Two
thousand and eleven years Anno Domini. Today is our last working day in TL, to
undertake the capacity assessment as part of the consultancy job. It all went
well, I can simply say. In the morning we encountered the guy from the Bank
once more, after a long conversation yesterday, spanned from the topic of
nuclear physics to theism and atheism, from NASA’s artificial intelligent
project to reincarnation and religion; the difference between monotheistic and
non-monotheistic.
It was an
interesting talk, everyone left with their heads full of thought I suppose,
-including me. This morning we exchanged some small talks about weather and
cities in Indonesia and supporting capacity of the environment, over the
monotonous hotel breakfast. Five days in a row, -number of days we stayed
there, we have only three choices of breakfast: tropical fruits with yoghurt,
toast with number of spreads like butter, jams, marmalades and errr…. Vegemite,
and some cereals (all sweet, I regret) and some fruit juices. Well, cannot
complain more, but imagine the service one can get with US $80/night in
Indonesia, yes, that will include swimming pool!
Shortly
after that, our host organization in TL came and picked us up to shop for wine
and coffee, two most important commodities in there. The presentation went
well, everyone seemed to be all right with the findings. After question and
answer and feedback session, we bade everyone goodbye, signaling that we will
come again next year.
I recalled
that tonight I’ve gotta go to pharmacy to purchase Dio’s medicines. I forgot
whether I really prayed (or not) that morning, but what made this day special was
the way too many, too many indeed, coincidences and fortunate moments that I
encountered. I listed down some as follow:
1.
The
immigration asked me to put the bottle of wine that I carried to cabin on my
luggage. Could have been frustrating to find mine because they have strolled
the trolley on the lane to the plane, but strange enough, mine was on top of
piles of luggage, just like waiting for me to come. So it was easy to unzip my luggage
and put the bottle inside.
2.
The
flight was on time, unlike the previous week when it was said to delay for 5
hours!
3.
The
transit in Bali did not take much time; unlike when we just came.
4.
After taking out our luggage, I saw that the
queue for cabs was way too long. That wasn’t good, I thought, so decided to run
to the bus line and whoop! There the Pasar Minggu bus came first, first, like
never before..so I jumped in.
5.
Fortunately,
it was around 4 pm, and whoa, no traffic jam on the way! So I arrived at home
when day was still bright.
6.
I
took an ojek from the last stop to my place, and when the ojek stopped, he said
‘alhamdulilah’ for the very short trip, and said thank you and again ‘alhamdulilah’
because I said he can take the change. I could not stop myself from mumbling,
following him to say ‘alhamdulilah’, or thanks God (whichever language my mind
can speak to God who understands all languages I suppose). If he was able to
say thank you for the IDR 10,000 that I paid him, what more should I do other
than give thousand thanks for the abundant blessings God has given to me?
7.
I
put all the luggage in my room and soon got to get the public transport to the
pharmacy, and guess what, no traffic in the street! The street is well-known as
‘jalur neraka’ or ‘hell’s lane’ due to its unstoppable congestion, day and
night, weekend or weekday. So again, I considered
myself lucky.
8.
I
took the medicines and returned to my place.
Against all odds, I believe that there’s an
invisible hand guided me, brought me there and made everything just all right
in time. Knowing that, I’m glad that I’m not alone. That the Divine Being is
always be there for me, for the good cause that He intended me to do. Ever since
the world began.
