Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Informasi yang kudapatkan mengenai Jogja

(Ini postinganku dari milis KPII)

Assalamualaikum wr wb,

Sekedar tambahan informasi saja mungkin,

Kabar rumah dan keluarga dari Adhika (doncaster ave/Banteng Baru), Mbak Endah dan Mas Yatin (anzac pde/Godean), serta saya sendiri (Tegalrejo) alhamdulillah aman dan tidak terjadi kerusakan yg berarti. Rumah saya sendiri utuh tidak terjadi apa2 kecuali dua jam dinding jatuh. Rumah Ary (kuliah di FBE UNSW, tinggal di Day Ave) di Sidoarum jalan Godean (ke arah Wates, ke barat) juga tidak apa-apa, hanya saja piring2 jatuh dan pecah.

Dari cerita teman-teman saya di Yogya, kerusakan di kota Yogyakarta sendiri makin parah di selatan dan timur. Seperti yang diceritakan ibu saya sendiri, di bandara udara Adisucipto 4 orang tewas (menurut website yg kubaca 2 orang). Bandara letaknya di timur, mendekati arah Prambanan dan Klaten. Pojok Beteng di agak selatan itu juga rubuh menurut kakak saya. Mendekati perbatasan kota dengan kabupaten Bantul, di jalan parangtritis teman saya bercerita di kampung sebelahnya dia ada seorang anak dan ibu nya meninggal.

Yang di tengah kota, tingkat kerusakan bangunan agak sedang, seperti di bekas kantor saya (dekat mirota kampus UGM) tangganya retak dan kaca jendela pecah-pecah. Universitas Gadjah Mada bangunannya ada yang retak-retak, bbrp genteng jatuh sangat umum terjadi, dan untuk lab2 yang banyak benda pecah belah seperti di Lab Teknik Kimia FT UGM, kerusakannya cukup parah (benda2 didalam lab). Sore hari sabtu kemarin, ibu saya menyaksikan betapa penuhnya rumah sakit di jogja, misalnya di PKU Muhammadiyah Kauman, pasien dgn infus dirawat di trotoar jalan.

Dari yang bisa kuingat dari info di website apa saya lupa, di kota Yogya sendiri lebih dari seratus orang meninggal. Saya belum bisa memastikan kebenaran info ini tapi.

Di sebelah utara, kondisi rumah2 biasanya masih bagus, kerusakan yang terjadi umumnya genteng jatuh atau bergeser, dan retakan2 kecil. Sedangkan kondisi di utara timur agak sedikit lebih parah dibandingkan utara barat, seperti di daerah Kalasan, tingkat kerusakan rumah teman saya sepertinya lebih besar dibandingkan dgn teman2 di Condongcatur atau Banteng misalnya.

Di kabupaten Bantul, sudah dikonfirmasi ada 4 teman saya sendiri yang rumahnya rubuh, dan satu diantaranya (dari imogiri) hingga kemarin masih dirawat di RS. Kakak saya bercerita di ibukota Bantul sendiri tingkat kerusakan (rubuh tidaknya bangunan) itu 50-50. Di selatannya lagi baru bisa dijumpai satu dusun yang hancur total, kecuali ada beberapa masjid yang tidak ikut hancur. Perlu diingat bahwa ibukota Bantul itu letaknya agak ke barat. Imogiri yang tidak lebih selatan dari ibukota Bantul tapi lebih ke timur sudah parah sekali. Di kabupaten Bantul inilah korban mencapai ribuan.

Di Klaten, ada satu rumah teman porak poranda namun keluarganya selamat. Menurut yang kubaca di web surat kabar kedaulatan rakyat, rumah Hidayat Nur Wahid rusak parah. Total korban jiwa dari Klaten tercatat melebihi 500 orang.

Mengenai upaya bantuan dari tetangga dan teman2 di jogja, di antara teman2 saya ada yang membuat sebuah web http://helpjogja.net yang berisi informasi mengenai korban dan permintaan bantuan spesifik yang di-update terus menerus. Dan upaya lain dari forum alumni jurusan saya di FT UGM sendiri, dana yang terkumpul akan disumbangkan ke korban dari lingkungan jurusan Teknik Elektro FT UGM sendiri, yang menurut teman saya ada 25 orang (6 karyawan) yang rumahnya rusak, diantaranya ada yang rusaknya parah. Ini belum termasuk rumah alumni yang rusak. Pemuda RW tempat saya tinggal kemarin juga berangkat ke Bantul memberikan bantuan yang mampu diberikan. Pada hari sabtu minggu lalu, kakak saya ke Bantul dan bercerita bahwa beliau sempat mengangkat dan mengevakuasi korban, namun upaya yang kakak saya lakukan ini tidak terkoordinasi dan hanya spontanitas dari tetangga2. Beliau bercerita beberapa korban meninggal yang dia saksikan itu disebabkan kurangnya perawatan setelah gempa. Beberapa hanya diberi roti tanpa obat2an. Dugaan saya korban2 yang seperti itu terlambat dievakuasi ke kota utk perawatan.

Gempa-gempa susulan yang jumlahnya sudah tidak terhitung membuat bnyak warga agak paranoid, meminjam istilah adikku. Dengar suara sedikit saja langsung menganggap itu gempa. Dan sesuai anjuran pemerintah, warga sejak sabtu memilih tidur di luar rumah tapi sepertinya sekarang sudah tidak lagi. Keluarga saya sendiri tidak tidur di luar, hanya tidur di ruang tamu yang bisa mudah keluar sewaktu2.

