The Last Nine Hours in Taize

October 3rd, 2008.
21.30 - invitation
after the evening prayer finish, Akalard (Laos) invited me to join the prayer at Crypte to pray for those who will leave (me and George).

21.45 - last prayer in Taize
the prayer begins, we singing some songs. some of them is our favourite. one of them is my favourite (Laetentur Coeli), unfortunately we singing it with tone that too low ;p
after silence time, we had a sharing time. so one by one speak about his/her feeling about anything, mostly about Taize, friends, and for those who will leave. and some people can't avoid his/her tears. trully a very touching moment.


















23.00 - another invitation
back to Tilleul, passed Pablo's room and he insisted me to go to his room. but me, i have to finish my packing. so i'm packing with a rush.

23.45 - Last Silence Party
entered Pablo's room, surprised that they already prepared the "Last Silence Party". and the greatest thing is that it looks like they moved many things from Tilleul kitchen to that sinful room: table (can u believe it?? a table!!), water heater, bowls, choco drink, sugar, tea, a lot of cookies, bread, choco stick, jam, and even they stole the milk from the wardrobe (it's such a crime in Tilleul house). and i think half of Tilleul residence is in that room: Pablo, Jaturong, Jose Manuel, Emmanuel, Karel, Alvaro, Carlos, Ronald, Eric, Chau, Florian, Jun, John. unbelievable!
ah yes, and Ronald bring his mp3 player with its speakers. so that night, that sinful room really become a party, but not so silence with the Latin music and our chuckles.



















and the main part is finally come. French wine. it's unbelievable! ce'nest pa monastique! ahahaha....






















after realize that the participants become larger and we can't low down our voices, we decided to move the party to the common room. so we continue with sharing time. and for me, i gave souvenirs to my new brothers there.




















and i have to go to sleep because i'm very sleepy and had to wake up at 06.00 to catch the first bus.

October 4th, 2008
02.00
the most uncomfortable sleep of me.

06.00 - i don't wanna wake up!
some friends in the house woke me up, as i remember: Pepe, Jun, Jose Manuel.
suddenly they dragged my luggage and my backpack to the common room. what a community life...
final preparation of me, check my luggage weight, and walk down the road, accompanied by some of Tilleul boys. freezing and can't believe it that i'm gonna leave this lovely hill

06.10 - it's always hard to say goodbye
my feeling is totally mixed up. sad, excited, afraid, grateful, thankful, etc.
and i'm so amazed that many of friends had to wake up very early just to say goodbye to me in the bus station. i don't know what but i'm very happy instead of sad - have to leave them. maybe i'm happy because i got a golden chance to know and live with them in my precious life. and grateful to share with them everthing i've got.

so i keep put a smile on my face during saying goodbye to them one by one.

and suddenly that "evil bus" is approaching. one of my friends took the initiative to put my luggage on the baggage. and i remember, Sarah from Germany took my backpack and asked me, "are you gonna bring your backpack on the bus or should i put it on the baggage also?". me, being a little bit disoriented, answered "ng...what? ng...i will take it in the bus, thx!"

so i stepped up in the bus, pay the ticket on the driver, and face to my friends again, smiling and waving my right hand and said,

so, see you later in another part of the world!

and i took a sit, on the right side, next to the window so i can see those happy and sad faces.
put my right palm of hand in the window, watching one by one those faces, and smile during the bus move forward. in seconds, they became far away from my sight, until i can't see them again. and i keep my head to look forward, and suddenly i can see flashes of those random pictures, memories, moments of those 3 months in Taize in my mind.

so, see you later my dear friends...
all of you is got the best plave in my heart and my mind...

























PS:
i consider that God cheer me with those beautiful landscape of Burgundy from my window on that bus...

