Sanctity of Love

The sky was dark with many stars sparkling on a gloomy compound in Papua. The wind was blowing smoothly through black savanna. Brave big stones lying on the friendly land which always be ready to warm the people coming. Dancing with the grasses and sliding through the stone. Four black-round-rubbers were rolling on the dark land, running wildly on the grasses, breaking the loneliness of the compound and sliding to a lonely-miserable house whose windows were closed tightly from the chill of night.
A man with a thick-turquoise-jacket threw his left-feet to the ground, continued with the other one. He was bringing a big bag on his strong back and lifting a suitcase away from the ground using his arms, kept it clean from the naughty dust of the ground. The other one was a tall-dark man with big mustache hanging on his warm face. He was the mayor of Merauke for next four years; Mr. Samuel Batubolo. The man with the turquoise was standing on the small verandah of the house, stretching his body to the left, the right, and rolling his head while waiting tor the dark man opening the door of the house.
“Finally it’s opened. It’s a bit hard to be opened. You see the door is big and the key’s hole is old and rusted. Tomorrow I’ll call a man to repair it”, said the mayor.
“Nope sir, I’ll oil it tomorrow. The squeaks might be disappeared easily”, said the turquoise with a warm smile.
They went inside the house, turned on the lamps and checked every room of the house. The house was warm. The wall was covered by old wood and painted by white color, as well as the floor whose color was natural.
“Since we have opened all the doors one by one, I assume that you have already been familiar with every corner of this house”, stated the mayor.
“Yes I have. I will manage this house become tidier tomorrow”, answered the young man.
“Ok then, Rendra, enjoy the night. I do hope this house could build your favor quickly. Ah, remember that you have to come to school early tomorrow for your introduction and first class”, said the mayor.
“Ok, thanks”, replied the young man.
The morning came, woke up the people with the loud voice of roosters, taught the sparrows to sing, and swum with the white feathers on the lake. The young man was ready to go. He mirrored and combed his black hair while waiting for the mayor came. “Honk..honk”, the voice of a silly car came.
The young man grabbed his bag and came to the car.
“How’s your sleep?” asked the mayor.
“Chill!” answered the young man while giving his first smile for today.
Then the car rushed through the dusty way and the grasses. The grass wasn’t black at all. It was green. They slide through the villager’s house to the only one school in that village. It was located on the center of the village, near the mayor’s office, in front of a big field which usually used for ceremony. The school was not good, almost miserable. The wall made from old wood which didn’t cover all the classrooms, so you could see the students were studying inside the class even though you were standing 20 meters far from the school’s fence.
The mayor and the young man got out from the car, walked slowly while smiling to the students who were playing on the school’s yard, to the room where pigeons prepared for feeding their children to face the cruel world. There were three people sitting on old chairs talking each other. They roused their selves as soon as the mayor and the young man came in.
“Morning Mr. Sam, my pleasure to see you in great condition. Please take a sit”, said the man with thick moustache on his warm face. He was the headmaster of the school. His hair was grey, signing that he was not young any more. His body was sturdy covered with his sun-tanned skin.
“Thank you Mr. Gerard. O, here is Rendra Saputra. He is a fresh-graduate teacher from Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta. Well, even though he gets his bachelor in Yogyakarta, it doesn’t guarantee his ability in speaking Javanese. Actually he is from Jakarta and half of his age is spent in that crowd city”, explained the mayor while looking at the young man who was smiling to his new friends.
“Welcome Rendra. I am Gerard. I am the headmaster of this school. I am teaching all grades and focused on social science. Let me introduce the other teachers. The man with round glasses next to you is Mr. Tambba, he is teaching Bahasa Indonesia for all grades, while the man next to Mr. Tambba is Mr. Gilbert, and he is teaching all grades as well. Specialize in mathematics and science”, explained the headmaster enthusiastically.
“Thank you Mr. Gerrad, Mr Tambba, and Mr. Gilbert. I need your guidance in my first carrier”, said the young man.
