*By Aziza Restu Febrianto
I never
imagined that one day I could be involved and becoming a part of the community
that I had not been really well acquainted before. Living in the place where
the habits and cultures are like some things new in my mind. Here, I met lots
of various people with different backgrounds of life especially on religions,
thoughts, and customs. And I’ve learned little bit more about them all. There
are some prominent social aspects considered to be interesting to tell such as traditional
and local customs, social dominance, occupations, and education system
prevailed. In the marriage system for example, the groom has to assure that he
is indeed ready to prepare the goods and gifts called “belis” including the bride
price for the engagement. Belis is usually translated into livestock such as
cows, goats, sheep, and pigs. The much value of the bride price dedicated to
the bride shows that he is serious for marriage. Besides, the bride also has to prepare the
gifts like clothes, sarong, and traditional food and beverages such as kibi
(food made of rice), filu (local cake), wawindota (food made of pig meat), bue
tana (food made of bean), and moke’ (local beer). Therefore, before making the
decision for marriage, the couple should have long and serious preparations
especially on the goods as well as belis needed as the compulsory requirement. Before
the wedding party, the marriage begins with the agreement between the bride and
the groom led by the priest in the church. The wedding party is occasionally held
for two days. At night, it is enlivened by some shows of music. As I firstly
attended the party, I felt it was great and awesome. The party ends with the
dance music and all the guesses gather joining the dance especially “Gawi”
dance, a traditional dance of East Nusa Tenggara. The dance party finally ends when
the music stops in the midnight.
The
second interesting part of the cultures is the social dominance prevailed. In
Flores, Land lords named “Musalaki” are considered to be the most influential
people in the society. They play as the first persons who lead and make the
policies followed by the people in the village. What makes it so interesting
for me is that sometimes they have strong authorities to control almost the
whole aspects of life of the society. Moreover, before taking the actions, as
the national and residential government as well as some private companies plan
to realize the social projects and programs, they are firstly recommended to
take the negotiation and agreement from Musalaki. To me, there are eventually some
advantages and disadvantages taken related to this. By the existence and the
roles of Musalaki, not all projects can be run and succeeded to be implemented
in the residence they lead. Therefore, Musalaki indirectly play a very
important role to protect the land especially from all the irresponsible
people. On the other hands, their authorities may affect on the process of the
residential growth and development including the governmental programs especially
on infrastructures.
Like
people in Java and other places in some tropical countries, most people in
Flores are farmers, gardeners and fishermen. They mostly plant paddy, corns and
yams in almost the whole fields that they own. As the harvest day comes, they
focus on the farm and its income for the trade. In other time, they spend the
whole days for going to the garden. Some of them are also fishermen with
traditional tools and small boats. Interestingly, every early morning, after a
sleep and prayer, I always hear the voices of some fishermen offering and
persuading the people to buy the fishes they catch in the night before.
Fishermen usually leave to sail at night and return to home in the morning
after all. Here, the most impressive part to consider is the lands ownership.
In this case, as a matter of fact, the farmers and gardeners do not actually carry
out the plantation on the lands that they own because they all just rent from
Musalaki as the landlords. As a result, they do not deserve for the lands trade
at all. They have no right for selling the lands and the lands ownership
itself.
As
a teacher, I am always concerned about the ways how people in Flores educate
their children in schools as well as in families. Different customs and habits
affect on the individual characters of the people in Flores. They also give
impact toward the ways and methods used in educating their children. Quite of
view people here think that it is usual to use the direct methods in teaching
children. What they have in mind is that naughty children deserve to get the
direct punishments when they make mistakes because most of them are considered stubborn.
Flores people call it “Kepala Batu.” They are also used to showing their anger
directly whenever their children are doing unexpected and prohibited things. In schools, as implemented in families,
teachers apply the same ways as well. Whenever
the students make a mistake and do some unexpected and prohibited things,
without a doubt, the teachers also give the direct punishments like what the
parents do at home. They suppose that giving and showing an advise and warnings
is not effective to make the students understand and have a willing to make a
change for betterment. As I was once questioning about it to clarify, “What if
some complains come when the teachers in schools apply this?” They explained,
“Well, all people here have agreed with what teachers do toward their children
as they make mistakes in schools.” In conclusion, the customs of educating
children in society are definitely reflected on the ways and thoughts of the
teachers to do the same too. Seeing the such phenomenon, I was firstly shocked
and wondered. But then I began to think that this was exactly an impressive
thing to learn. It also becomes a challenge for me to learn how to implement
the different softer and more effective methods among these hard situations. And
it is not certainly a piece of cake. Till today, I have been thinking to find the
appropriate methods used in warning and punishing the students while making
mistakes without strictness. Hence, and finally they lead them to tend to
betterment.
For
me, the social life in Flores is an interesting thing to tell too. As we know, there
are two religions professed in Flores, Catholics and Islam. Moslems and
Catholics live peacefully in contiguity. Though most of them are Catholics,
they consider the Moslems as brothers. As they have parties as well as
celebrations, all the Moslems are invited to attend. The same as what the
Catholics do, in conducting the celebrations, the Moslems always invite the
Catholics to attend too. It influences the peaceful situation without any
single conflict happens among them. Not to mention, there have even been many
Moslems and Catholics become families because of marriage. The peace among the
diverse people in Flores can anyway be a good example for others to learn
especially for those who sometime live in conflicts.
Beside
the interesting and impressive things to share, there is also a unique one I
find in Flores. That is the use of the public transportation means. I found
myself really surprised and curious about what people said that in Flores, one
of the common public transportation means used is truck. The truck is modified
into an automobile similar to the bus. In the truck, the chairs and the roof are
set up together like bus. People therefore call it as “Bis Kayu” or bus made of
wood. Bis Kayu is used for daily public transportation mean which carries
persons and goods for short as well as long distance. I have never found this
before. It’s really wonderful. The bus like this will always remind me to
Flores when I have returned to home.
At
last, I think my duty to live along with Flores people like today is a very
awesome and unforgettable journey I’ve ever had. Incredible!
Keynotes:
Belis : Marriage gifts. The gifts
which include some livestock such as cows, goats, sheep, and pigs dedicated to
the bride showing that the groom is serious for the engagement. Here, giving
the Belis to the bride is a compulsory requirement to do in marriage.
Kibi : traditional food
which is made of rice. Paddy is soaked for some hours. The soaked one is then
fried without vegetable oil. After all, the rice is dissevered from its peels.
Finally, kibi is served for meals.
Filu : cake made of wheat
flour. The cake is mixed with Javanese sugar.
Wawindota : pig meat that is chopped into pieces
called “rica – rica.”
Bue Tana : cake made of peanuts. It is then
poured onto Kibi. It is supposed to be more delicious to have it with Kibi.
Moke : local beer made of enau
tree.
Gawi : traditional dance
which include several people (men and women) accompanied with music and certain
moves. The moves are usually indicated by the legs and hands movements. All
hands are holding to each other.
Musalaki : the Land lords and the top
leaders in village.
Place Setting:
Village:
Mukusaki, Subdistrict: Wewaria, Regency: Ende, Province of East Nusa Tenggara
(Flores Island), Indonesia
Mukusaki, 18th of March, 2012
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