The Secret of Happiness

It's rainy season in Labuan Bajo, West Flores, Indonesia.

In such a small town like this, what can you do when the rain starts to pour down heavily? One can't escape to a shopping mall, killing time by checking out products that are shown nicely in the glass windows, tempting the customers to buy by putting some manequins with ideal body postures so that any clothes will look good on those "human-sized-Barbie-dolls" but will be too big or too small if you put them on your own body because they stich some pins behind those manequins' bodies, or.. if one is tired of walking around in the freezing shopping mall, one can simply sit in one of the coffee shops sipping a cup of coffee which would cost him/her a fortune, just because it's branded.


There's no such thing in this small town. One can decide to stay at home or chill in a local restaurant. For me, I prefer to stay at home, reading a book in my bedroom, while listening some Bossanova music with the sound of the rain as the backsound. What a lovely afternoon.

And in that afternoon, I find some very nice words from the book that I'm reading read, titled "Have a Little Faith" by Mitch Albom. In one of the chapters, it discusses, "What is the secret of happiness?

And the answer is...

"Be satisfied"
"Be grateful"
"For what you have. For the love you receive. And for what God has given you".

I smile deeply and think how true it is.

Perfect Locations for the Rainbow Reading Gardens

Last weekend, I decided to visit Nampar Mancing (Pusut), Roe and Melo villages in West Flores, Indonesia, to search for locations for the Rainbow Reading Gardens.

It took me 2 hours from Labuan Bajo to Nampar Mancing village by motorbike. The ride was smooth and it felt very nice to breath real fresh air from the mountains. When me and Andy reached the village, the road path got worsen. There were a lot of holes on the asphalt. Not a pleasant ride, but I've experienced worse. So, it was ok. Surprisingly, the students of SDK Pusut (Pusut Elementary School) had been waiting for us! We were greeted by a teacher, then suddenly the students were all standing in line, facing to each other, and making a little space like an alley for me and Andy to walk in between. Wow! I felt so special! This is even better than the red carpet in Oscar ;)

We watched the students playing football and volleyball games. They're good. It was amazing to see them running around chasing the ball barefooted in a steamy day! I couldn't imagine having to run barefooted on a school's yard. Please bear in mind that the soccer field is far from a proper soccer field. It's basically an empty land, covered with small rocks and some grass here and there. Ouch. It must've been painful for them. Or maybe they're used to it.

I shared the idea of setting up a Reading Garden in the village. The Headmaster and teachers loved the idea. They would support it all the way. I asked their permission to use the school yard for reading areas. They didn't mind :). The school has a big yard with lots of trees, perfect for the concept of this Reading Garden :). I left the school with a big smile on my face. One list, checked.

Then, we went to the second village: Roe Village. If you read my previous post about the pink house, then you would know what I'm talking about. The pink house has a nice yard, in which it would be the perfect location for the Reading Garden! And.. guess what... the owner of the pink house loved the idea and said, "Of course you can use this yard for the Reading Garden. Being a teacher myself, it's been my dreams to have one, too. I have discussed this idea with several NGOs here, but none of them bought the idea. So, I'm so happy to hear about your plan!". I couldn't help not to smile. So nice of him. His wife is a teacher, too. Both of them were ex Head Master of SDK Roe (Roe Elementary School).

We didn't stay long in Roe Village. We made our way down to Melo Village. This is the location for the Reading Village in Melo:


Beautiful, isn't it?

The owner is the head of a local arts community in the village. I love his family. They always treat me as if I'm one of their family members. So lovely.
I've met the school headmaster, too. At first, he wanted the Reading Garden to be located in the school. But, after explaining to him that it's actually better to have it outside school to give a different scene and experience for the kids, he agreed. Plus, "Panorama", as this place is called, is such a beautiful place, with 2 wooden traditional houses with big windows overlooking stunning views of mountains and sea and green gardens plus a long bench on the side of the garden, perfect for kids to sit down and read books. Kids can also sit on the grass with traditional mattresses, reading books comfortably. I could even imagine it clearly in my mind, already :).

Let's hope that everything will go smooth with the plans! Let's make these kids travel the world through books that they will read in these Reading Gardens!

Any idea, supports and prayers are welcome, guys! :) Am so excited!

Reading Garden for Kids in West Flores

Ok, here's the summary of my previous post (the one that I wrote in Indonesian):

After my visit to three villages, which are Nampar Mancing (Pusut), Roe and Melo villages and see how simple their lifestyle is, it crosses my mind to do something for the kids. Living in such a remote area with limited facilities (the schools are in a poor condition), not even an electricity in Melo village - for example, you can imagine how difficult it is to have an access for books.

Thus, I come up with an idea to build a Mobile Reading Garden for the kids who live in the villages above. The objective is simple. To help stimulate kids' reading interests. How? First, through comic books and/or illustration books. Why? Because books that have many images/illustrations will be more attractive to kids, rather than text books. I remember when I was a kid, I started to grow my interest in reading through Donald Duck comics, which were delivered to my house every Tuesday.

This Mobile Reading Garden will be open every Saturday afternoon. Kids are not allowed to borrow the books overnight. They can only read them in the Reading Garden. Why? These kids usually have to walk through rice paddy from their house to the school. So, the chance of the books will get torn is big. Therefore, it would be better to keep all the books in the Reading Garden and have some afternoon reading moments together :).


Hopefully, with the presence of this Mobile Reading Garden, the kids would start falling in love with books. And oh, every 3-4 months, we will rotate the books from one village to another. For example, the books in Melo Village will be transfered to Roe Village, and so on and so forth.

If you want to support this project, you're most welcome! Please drop me email at nilatanzil@yahoo.com and I'll be happy to provide you with more detailed information!

Thank you, guys! :)

Hugs!
Nila