They were talking each other, laughing, sharing anything, merging their soul became the solid one. Then the mayor saw his wrist, stood and said good bye to the new composition of teacher of Cendekia Fak-Fak Senior High School.
The two teachers came to their own chair, preparing the material for teaching and left the room, while the headmaster accompanied the new teacher to his first class. It was an English class. He was teaching the third grade.
The class was hot. No air conditioner, fan, so wet! There were many students talking each other. Some of them were sitting on the table while the others were cooling their self by using their book. The headmaster and Rendra came, suddenly the noisy disappeared, no one was sitting on the table and all of the attentions were pointing at a one point; the person with fair skin, Rendra. Based on the appearance, the students could easy recognize that he wasn’t from Papua, especially when he was speaking, it’s an accent of Java. The headmaster introduced Rendra to the students.
He said, “Since Ms. Meg, our English teacher, is taking a master program at Jakarta and she isn’t able to teach us for next three years, here is Mr. Rendra, a new teacher from Java, will teach you English until Ms. Meg comes back from Jakarta”.
“What? Ms. Meg goes to Jakarta? Why doesn’t she tell us?” asked a girl in the third row.
“Yes. Why didn’t she tell anything to us? She is the only one I need”, said a boy on the back. He was Mike. He was a native of Bau-Bau. He was tall, sun-tanned and his hair was black and curly. He was wearing an open-necked shirt. “I am not sure that the young man could teach English as well as Ms. Meg. Why don’t you choose a teacher from Papua? He is from Java, I am afraid he couldn’t teach us based on our own characteristic because actually our culture are different”, continued him.
“Ssshhh, mind your attitude Mike. He is competent. Of course he is able to teach you as well as Mr. Meg. He will start his lesson today, so please give him a chance to know your characteristic”, said the headmaster.
Then the headmaster left the room and Rendra started his first lesson. He was going to explain a material; past tense. He had prepared anything for his first class; include choosing a game related to the topic. He tried to make the students at their ease by playing some games as well as learning the material. He believed that this method was the right method because it enabled the students to learn the material while knowing each other. But unfortunately, the games was not working wall, which meant that it didn’t make the gap between Rendra closer, even made farther.
Some of the students were not welcomed to Rendra, sometimes they give a very sharp sight and giggled to Rendra, reflecting that they were not interested at all to the materials given by Rendra. When Rendra asked the students a question, no one answered it. When Rendra asked them to do some assignments, only few of them did it. When Rendra conducted peer learning; such as discussion, many of the students didn’t did it well, some of them keep talking even when he explained the material. The class was so noisy.
In the morning of the following day, he started his day by cycling to the school. Cycling through the modest houses of Papua people, amazed by the uniqueness of its shape and its roof which made from dried bush. While he was cycling, he saw one of his students walking on the dark passageway. It was Mike, a student of Rendra’s class. His house was close to Rendra’s house.
Then Rendra asked him, “Are you going to school? Let’s go together.”
But the student didn’t give any answer. Rendra was disappointed and sad, he stopped for a moment and tried to calm down his self. He reinforced his self by thinking that it’s only a problem of time. He believed that by the time he taught the student, he would accept him self as well as they accept the previous lecturer.
He had arrived at school and then prepared all materials that he needed. He hoped that today would be better than yesterday; there would be no any students talking when he was explaining the topic. But the fate was telling another story. The class was so noisy. There were many students talking each other. He found it difficult to explain the material clearly.
“Mr. Rendra, could you please explain it a bit slowly please?” asked the boy from back row of the class.
So Rendra slowed down his speech and continued explaining the material, but the one who requested it kept ignoring his explanation. He kept taking all the time. It made Rendra so confused even the confusion always haunted every steps of him when he was going back to his home; “What’s wrong with me?”
