Selasa, 12 April 2011

World round traveling

I have been to some countries in Africa (1999-2004), like Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Things that I took with me were: Passport, foreign currency, money pouch, suitcase, bag pack, first-ad kit,and band-aid. When I went to Kenya I took with me some hundred USD to arrange entry visa to the country. The same way I did when going to Botswana. I got some USD from a friend from the Phillipine. When I went to Zimbabwe I took with me some thousand Pula. I exchanged them into the Zimbabwean Dollar when entering the gate. From Zimbabwe I went to Zambia. I exchanged both Zimbabwean Dollar and Pula into Kwacha. I spent all the Kwacha during my stay in Zambia. I put all the currency in my money pouch I bought in Jakarta. My valid passport helped me easily enter those countries. The strong back pack I had was so useful. It helped me put my clothes in and easily carried on my back. Luckily that during all the traveling I did not get any accident, so I did not use any band-aid nor medicine from the first-aid kit.

Kamis, 15 April 2010

Dream Dream Dream

Dear friends, now I`m back again here in this journal with my big dreams. Hoping you enjoy reading it.

I have some big dreams. One of my biggest dreams is to be a qualified English teacher. This has been inspiring me a lot in learning and doing whatever is connected with English here in Yogyakarta and Sanata Dharma in particular. Before graduating from this top university I have to master as much as possible vocabulary, structure, pronunciation, reading, listening, speaking, writing,as well as paragraph writing. My next biggest dream is to be able to write an academic writing in the near future. This is very important for journal writing and especially for my thesis in the last semester.

The third dream is to stay good friends with all of my classmates of more or less 148, the seniors, lecturers, and the coming students of 2010/2011. Having as many people as good friends is very important for me, because there is a saying: "No man is an island", and this is true for all ages. Moreover, being amongst the many here in SADAR without having any single person as a good friend is a shame if not a guilt. It would be wonderful to have more lecturers as my friends. By doing so, I wouldn`t feel hesitant to be close or to chat or have them solve any problems I encounter in learning English.

The fourth dream is to finish my study on time, because finishing on time is being economical in the sense of money and time. Another reason is that I want to go back to my previous school as soon as possible. I constantly miss my students and colleagues at my school.

So, dear loving friends, that`s all my current big dreams. I will keep my fingers crossed that all these dreams come true.

Jumat, 09 April 2010

One The Most Unforgettable Experiences

Hi my dear friends, beside having the unforgettable experience shared in the class of today, I am now sharing with you another most unforgettable experience.