La Ultimaves

my 12th weeks! i can't believe it...

it feels like i just arrived yesterday in Taize, almost get lost after i alight on Macon-Loche Station, helped by a stranger mom with her daughter and she directed me to hop in on the last bus to Taize, get wet because of the rain and join the evening prayer immediately after i alight in the Taize bus stop.

and in this week i have to go!

maybe everyone who stay longer in Taize will feels this way, it's like don't wanna go home and want to continue this community life. because of you already live with several people for months, build a common life with them, you fit with the works (well, some of them), you love the place, the prayers, the atmosphere, and so on.

but hey, the world keeps on turning out there!

i admitted that Taize is like the place with no bureaucracy, no time, no material, no world thing. you no need (a lot of) money to live in this place. in fact i just spend several euros during my three months staying (well, except the last day i spend a lot of money to buy a lot of stuff in EXPOSITION). and you no need time and calendar to live on this place, well excepts the meetings and the works. i mean, this place is SIMPLE, not as complicated as you live in the real world. you just live you life day by day, enjoying every second that passed by, and you will be HAPPY! at least that lesson what i learned during my staying. and the challenge is to apply it into this real world.

ok enough for the sentimental writings!

the brothers always give a Cadole job for those who will leave on that week. i found out that they did this because Cadole is the only job who no need a team work. i mean, Cadole workers is like freelancer. you missed one-two people doesn't affect the result of the work. and works on Cadole is very variety. some of them really ridiculous and so not important. like i did on my last day on Cadole: i organized screwers and the other thing on Cadole stock room. it's like a job which need a lot of patience and carefully which is i don't have it a lot. and the worst thing is i already did that job on my first month. the job that only need several minutes to finish it. yeah i admitted it's important to do that job otherwise everyone will be very difficult to find the right screw.












but i also did the cleaning tent job. because of not so many people come to Taize so they drop out the tent, clean it, and put them on the stock room. yeah it's an important job and also quite difficult job because we have to bring the heavy tent, lay down nicely, spray it with high-pressure water, brushed it very nicely, spray it again, roll up, bring it into some structure to make the tent dry, and take the second tent, do the same steps, and finally have some dog biscuit and tea.



more less, that the description of my work on my last week. and i work only until wednesday and i got free on thursday and friday. the brothers always do this to give us a time to packing and do others preparation.

so i use my free time for "shopping" on EXPOSITION. buy some postcards and icons. and afterward i become a poor man. haha! on my last day i take my handycam and start make my own documentary about Taize village and its people. i'm sure that's a good videography.

and more less that's what happens on my last week. i will tell you more details what happens on my last hours in Taize. the moment that i will not forget until the end of time.

The Wish Jobs

what an experience!
this three wonderful months soon will be over. even i don't want it but it must to be over. ugh.

on my 10th week, all my wish jobs is finally come true, of course except Olinda. ugh but yeah!

i worked as a Kitchen Coordination. i really want to do this job because it looks more challenging and Pablo always tease me when i worked as a breakfast and tea team. haha! we have to gathered on 10 o'clock, do the preparation for the food stuff: prepare the rice, opening the cans, put it all into boxes, and send it to Kitchen Cooking team and they will cook it all. we're finish approx. 45 minutes everyday, break for one hour, then we have to gathered again at 12 o'clock to prepare the line and put stuffs on top of the tables : tablets, plates, spoons, bowls, desserts, and main course. after that, two people have to stay to guard the food while the others go to Midday Prayer. in the Midday Prayer, when the brothers stand up, we have to run like a horse to Big Kitchen, to gathered enough volunteers to distribute the food, check the Big Washing Up and Small Washing Up team. then the Big Distribution begins. after that, the work is quite same like Breakfast and Tea Team: guard the Big Distribution, clean up the floor, then take lunch together with the team.

what i thought it's more challenging, the fact is this job is not quite challenging. haha. i don't know it's because on that week there was only 300 people on the field so we only have to prepare 2 lines. the preparation thing and the Big Distribution didn't take so much ime and there was not so much to do during the Big Distribution. i mean, it's not so hectic like Breakfast and Tea Team during the week with 3000 people on the field. haha.but overall, i like this work, it's soething new for me and we have special lunch for the team: with a lot of fruit yoghurt! haha!

