There she was, sitting on the brown dotted stone with two little boys. Down the stone salt water from Karimata strait plays smooth wave. Nadine that’s the way she called. For Indonesian people this name would sounds like pretty and elegant woman, Nadine Chandrawinata was nominated as Miss Indonesia 2005, but this Nadine is just a little girl, not yet a woman.
About 20 minutes ago this Nadine asks me to join with her family and their neighbour in the beach. It was 7 o’clock in the morning, I had just woke up, my eyes are still get hard to adapt with the light outside. But this girl was so excited; to let her down means to turn my whole days feeling regrets. Three gulp of fresh water and I follow her.
There were about 20 or more adult in the beach that morning, they were busy, collecting stones or broke the stone apart. They collect it for road. The government in district want to fix the village road and they collect the stones for money. That was Nadine’s father said to me the night before.
Nadine looks so happy playing with her friends, actually she ask me to come here not to playing something with her, I know it, but just to take me here, to make me feel what they feel at the time. So I sat down on the cream-colored sands. The adults: men, woman, were busy with the stone. Children: boys and girls were sitting on the big stones, some others plays on the water. I look my watch, it was 7.25 am, in this tropical country the sea water is always warmer than the morning air.
Nadine had not entered the school yet, but next year she would be in her first grade, I hope so. There was only one elementary school in Temajuk, her village. There is no village near by them. They live in the corner of this country, the real means of corner. The nearest village takes 4 hours by motor cycle, pass through jungle, sandy mud, and no access for car. There is one village next to theirs, but it belongs to Malaysia not Indonesia. There is a school there, it has four floors and looks nice with the bright paint and clean green garden. But it’s not for them, it’s too expensive.
Looking at this little girl, I took a deep breath, throw my eyes on the sea boundary, salt water from Karimata strait still plays smooth swing wave and once again I aware that I was sitting on the westernmost corner of Borneo Island. I hold my camera, turn it on and took a shoot. My work here has done, tomorrow I will go back home, where I can live in the place people said the “civilization” do exist.
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Sambas, October 22th 2011
Original post: World Nomad
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