When I was about to leave for Kenya and Botswana (Africa), many of my friends strictly warned me to keep myself away from infected people with HIV/AIDS. Even some suggested to me to never touch or shake their hands. To avoid such a disease I made sure then that I would never make any kinds of physical contact with people with HIV/AIDS.
A week after I arrived there, one of my colleagues, Kabello, invited me to go to the state hospital in Francistown, to visit a bedridden lady, called Sethunya (Flower). Fifteen minutes later we arrived in the hospital. We found Sethunya lying in her lonely bed in the third-class female ward. She was at her wits end. Amazingly, her sadness immediately disappeared when she saw Kabello come closer and closer to her bed. For her Kabello was everything. I could see it by the way Kabello showed his care. He held her weak hands and embraced her tightly. As I had just seen her for the first time, I only stood stiff beside her bed after holding and shaking her right weak hand; no more than it. Even though she showed a hearty welcome to me, she looked so miserable in my eyes. She spoke in English but unfortunately I did not understand her, not even a word. Clearly she was affected by her pain. She had been trying very hard to open her mouth wider, but she failed. So, she just seemed to murmur all the time.
In fact, it was time for her to have her breakfast. So, after some 10 minutes of chatting Kabello asked me to say a prayer for her cure and for the breakfast as well. After that Kabello fed her some porridge which we picked up on the way to the hospital. Even though she was very hungry, she just picked at the porridge. She couldn`t swallow because her mouth hurt so much. With great patience Kabello kept on encouraging her to finish the porridge. I topped it off with some fresh milk and handed it over to Kabello. “Come on Sethunya, please finish this porridge. It will give you some strength to cure yourself”, Kabello assured her in a deep voice. Almost in a whisper, Kabello continued, “Be sure that you will get cured very soon. Anton and I will come to collect you and take you home. Everybody at home is waiting for you”. This really touched me. Great Kabello gave her lots of strength to keep on eating. She really tried her best to finish the porridge. I saw in her deepest heart a promise to finish the nutritious breakfast. At times we made some jokes. Kabello said some of the jokes she loved most. We noticed that she wanted to tell some other jokes that Kabello had forgotten. Somehow she failed. Her mouth hurt so much as she tried hard to speak and chew the porridge.
After struggling for a long time, she finally finished her breakfast. The porridge slowly dissolved in her mouth. She must had gained some strength for this time. So, after that we continued our chatting. During the chatting something impelled me not to ask Kabello what kind of disease she was suffering from. I just kept the question to myself.
Unfortunately, time was passing quickly. We had been there already for almost two hours. We would have liked to stay to take her mind off her aches and soreness, but we had to say goodbye to her as the visiting hours were up. So, we said good bye to her and all of the nurses and the surrounding patients.
It took us 30 minutes to reach our house as we had to pop into several places. We also slipped in a outlet to buy Sethunya warm clothes made of cotton wool, that would be brought any time when visiting her. I felt I couldn`t keep the question of Sethunya`s disease to myself any more. Answering my question, Kabello told me that Sethunya was suffering from AIDS. “AIDS? From where does she get it?”, I asked, shocked. “Yes, she got that disease from her late husband”, Kabello answered. “So, her husband is late already?”, I added. “ The husband passed on last year. So, people living with AIDS are like that, suffering and dying soon after one another”, he confirmed. Furthermore, he said to me with a shiver, “Sethunya will nevermore come to our house; she will pass on very soon”. I was so surprised and sad.
Kabello kept on talking about HIV/AIDS in Botswana and of the people he had helped and visited. I did involve myself in the converstation along the way home, but I was afraid too that I would be infected. The warning of my friends overhelmed me so much. I was so afraid if I could be infected by the disease.
After thinking deeply for some time, I tried to make sure that I wouldn`t get infected. I kept telling to myself that Kabello was the proof to me. He was much closer to Sethunya than me and he used to be like that with all the other people with HIV/AIDS; yet he was still uninfected with the disease.
On arriving home I talked to those who did not visit Sethunya about this very first experience I had in the hospital. The story of Sethunya and other people with HIV/AIDS then became a hot topic of talking during the lunch time in the dining room. All of my friends at the table assured me that the contagion of the disease was not in holding or shaking hands, embracing, or sharing the same soap.
To our surprise and sadness, the news came just after our breakfast the following day that the loving person, Sethunya, had already gone. We canceled our scheduled agenda of meeting and rushed to the hospital. We took her body and handed it over to her family. Together with her family we prepared everything for the burial on the following day, Saturday. We also wrapped her body with the cotton wool cloth that we bought the day before. All of us really sorrowed at her death.
After the great sorrow, I searched out a lot of information concerning HIV/AIDS. I got more and more very important insights from newspapers, internet and books, especially from a book called "On Death and Dying" by Elisabeth Kübler Ross. Based on this information and insight, it became very clear that I could only contract HIV/AIDS if I had any kind of physical fluid contact. After that, I was not hesitant about the ordinary physical contact like embracing and hand-shaking with the people of Botswana. Time proved this truth to me.
Since I came back here Indonesia, all those wonderful memories often cross my mind. Unfortunately, right now, I don`t keep in touch with those sick friends. I just wish I could go back to Botswana to see them again and share the fun again despite their illness. I do miss them so much.

Rabu, 31 Maret 2010

AIR POLLUTION FILTER

One of today`s biggest concerns is air pollution. It creates a great negative impact on mankind`s health, especially the respiratory system, blood vessels, liver, lungs, kidneys, and nervous system. Besides that, some animals and plants are threatened into extinction by air pollution. Air pollution is caused by the growth of the population, furnaces, and industrialization. It all contributes to an industrial cesspool. It is also caused by filthy substances that come from fossil fuel for household heating, electricity, vehicles, solid waste, and burning of waste. The meant filthy substances are: SO2, NO, NO2, CO, O3, SPM (=Suspended Particulate Matter), and Pb (=Lead). Some experts say that the other sources of air pollution are: volcanoes, marshes, and forest burning, including slash and burn.

There have been some efforts made, since 1974, by WHO and the Global Environment Monitoring System, to overcome the air pollution. Yet the pollution still keeps increasing, our world is getting even worse. It means that all the efforts are not effective yet. In the meantime the population is growing steadily. This impacts on the growth of industry and use of fossil fuels. So, I am introducing you to a brand new modern machine, called the Air Pollution Filter.

The function of the Air Pollution Filter is to filter air pollution. It makes sure that the air is clean and healthy for humankind, animals, and plants.

It is generated by solar energy. To make it function well we need two other big main parts. They are a solar panel and a radiator. (Look at the pictures).

