Keep Surviving (Features News Story)

Along the kitchen room, a brown skin man was walking while pushing a red VEGA R motorcycle to the front of a green house. He checked the machine and continued with cleaning it. He washed it with water and polished it with a rubber brush. After that, he wiped it with a slice of old clothes that had never been used again.

Mr. Nono is one of some people in Senjoyo who has a business to buy and sell second-hand motorcycles and car. Right now, he has four motorcycles and one “Kijang” car in his house to be sold.

Mr. Nono always keeps his trade to be in a good condition, both in machine and perfomance. If there is something wrong on his motorcycle’s machine, he would take it to the repair shop soon to fix it. If it seems to him that his motorcycle is dirty, he would take a scoop and washes it. He loves to make his buyer are satisfying with his trade.

Mr. Nono was born in Tengaran, May 19, 1970. He came from an ordinary family in Senjoyo and began his business selling motorcycles since he was in Senior High School 1997. Actually he didn’t intend to have a business to buy and sell second-hand motorcycle before. At that time, he just liked all about automotive and one day, one of his friends said that he needed a motorcycle. He asked Mr. Nono to look for a second motorcycle for him. After hearing his friend’s need, he sold his own motorcycle to his friend and got the profit from it. After that, he bought another motorcycle which was also a second-hand and sold it again. Of course, he also got the profit from selling motorcycle. Because of that experience, Mr. Nono decided to make a small business on buying and selling second-hand motorcycle called “Nono Second Motorcycle and Car Business”.

Mr. Nono background education is a bachelor of Slamet Riyadi University in 1996, Solo. He graduated from that university with a title Social Bachelor.

Many people asked, “Why didn’t Mr. Nono take another job which is more appropriate with his education?.”

Actually once, after graduating from university, Mr. Nono ever had a job in farmation company in Surabaya. He stopped his business on buying and selling second-hand motorcycle for a while and went there to work but, because of some reasons, he quited from that job and started his business on buying and selling second-hand motorcycle again. Many people thought Mr. Nono quited his job in that company because of his boss’ bad behavior who liked to humiliate other people. Then, because of that reason Mr. Nono couldn’t hold on working in that company and quited. But still, he kept surviving by starting his business to buy and sell second-hand motorcycle again.

Mr. Nono didn’t look for another job because he didn’t want to be ruled by other people. He wanted to make his own job that didn’t make him ruled by others. So, he continued this buying and selling second-hand motorcycle business more seriously.

Mr. Nono gets his motorcycles from several sources. They come from his friends and sometimes from another motorcycle sellers. Once he ever had been tricked by a person who sold a stolen motorcycle to him. As usual, for the first time before Mr. Nono bought a motorcycle, he would check the physical of the motorcycle. After that, he checked the machine number of that motorcycle and  continued by checking the ownership. He checked the STNK (a license of vehicle police number) and BPKB (like a small book to proof of owning a vehicle) to make sure that they were all matching with the police number in the motorcycle to prove that it was not a stolen motorcycle. Then Mr. Nono thought that all is well with that motorcycle and he bought it which was costed 6,500,000 rupiah.

After paying that motorcycle, he went to SAMSAT (a place where people could pay their vehicle tax in Salatiga) to pat the tax of that motorcycle because the tax hadn’t been paid yet by the ex- owner. When he would pay the tax, he found that the motorcycle’s tax has been blockade by SAMSAT. At last, he was told that the motorcycle he had just bought was a stolen motorcycle. Unsuprisingly, the police thought that Mr. Nono was mixed up with syndicate who accepted every stolen motorcycle. Then, Mr. Nono showed the evidence to prove he was not involved in that stolen motorcycle’s case. He showed the STNK and BBKB to the police and told them that the STNK and BBKB were matching with the police number of that motorcycle. So, he didn’t think that that motorcycle was a stolen motorcycle and bought it. The police believed him and didn’t give any sanction for Mr. Nono.