One by one student walked out from the class. They thought that the teacher was not good at all. He wasn’t able to explain the material clearly. Mike, as a representative of the class came to the headmaster said “We need another teacher. He was so bad for being a teacher. He has buried all my imagination of being a good teacher”. Finally, after the class was over, Rendra headed the headmaster and conveyed the truth. He was so sorry because he couldn’t explain the material clearly to the students. Because of that accident. There were many students gossiped about Rendra, and the gossips came from the native-boy; Mike! He said that being taught by Mr. Rendra was not good at all, he couldn’t expalin the material clearly.
One night, when the sky was decorated by many stars which were blinking to every man on the world. A boy walked through a dark way. He was enjoying the night by seeing at the sky where full-moon was hanging on. Then he passed a house where his new teacher lived. He saw that the man was getting down on his knees, hoping that his students would open their arms warmly to accept him self. The boy saw Rendra’s hands were opened; his eyes looked at a point on the air in a dark silhouette against the blind on the window. He heard for a moment the pray exactly what Rendra prayed. “It was so touchy”, said the boy. Then he left the house.
**
“It was already six months”, said Rendra when he saw a calendar on an old table in his room.
He was silent for a moment, thinking about his family and friends in Java. Suddenly, when he was on the sky of his imagination a picture of his class came in. He thought that, there was no proggres of that class. The students still didn’t accept him and there was still a very big gap between him and the students. Sometimes he was so frustrated. He thought to go back to Jakarta, he really missed his mother’s warm hugs, but he realized that it was not a right choice. He should struggle to pass every disturbance facing him. Then he closed his eyes and strengthened his will to give a bright new life for Papua children. He tried to emphasize his belief that his duty was love; sharing without hoping to be shared as well as his almamater said “panggilan suci mulia membina angkatan muda”, the sanctified of love.
“This is the beauty of life; sharing” he said while his tears were streaming down on his cheek. Then, he got up from his seat, grabbed his bag, and got on to his old bicycle.
The sun was smiling. He praised God because he was allowed to feel His massive love flowing through his limited nerve. He saw the natives were talking each other in front of their house and smiling to him; he replied it with warm smile and continued his ride to school. After he arrived at the school, he entered the class and started his lesson. As usual, the students were not respect at all. Some of them kept talking when he explained the material. One by one the students walked out from the class room. They refused to be taught by him. What they wanted was being taught by their teacher; Miss Meg.
Rendra couldn’t do anything but standing and feeling his heart was broken down. He was so hurt; he didn’t want to shout angrily at the students. He tried to take a deep breath and calm himself. He saw at the students in the class, there were only five students staring at him. He was so sad, his heart was so pain, it was like being punched by someone. He couldn’t do anything but sitting and tried to chill himself. When he felt better, he stood up and continued his lesson. When he was explaining the material, suddenly all of the things were getting darker and darker. He saw his hand, rubbed it and everything was black.
***
The sky was grey and the wind was not blowing as smooth as usual. Big trees along the passageway were not at their ease. There were many leaves flying by the blow of the wind. Smooth dark cotton on the sky was crying, bursting a bunch of water on the earth, disturbing every sparrow which usually danced nicely on green grass. On a lonely passageway, there were many people in front of a house where its door was old and rusted. They were holding black umbrellas and filling every corners of its yard.
A tall-dark man with big mustache hanging on his warm face was sitting on a chair inside the house. He was leading a prayer for a man who was peace for ever after. His head was pulled down to a bed where the man’s body was lying on. There was a small-red handkerchief in his tight hold, witnessed every tears streaming down on his cheek.
An old woman was sitting beside the bed, crying badly while rubbing her beloved head‘s son. She was wearing a black veil. No one could avoid seeing her broken heart. She was feeling so sorry because she couldn’t do anything to bring back his son. A young boy was standing in front of a window, there was a dark clouds hanging on him. The boy was staring the bad sadly, feeling so sorry because he had done everything badly. It was so poignant for him, pressed his mind to think hardly that he had to do something to pay back every debt of his regret.
****
Twenty years later. There was a young man wearing a white-splendid shirt. He was standing in front of a black board, explaining a topic of English class; past tense. “Mr. Mike, could you explain it a bit slowly, please?” asked a young girl in a front row of a class.