve their products, wasn’t it nice? :)

I know no more news about them until one day Mrs. Wi contacted me and asked me to help designing this-and-that. Oh, they’re about to join an exhibition once more! Great! Then when I looked into the contents, a moment later I found myself drowning in glimpse of memories...

A year ago, the villagers haven’t build a biogas reactor yet. A year ago, the villagers haven’t even practiced cooking (in campus). Now look at them. They’ve successfully made products like kerupuk susu and keripik mbothe, which are cooked by biogas. Surprisingly, the keripik mbothe has got PIRT license (go kerupuk susu, you can get it too!). Also, the villagers have succesfully made fertilizer from biogas slurry! As for the fertilizer, it has become partner with local organisation called Pusat Pelatihan Peternakan/Pertanian Ramah Lingkungan dan Energi Mandiri (P3RLEM) and Jurusan Ilmu Tanah Fakultas Pertanian UGM. I watched with my own eyes that ChAIN center team did all these from zero. Now the seeds –which they have spreaded have become  sprouts. Oh I’m feeling sentimental :”)

One of the product designs

The big question remains unanswered. Why? Maybe the closest answer I can guess is that the team wants to empower our brothers and sisters so that they can be independent. Free from imported agricultural products dependency.

At the exhibition one year ago, Mrs. Wi told me, “Seeing these excellent quality local products, it’s hard to believe that our country still depends on imported fruits and veggies,”

I don’t know juga deh. It’s only an answer from my point of view. The answer is still unclear. But whatever it is, God please bless this team and bless my homeland forever.