After a few days, the truth appeared. The police found that the son of the victim himself who was a syndicate of that motorcycle theft. He was first blotting out his father in law’s motorcycle and then sold the BBKB to his friend to be sold outside. Actually, Mr. Nono wanted to continue this case until clear but, he couldn’t do it because the police couldn’t find the main theft, the owner’s son in law’s friend. Then, the police endured that motorcycle and the owner of that motorcycle gave Mr. Nono a half replacement for money that Mr. Nono had paid before to buy that motorcycle. Mr. Nono lossed 3,250,000 rupiah because of that incident. Whether Mr. Nono was tricked and experienced of loosing 3,250,000 rupiah, Mr. Nono kept surviving and could continue his business.

“It was just like a jumping stone that would make me be better and be more careful to choose any motorcycle I want to buy next time,” said Mr. Nono.

In 2005, a dealer in Salatiga believed Mr. Nono motorcycle’s quality and bought one of his second-hand motorcycle. Mr. Nono went on the dealer to manage the letter about that motorcycle and then met a woman sitting in the cashier table. Javanese people said “Witing tresno jalaranan saka kulina” (Love came because of usual meetings). From that time, Mr. Nono and that woman became closer and fell in love. They married in 2006 and now, they had two children with them. The first is Kevin Adyatma and the second is Mega Tantri. They aren’t rich, but they are happy and keep surviving in their life. 

After his first son was born in 2007, Mr. Nono started his business to buy and sell second-hand car. The first car that he sold was a Zebra car. He bought it, sold it, and got profit from it.  Until now, he just only has one car to be sold and when it has been sold, he will buy one car again to be sold. Now, he keeps surviving from both second-hand motorcycle and car business that he has. 

“Life is hard but, don’t give up! If we have spirit and try hard, we could survive in any condition we faced,” said Mr. Nono.

Penthol Cilok (Feature News Story)

Have you ever felt something salty and elastic-cilok was rolling inside your mouth?

            Penthol cilok is a snack that is made from the starch. This starch makes the cilok elastic when it is eaten.

Cilok is made by mixing the starch with a little wheat, water and favors (salt, garlic, and pepper). After that, they are shaped, boiled, and steamed.

Cilok’s shape is like penthol bakso (meatball), so it is called penthol. Whether the word cilok comes from the sentences aci di colok (the starch that is pinned).  People habits to eat this snack by sticking them with palm leaf rib make it called cilok (aci di colok).

Cilok comes from Bandung and is spreaded in all city of Indonesia. There are several kinds of cilok in Indonesia, depends on the complement material in it (chicken cilok, fish cilok, beef cilok, etc.) and the places where the cilok is made (cilok Pandaan, Cilok Cipaganti, etc.).

 Cilok is served with sauce like tomato sauce, sweet ketchup, and peanut sauce which make the taste of the cilok are complete.

“Cilok is a delicious, cheap and heavy snack,” said one of the che cilok sellers in Pandaan. “Do you want to try?”

Blog pada WordPress.com.

 

Small Love (Narrative)

When I was in the first grade of junior high school, I was a calm girl who liked to study. My principle was “not to have any boyfriends until I was success”. One day, in the class, there were two boys whispering about something.

“You know what? Our friend Seto, is falling in love with her” , said one of the boy with his eyes were looking at me. Well, I used to share everything with Seto before because, he was nice and I enjoyed having a conversation with him. But, it didn’t continue for a long time until I heard about that issue.

            In the second grade, I was doing well on my study until the next issue about my love’s story came again. Some of my friends told me that there was a boy who liked me. But, I had had that kind of experience before so, I didn’t think too much about it. I just kept silent and then the issue came off. Because of my worry having another friends falling in love with me then, I avoided every boy in my school. The impact was, all of my friends were girls.

            On the third grade, after a long time, there was a boy who closed with me. He was very funny and made me happy. He made me have spirits to come to school. Then, one day, he asked me about having any boyfriends. Then, I realized about my principle “not to have any boyfriends before getting success”. So, I talked to him about that honestly. After that, he was a little bit different with me but, I didn’t think too much about it. I have to keep my principle.