ah, my Kitchen Coordination team is Mattieu (the coordinator), Jose Ignacio (Chile), Vivi (Chile), and Isabel (Colombia).

and my work at the afternoon is working in the church as a cleaning team. i worked with Karel (Indonesia), Shrinivas (India), Jose Manuel (Honduras), and Frederick (Uganda). There's a different kind of work to do in everyday, but there's some of the same work to do, such as organize the books or organize the brother's benches (i always did this kind of work). the other work is vacuum cleaning, cleaning the candle glasses, and sometimes help Br. Acildes with his inventory job.

it's a nice and very relaxing job. it needs more patience than energy and power. and this work is really fit (at least for me) after did the Kitchen Coordination work. and maybe i like it because i love to be inside the church. it was a very nice to spend a lot of time inside the church. and we have to whisper when we want to talk to each other. haha!

so, that's my wish jobs, which finally come true on my second last week. i'm so grateful for that, it's like the brothers can read my mind even i never told about my wish job to the one of the brothers.

so, see you on my last week in Taize!

Silence

on my 11th weeks in Taize, i'm in silence for one week. it's a usual program in Taize that every people who come to Taize can take this silence program, either they who stay for one week or stay longer. usually for people who stay longer (permanents) take their silence week on their last week. but for me, i want my last 2 weeks for preparing my departure and saying goodbye to all my friends. so i take a silence week on my 10th weeks of my three months staying in the hill.

Br. Andras, my contact brother already give me some briefs about how to spend a week in silence. he said, just consider urself as a children, who always joyful and respect anything that u see. don't think too much , don't write too much. just bless the Lord. so it's important to who spend a week in silence to take a long walk, to enjoy the nature. so that's what i'm gonna do on my silence week.

150908
every morning on 10 o'clock we have bible introduction in Le Puits (the silence house) with brother. and for this first day of silence, the brother gave us some briefs how to spend this week in silence. he just said that silence week is like take a holiday with God. it's like how u take ur holiday with ur family. so it's important to take some distance from other people.
today i don't take a walk cause i'm quite tired. so i just take an afternoon sleep.
and from bible introduction in the morning, i make a note:

rejoice joyfully!

160908
today i take a long walk, to Cormatin. it takes one hour to go there and one hour to go back. at Cormatin, i visit the Roman Church there, pray, and take some photos.
from the bible introduction, i make a note:

forgive & love each other.

170908
today i take a very long walk to Malay, a village after Cormatin. it takes one hour and a half to go there. on the way i met a Romanian guy who wants to go to the post office in Cormatin but he doesn't know the direction. i help him. but the problem is he can't speak English. he just speak Romanian (of course) and French. which i can't speak French much. so while we walking, we speak each other through body language and some words in English and French.
arrived in Malay, i visited a Roman Church there. there's nobody, it's really quiet, and like other Roman church, it's surround by a lot of tomb. that perfect situation makes me quite scare. but i entered the church, pray, and take some photos.
from the bible introduction, i make a note:

God already forgiven us. so why not we forgive each other?

from my long walk, i make a note:

there's no human's creation can purely documentate God's creation.

180908
today i decided to go to Flagy, via TGV rail. just 45 minutes a walk. and the Roman Church is beautiful.
from the bible introduction, i make some notes:

rejoice!
do not be afraid!
here I am, servant of God. Oh let it be with me according to Your word...

190908
today i really tired and i can't feel my leg. so i've decided to take some sleep in the afternoon.
from the bible introduction i make a note:

pour out your complain to God.

200809
saturday is the day for workshop. so i don't take a walk because i don't know where to go. so i attended the workshop of Chile, Kenya, and China. and that's a wonderful workshop!
from the bible introduction, i make a note:

stay in Me and I will stay in you

210809
at the breakfast, we have a sharing between the silence boys. and that's a wonderful sharing. i share about my thought of this silence week. i said,

this week it's like my three months in Taize. silence week it's like take some distance from the world, and have some times with the Creator. that's exactly what i feel about my three months of staying in Taize.

