It was a day on June 2006, when I was staying at my
Grandma's house without my family for couple weeks. I
started my day by waking up from my Grandma's hard
mattress and founded that she woke up earlier than
me. I walked to her old fashioned kitchen, where I could
still see an old, dark fire place. I had to wear sandals in the house because somehow the floor at my Grandmas'
house is always dirty. She had no hot shower at her house, but I was frail that
I couldn't take cold shower. Off course, she forced me to
take a shower, but I was just a "spoiled rotten kid" that
used to live with my parents' house standard. She was
too nice, by finally ended up boiled me a big jug of
water, so that I could have hot water for showering that day. I'm done with my shower then ride away went to
the dining room. We had "Pasrah," steamed shredded
cassavas with food coloring and sugar, for breakfast
and last but not least a cup of tea, first I could
remember from my Grandmas' simplicity. It was too
simple but I loved it so much even at that time I had already known bread, sandwich, nuggets. After we've done our prep, my aunt dropped us at the
market where my Grandma used to sell paper box,
plastics, rice at her 5mx3m kiosk. The kiosk was just
too small so that I hardly walked in there. That day my
Grandma and I got an order 100 ready-to-use paper
boxes. I was so happy because I thought that 100 is a big number of boxes. We started to staple the boxes. I
felt so happy that finally there was something I could
do, because sitting down in 5x3 m overloaded kiosk
wasn't fun at all. After we did all of those boxes, I
started to feel hungry, then my Grandma bought me a
sweet rice-flour porridge also my favorite drink "cendol." Just like a normal kid after I ate I felt so
sleepy, but Grandma's kiosk had no place to sleep. I
started being cranky and finally she got an idea for my
bed. She was putting clean cloth on top the of a big sack
of rice. Therefore , I ended up my afternoon by sleeping
on the top of rice. NICE. Waking up in the evening, my Grandma told me that we
have to go home soon. Grandma was ready to close her
kiosk, when a satay seller came to her and offer her to
exchange half liter of her rice to a portion of chicken
satay for dinner. She asked me whether I want to have
satay for dinner. Off course I really want to. So, that was the deal. We went home with "becak" . I was
curios about how much money did we get that day at
the market and she said, "well I received 10000 rupiahs
for profit today". I was shocked 10000, how could you
live with 10000 rupiahs per day. That's just enough for
our needs that day with porridge, cendol and becak. "Well, you still can eat satay and I still give you pocket
money, it's enough right?." "You should come with me to
Jakarta Grandma, so you don't have to work that hard
for just 10000/ per day". She replied, "No, I don't need
to, I love to live here, with all of these simplicity." "As
long as you happy visiting me, I'm happy too". Nine years later, she had stroke and diabetes that made
half of her body paralyzed. No more market, no more
cendol, no more satay, even no more sleep with
Grandma. She survived for five years and passed away
almost 40 days ago. I love you Grandma, I'll always love
you.