This is the way the Air Pollution Filter works. The sunshine is trapped by a panel, called a solar panel. The panel changes the sunray into power. The power is channeled into the Air Pollution Filter machine. The power generates the machine to trap air pollution. All kinds of filthy substances: SO2, NO, NO2, CO, O3, SPM (=Suspended Particulate Matter), and Pb (=Lead) are trapped by the parabola antenna 1. This antenna is very sensitive to the filthy substances. So, they are automatically trapped by this antenna. Then the filthy substances are brought into the filter department to be filtered into the fresh, clean, and healthy one, called O2. After that the clean air is channeled into the clean air box. From the clean air box, the O2 is released into the atmosphere through the parabola antenna 2.

I suggest this brand new modern machine should be installed in all of the places which are vulnerable to air pollution, like industrial areas and the most polluted cities like Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janero, Mexico, Beijing, Shanghai, Cairo, Calcutta, New Delhi, Bombay, Karachi, Jakarta, Tokyo, Manila, Bangkok, Seoul, Moscow, London, Los Angeles, New York.

I believe that this brand new machine called the Air Pollution Filter will be of help to us in solving one of our greatest concerns. By doing so all of mankind, animals and plants will have a healthy life.

Kamis, 25 Maret 2010

My Daily Activies

Hi Guys, these are my daily activities.
I usually wake up at 4 A.M. then lie down for 15 minutes before getting up at 4.15. After that I go to my bathroom to take a bath for 5-10 minutes. Then I prepare myself for a 15-minute-morning prayer in the chapel which is continued with saying mass till 5.45. I then take 15 minutes to have breakfast.

Soon after breakfast, I go to my bathroom again to brush my teeth. I usually leave home for campus at 6.45 or 6. 50. I always ride at 80/85 km/hrs, so it takes me 10 - 15 minutes to reach the campus. Sometimes I leave home for the campus at 8.45, even at 10.45; it depends on when my classes start. Sometimes I have three classes at a stretch. For example, on Wednesdays and Fridays my classes go from 7 till 12.50. On Mondays and Thursdays my classes start from 9. On Tuesdays they start at 11 and finish at 3.50 P.M. Every Monday my class finishes at 10.50, on Wednesdays at 12.50.,and Thursdays at 17.50.

I usually have lunch around 1 P.M. but sometimes at 10.30 or 2 P.M. at my favorite warung. Every Tuesday I have lunch in the class, right on 12.50. because I have Structure 2 class at 1 P.M. If it`s just by chance, we don`t have class, I usually go the library or the SAC to study or do my assignments, or I go to the Work Station to study English on DynEd.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening I join an English club in Babarsari from 6 to 7.30 P.M. I do enjoy that club very much as I have native speakers from the USA, UK, and Australia. Moreover I have very clever friends from UGM and Atmajaya.

I don`t have class on Saturdays, but I very often go to campus in the morning to join an extra-curricular activity, or to read or borrow or return books from the library. I just go home at 12.

Compared to the last semester, this semester is a hectic one. Since the beginning of this semester I have never gone home right after my lunch. I usually go home at 4 or 5 P.M. Yet, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I just make it at 7.45 P.M. I have no time to have a snooze. So, you can imagine how tired I am. All of the piles of activities burn me out. Besides that you know that I don`t take an afternoon bath. Yet, my excellent expensive perfume from Switzerland can kill my body odor ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺, so you can still come close to me.

At home I sometimes have dinner with my friends at 6.30. Nevertheless, three times a week I have dinner alone at 8 o`clock. After that I do my assignments. As I don`t have a nap during the day, I usually go to bed early, at 9 0r 10 after browsing on the internet. I usually read and make comments on your blog, any day, once or twice a week. I appreciate your writings, I do learn from you in improving my English. I always have a good sleep till I wake up and get up on the following morning at 4 A.M. Yet, if I go to bed right after dinner, I get up at 2 A.M. to do my assignments.

Every Saturday, after breakfast I do my chores, like washing a week`s dirty clothes, cleaning my bedroom and bathroom before going to campus. After having lunch at 12.30 I go to bed to have a nap. It`s a very long nap. I get up at 4 then iron my clothes. After that I have a bath. Before having dinner I prepare my sermon for Sunday`s mass, the following morning. Most of the masses are said in Indonesian; sometimes in English when we have visitors from Europe or India or Pakistan. After dinner I enjoy time with my friends till 9, then I go to bed.

Sunday is a lovely day for me. After saying the mass, I have my breakfast then go to bed again till 12 o`clock to recharge my batteries for the next long hard burdensome week. After having lunch I sometimes go bed again till 4 P.M. then I take a bath. My Sunday dinner is at SOVERDI. Before hitting the road to SOVERDI, next to the Airforce, I study or do my assignments till 6.30 P.M. The dinner starts at 7. When I come home at 8 I study again then go to bed at 10 P.M.

Hi Guys, that is all about my DAILY ACTIVITIES. Enjoy reading it!!!. I am waiting for your comments on it. Thank you.