Sayonara Aniba!
It was around 7:30 pm. I was on Damri Sukarno-Hatta shuttle bus, just leaving from Gambir. I was heading the airport to join my family to bid Sayonara to my younger sister, Hanifa.
When she was in the first year of her high school, she decided to follow the steps her sister Isma by participating in AFS one-year student-exchange program. She applied for Italy and made it to the national finals. Too bad AFS couldn't find a sponsor for her so she couldn't go in one-year programme. Already sad, she didn't know that instead, AFS put her on the top two list of candidates of Jakarta chapter to go in MEXT program, sponsored by Monbusho, The Office of Education of Japan. After some further test and interview, finally she made it. This chance program is kinda consolation prize for her for not getting place in AFS one-year program.
She's thrilled and so is the rest of our family but we had only one month and a half to prepare everything. First thing first. With Isma on her side, Ifa completed legal documents including passport and school leave request. Then, I took her to buy some ethnic Indonesian souvenirs for her host family and school.
She skimmed through Japanese for Survival language kit, learned some expressions ("Konnichiwa", "Konbanwa", "Arigato", "Dozo", "Chotto". "Sumimasen") and found out that her name was spelled "A-ni-ba" in Hiragana. She also learned some "dos" and "don'ts" in Japanese culture ("Don't point someone with chopsticks", "Avoid argument", "Aim for harmony").
One last thing to be worry of: cultural performance. She had only about a week to prepare something to perform before her host community. Although not very sure about her talent, she finally chose dancing. A friend of the family took her to a private dance lesson where she could learn how to perform a basic number of betawi dance. She half-complained though, she said she had no dancer bones.
Tonight, we bid sayonara to her and other seven students in the departure terminal of Sukarno-Hatta Airport. Quietly we said our prayers asking for God's blessings and salvation so that everything would be okay.
This time it was not very difficult for my parents to let another daughter leave our house. Not only because it wasn't the first time but also because Ifa would leave for only three weeks. Still, my parents were rather worried knowing the fact that their youngest daughter has always needed somebody to remind her to hurry up when it's time for school, to complete her homework when she neglected it over TV, or to put her school stuffs properly. Right before Ifa entered the check-in counter, my dad reminded her again for the umpteenth time to be careful with her legal documents.
Then she and her friends waved goodbye and slowly pushed their trollies into the gate. I waved back to her, "Have fun!"
My mom reminisced the time when Ifa was around one year old. Every night, she always loved to watch the weather forecast just after "Dunia dalam Berita" on TVRI. She would shout "Tokoyo!" whenever she saw the Tokyo Tower icon on the right corner of the TV screen as they displayed the weather forecast for that city. Who'd known that sixteen years later she would ventually step her feet there?
This chance program is kinda consolation prize for her for not getting place in AFS one-year program.
When she was in the first year of her high school, she decided to follow the steps her sister Isma by participating in AFS one-year student-exchange program. She applied for Italy and made it to the national finals. Too bad AFS couldn't find a sponsor for her so she couldn't go in one-year programme. Already sad, she didn't know that instead, AFS put her on the top two list of candidates of Jakarta chapter to go in MEXT program, sponsored by Monbusho, The Office of Education of Japan. After some further test and interview, finally she made it. This chance program is kinda consolation prize for her for not getting place in AFS one-year program.
She's thrilled and so is the rest of our family but we had only one month and a half to prepare everything. First thing first. With Isma on her side, Ifa completed legal documents including passport and school leave request. Then, I took her to buy some ethnic Indonesian souvenirs for her host family and school.
She skimmed through Japanese for Survival language kit, learned some expressions ("Konnichiwa", "Konbanwa", "Arigato", "Dozo", "Chotto". "Sumimasen") and found out that her name was spelled "A-ni-ba" in Hiragana. She also learned some "dos" and "don'ts" in Japanese culture ("Don't point someone with chopsticks", "Avoid argument", "Aim for harmony").
She half-complained though, she said she had no dancer bones.
One last thing to be worry of: cultural performance. She had only about a week to prepare something to perform before her host community. Although not very sure about her talent, she finally chose dancing. A friend of the family took her to a private dance lesson where she could learn how to perform a basic number of betawi dance. She half-complained though, she said she had no dancer bones.
Tonight, we bid sayonara to her and other seven students in the departure terminal of Sukarno-Hatta Airport. Quietly we said our prayers asking for God's blessings and salvation so that everything would be okay.
My dad reminded her again for the umpteenth time to be careful with her legal papers
This time it was not very difficult for my parents to let another daughter leave our house. Not only because it wasn't the first time but also because Ifa would leave for only three weeks. Still, my parents were rather worried knowing the fact that their youngest daughter has always needed somebody to remind her to hurry up when it's time for school, to complete her homework when she neglected it over TV, or to put her school stuffs properly. Right before Ifa entered the check-in counter, my dad reminded her again for the umpteenth time to be careful with her legal documents.
Then she and her friends waved goodbye and slowly pushed their trollies into the gate. I waved back to her, "Have fun!"
My mom reminisced the time when Ifa was around one year old. Every night, she always loved to watch the weather forecast just after "Dunia dalam Berita" on TVRI. She would shout "Tokoyo!" whenever she saw the Tokyo Tower icon on the right corner of the TV screen as they displayed the weather forecast for that city. Who'd known that sixteen years later she would ventually step her feet there?
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