TO READ AND TO WRITE (Narrative)

I was a slow starter when I was learning how to read and write. I couldn’t understand something easily and I often forgot the word that I had just learned before. In the evening, my mother often taught me how to read words. After working, although she was tired working at the school, she would always had time to teach me at home. She would teach me how to read by reading the poster that she had bought before. The poster was large and there were a lot of words on it. She would read the word on it one by one and I would follow her speaking with my eyes looking at the word that my mother pointed. At the end of my learning process, my mother usually ordered me to write a word that we had read before. Well, honestly, I couldn’t write it beautifully. I remembered about the first word that I had written in the past, and its shape was very very far away from what was usually called as ‘good’.

When I reached 6 years old, I entered an elementary school. I didn’t enter any kindergarten before because in my village, there were not any rules that commanded the children to go to a kindergarten first before going to the elementary school. Because of that reason, I didn’t have much ability to read and write when I was entering elementary school. I only knew some words that my mother had taught me at home. 

Even though I didn’t have enough ability to study at school at that time, I was really motivated to go to school because I thought school was a very cool place. I would get more friends, more snacks, and more knowledge at school. In the morning, I prepared to go to my first class at about 6 a.m. After having breakfast with my family, my father took a picture of me and motivated me to study hard. After that I walked happily to my school until I met my first teacher.

My first teacher was Mrs Khorijah. By looking at her face, I thought she was mean. But after following her teaching process, I thought she was not that mean. Moreover, I thought she was a patient, dicipline, and creative teacher. I always remembered the first thing that she taught  to me to remember writing a word correctly. She told us to write a word by imagining what she was saying. When she was writing “i”, she would say ‘jret tul’ (‘Jret’ means ‘a horisontal line’, and ‘tul’ means ‘a dot’). When she was writting “b” , she would say “jret wetengen” (‘Jret’ means ‘a horisontal line’ and ‘wetengen’ means ‘have a stomach’), and then to write “d”, she would say ‘jret bokongen’ (‘Jret’ means ‘a horisontal line’ and ‘bokongen’ means ‘have a bottom’). She made all the words easy to remember and it was fun.

From her way of teaching, I started enjoying to write a word. The impact was , whole the wall in my house was full of my hand writing.

“Ras, What are you doing? Why did you write so many words on the wall?”, my father asked.

“I want to practice to write words, Father”, I replied.

Although I made all the wall dirty, my father didn’t yell at me. He was very patient and very kind. He was just giving me an advice not to write on the wall again and to write on the book instead. But still, I often wrote on the wall. By the time, I could write better. However, I still felt reluctant learning how to read. Then, my father bought me a magazine with the title ‘Bobo’ on its cover.

                In this magazine, you could find many pictures with a short story under them. One of the pictures was Bobo. Bobo was a rabbit which was the main character on that magazine, so that magazine was called Bobo. I really liked this magazine, especially the part about Nirmala. There were many nice and interesting fairies with their green houses. At first, my mother would read this story for me every night before sleeping. I enjoyed listening her story every night. But one day, she stopped reading it for me. She asked me to read it by myself. On one side, I was angry with my mother and made a plan not to read anymore until my mother would read it for me, but on another side, I really wanted to know about the story on that magazine quickly. Then, I tried to read it one by one. In the beginning, I could only understand about one word, but the next time I could reach another word step by step until I finished the story. I was very happy to finish reading the story and felt motivated to read more and more.

Then, I could read and write smoothly. I knew that it was not only because of my hard work. It was all because of them : my mother who let me read the story by myself to improve my skill, Mrs. Khorijah who taught me to write with a funny method, and my father who gave me a motivation. To read and write were not something easy for me, but because of  them I could pass it smoothly. I thank them for giving me something that is very important for my education, the ability to read and write.

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