Deux Mois

It seems that summer begins to an end. the sun is not so bright anymore. most of the time, the weather is cloudy or raining. even yesterday at the morning, we were surprised because of the fog. that's the first time I experience the fog also. hehe.

sometimes, the weather is very cold and I have to wear the double trouser (wear training trouser inside my jeans). but today, whe weather suddenly get hot. leaves from some of the trees already fall at the silence area, Source St. Etienne.

my work is getting easier. or maybe it's just my feeling because of the two hectic weeks on my 6th and 7th week. hehe. last week (8th week), I got a group animation job for all day. in this job, i have to be a contact person for a small group of 15-16 years. contact person more less is lika a moderator who facilitate the sharing sessions. i've got 8 teenagers in my group - 5 Germans and 3 Portugueses. and only 3-4 people who can speak English very well. rest of them, need their friend to translate what they want to say. the difficult part is on the Portugueses people because all of them can't speak English quite well. so if their turn to share something, it tooks several minutes to wait them for discuss the translation. but overall, my group is good. all of them want tho share what their feels, their thought. but sometimes what their thought is quite naive that i have to guide them to think the other way.

at this week, i tried to learn Deutsch and my groupmates are very cooperative. but i realized that Deutsch is too difficult for my tounge. and for my throat. ;p

my work on my 9th week is work with Br. Francesco (one of the brothers from Indonesia) in the morning. Br. Francesco especially asks me to become a translator for his mother who come and stay for a month. she wants to join the bible introduction on her last week but she's not speak and understand English. so this kind of job is very interesting for me because it's very challenging. it's doesn't need power at all but i have to ise all of the capacity of my brain. at the first time, it's a little bit difficult because the method of bible introduction is like the brother speak for one sentence then the other language translate what he speaks about. for me, it's difficult to translate it sentence by sentence to Indonesian because otherwise the meaning will be quite weird. so i tried my own way, to translate it by "paragraph" - after i get the meaning, then i translate it. and it feels good when i get the rhythm.

at the afternoon, i work at Economat Big Kitchen. it's similar with Economat El Abiodh, the differences is that Big Kitchen have a wider area and more tools than El Abiodh. and everyday we have to do different kind of job, such as organize the stock room and move some things to other places, washing the big rubbush bins, cleaning Bread Barrack, cleaning the drain, cleaning washing up pots, etc. and it's just only took one hour to finish our work.
next week, i gonna be in silence for a week.

this week, i met many interesting people. beside had a more close relationship with Br. Francesco's mother, i met Mark who came from Bonn, Germany but he can speak Indonesia very fluently because he already stay in Jogjakarta, Indonesia for 9 months. then i also met one guy from Bantul, Middle Java, Indonesia, who already married with a German woman and has been stayed in Germany for one year. also i met an 18 years old girl who come from Germany and he already stay in Jogjakarta, Indonesia for 1 year so she can speak Indonesia and Javanese very fluently.

Missing in Action

Nokia N-70 milik Timotius Eshadyan Prassanto.
Hilang dalam tugas di Taize, Perancis.
Terakhir terlihat pada hari Sabtu, 6 September 2008 pukul 08.15 waktu Perancis, ketika bangun pagi dan langsung dimasukkan ke dalam tas kecil yang selalu dibawa oleh korban.
Siang hari sekitar pukul 13.00 waktu Perancis, korban berniat untuk mendengarkan musik di kamar. Korban mencoba merogoh hape yang ada di dalam tas tetapi ternyata tidak ada. Korban mencoba mengobrak-ngabrik kamar tetapi hape tidak juga ditemukan. Sampai satu jam kemudian, hape dinyatakan HILANG DALAM TUGAS.

