day 842

Today I start my six day 'pulang kampung' holiday - going home to accompany my mum celebrating Hari Raya 'Idul Fitri back home in Jakarta.

And this is the place; the place where I grew up, living there up to my late twenties. It is in an area where it used to be a suburb, where there was no electricity, no paved street, number of ponds nearby with fishes, frogs, snakes, wriggling creatures.. But of course, not anymore.

We used to have jack fruit, mango, papaya, banana, star fruit, guava, jambu air (I don't know what that is in English!) and soursop trees on our front, side and back yards. We even raised chickens, and once had up to ten-ish cats. Our yards were full of wild ants, centipedes, snails, chameleons, lizards, frogs, and sometimes snakes and luwaks. Ocassionally, there were visits from run away monkeys and exotic birds from the zoo.

There were many fields nearby, filled with wild bushes with white and purple flowers, bamboo trees, tapiocas plantation, coconut trees, and couple of scary banyan and rubber trees. The air was so clear that we could see Salak Mount on the south in the clear mornings, and there was barely noise pollution that we could hear the animals in the zoo sang.

The house itself had extended tremendously, to accomodate four kids growing with insatiable needs for space. It now fills with memories; quarrels, cries, hates, laughs, surprises, dreams, cares... all molded me into I am now.