Kronologi pada hari Sabtu, 6 September 2008 tersebut adalah:
08.05 : bangun, matikan alarm dari Nokia N-70, masukkan hape ke tas
08.10 : sikat gigi dan cuci muka
08.15 : ambil tas, jalan ke gereja. eh hujan, masuk ke kamar lagi, taro tas dalem lemari, jalan ke gereja pake jas hujan.
09.15 : sarapan
09.30 : ke kamar, ambil tas dari dalam lemari, berangkat kerja
12.20 : doa siang. tas masih menjadi bagian dari tubuh korban.
13.00 : makan siang. sampai saat ini korban masih belum mengecek hape dari tas.
13.45 : selesai makan, korban taruh tas di kamar lalu pergi ke Common Room
13.46 : korban kembali ke kamar dan mengambil hape dari tas. tapi ternyata hape tidak ada.
14.46 : hape dinyatakan HILANG DALAM TUGAS.

Nomer XL dari korban sedang diusahakan untuk dihidupkan kembali oleh kakak korban yang berada di Jakarta. Maka untuk sementara, nomer XL korban tidak dapat dihubungi sampai korban kembali ke Jakarta pada tanggal 5 Oktober 2008.

Dengan ini, saya menyatakan duka cita yang mendalam kepada korban.
Semoga arwah dari Nokia N-70 dapat diterima di sisi Yang Maha Kuasa.
Amin!

Breakfast and Tea

"GOOD MORNING TAIZE! WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS TO SERVING THE BREAKFAST!"

every morning, the chief of the breakfast and tea team has to shout out like that if they need more volunteers to distribute the breakfast, such as choco drink or tea, butter, choco stick, bread, and cup. standing on the top of one of the line barrier, facing thousands of young people.
at my earlier time in Taize, when I saw one of my friend do the shouting like that, I always thinking that I wanna do like that. and suddenly, start from my 6th week, I stand up on the top of the one of the line barrier, facing two thousands of young people, it's feels like I'm standing on the stage in front of thousands audience. and I can see all their faces, their expressions, their reaction when they saw me do the shouting.

yes, my 6th and 7th week, I've got a work in Breakfast and Tea Team as a coordinator. we are four of us and we have to work for two weeks. on my first week, me and Lucas (Germany) was trained by Sandipan (India) - the chief and Washington (Brazil). and on my second week, we've got two new coordinators, Francisco (Chile) and Callistus (Tanzania), and they were trained by me and Lucas. and so on and so on. that's how the coordinator thing works.
so, how to do this kind of work?

early at the morning, at 07.00 sharp, we have to be gathered with the Morning Team at Big Kitchen. we have our own room, sometimes its called Breakfast Barrack or Breakfast Kitchen.
the instruction of this work is very simple, at the morning, we have to prepare breakfast for Small Groups (work groups such as Cadole, Rubbish Collection, Kitchen Coordination, Night Welcome, etc) and for the Big Distribution (breakfast for the field people). after the Big Distribution is finish, we have to prepare Tea after 11 o'clock for the Small Groups because they need tea after the finish their work.

at the afternoon, we have to gathered with the Afternoon Team at 15.00 sharp. we only have to prepare tea for the Small Groups and Big Distribution.

how to make tea or choco drink for thousands of people? this is when the magic happens.
we have a special big pot for making either tea or choco drink. fill it with the water, cold or hot water. then put the packages of tea or choco drink. and then, voila! tea for 250 people is served in one big pot!

usually it's only took less than a minute to make tea or choco drink in one big pot. so, it's only took less than 10 minutes to satisfied around two thousands people with tea or choco drink.

tea pot, one funny thing happens to me about this kind of tool. when i bring the empty tea pot into the Big Washing Up area, one of my friend who responsible for the Big Washing Up start to shout "oh my goodness, another TEA POT!!" when he saw me bring that tea pot. and i replied, "not tea pot! but TEA MO (timo)!!" kyahahahahaha....

in my opinion, this kind of job is a challenging work. because to do this work, we not only need power such as to lift up the pot to on the top of the table. but, especially as a coordinator, we also have to make a quick decision when exactly we have to close the line, or which line is have to be close first, etc. because when the Big Distribution is already begin, we have only a little time to solve the problem that happens. and also we have to organize our team member to do the job very well and eficient.

i think this is one of the best job in Taize i've ever had. on my 8th week, i start to missed this job.

haha!