Mohon maaf, sekiranya hanya ini saja berita dari keluarga dan rekan2 dari Jogja yang saya tahu, semoga berguna.

Wassalamualaikum wr wb

irfan
Sunday, May 28, 2006

Innalillahiwainnailaihirojiun

Astaghfirullahalazim, astaghfirullahalazim, astaghfirullahalazim...

Ampuni dosa-dosa kami ya Allah, ampuni dosa-dosa ibu bapak adik kakak kami, dan semua di Yogyakarta...

Ibu bapak adik kakak selamat. Yanti, Alifah, selamat. Semua yang kukenal selamat.

Tapi tetap saja ...

30 orang mati,
150 orang mati,
255 orang mati,
...

1600 orang tewas.

...

di kota ku sendiri. Di rumah ku sendiri.

Astaghfirullahalazim.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006

The Tale of the Keys

I should be at Dr. Lehmann's class right now, but i'm too lazy to come in. I will tell you the reason why.

To make the story longer, let me start from the past. Once upon a time, there was a young man who was studying at a well recognized university in Sydney. He lives in a very old two-story building close to his kindergarten school though, but still it's not too far from his uni. In fact it's not too far at all, it will only take 15 minutes of walk from his house to the front gate of the uni.

In late 2005, it was the last weeks of the academic session. So many assignments were nearly due, and the final exams were all seeming so near. Our young guy went to the library a lot, to do some assignments with his friends. All was fine.. except that one day, he suddenly couldn't find his keys he use to keep in his pocket or hanged on his chest by the blue UNSW lanyard the keys were attached to. He got panicked. He thinked hard of the last moment he remembered holding the keys. Ah yes, it could be on the desk of one of the library computers he used earlier, he thought. But no, it wasn't there. He walked back and forth from the place where he realised his keys were gone and the library. Finally, he asked the librarian if they knew anything about his lost keys. Alhamdulillah, they did keep the keys.

Early 2006, our clumsy man here was on his way to his friend's house in Kingsford. They were planning to go to Central Station that night, taking a train heading for Melbourne for a holiday. He took a bus to Kingsford, and then stopped at a famous grilled chicken chain restaurant. When he stepped out from that restaurant, he remembered that he need to give his bicycle keys to his room mate, who happened to be waiting in his friend's house in Kingsford. "Oh no, where are my keys?", said him after he realized that he's no longer carrying his keys anymore. He remembered grabbing them on his hands when he left home. But because he was carrying such a heavy weight --two full backpack bags, one carry bag, and one plastic bag of grilled chicken-- he ran to the his friends house anyway, instead of searching the keys first. Having dropped off his luggage, he quickly ran back to Oporto, the chicken restaurant, trying to find it there. But no it wasn't there. He quickly took a bus back to Kensington where he lives, wishing that the keys didn't fall on the first bus he took before. "It probably dropped near the park", thought the guy. Unlucky for him, the keys weren't anywhere in sight on the sidewalk near the park. So he continued his walk to his house, hoping the keys were still sticking on the doors of his house. But no, it wasn't. So where could it be? Desperately, he walked back to the bus stop heading for Kingsford, again. He reached the bus stop when he thought for himself, "hmm.. moso si ga ada di deket taman? aku tadi kan njatuhin kamera di situ". He was thinking in bahasa indonesia at that time, and it roughly means "how could the keys not be near the park? i thought it should be there somewhere when i dropped my camera there earlier...". Feeling curious, he went back to the spot he think the keys might have been dropped. It was a bit dark already that time, it was quite hard to look for anything small. Somehow, he raised his heads and sight a bit upwards -- he kept looking downwards before--and looked around, where there was a tree and a fence. There's the keys! Somebody hanged them on the fence!

One chilly day, the sun was about to set. Probably it had. And our careless bloke of the story here took his ashar prayer on a small alley close to the post office inside the University. He had to do so because somehow he had no time to go down to the mushalla to pray. As soon as he arrived at the quiet spot, he put his bag and, yes you're right, his lanyard with keys on it to the ground and soon pray. He prayed quickly, still a bit worried that somebody may see him doing sholat on the alley. So right after he did salam --salam is the last part of sholat--, he quickly grabbed his bag and left, forgetting that his keys should be on top of his bag. About 5 minutes later, when he was heading towards his bike soon he realised that he left his keys back in the alley. So he walked back to the place with some confidence. He was pretty sure the keys was going to be there. But no. It wasn't there when he arrived back. It started to shower that evening. The day became colder. And so as this man's motivation to do anything. He became quite sick of himself as he had lost his keys over and over again. He asked a man who was walking out from a door nearby whether he knew or saw any dropped keys there before. No, he didn't. He gave a good suggestion though, he told him that the security might have found them. "Hmm that seem's like a good idea", thought the guy. So he walked to e-Spot, which is the security office of the university. The person in charge there was so helpful. He wrote down the guy's details: name, mobile number, and lost property. The keys weren't found yet though. Feeling just a bit better, our young helpless man walked back to the place he left his keys. Then he saw an office door slightly opened near the place where he sholat. He knocked the door, a person opened it, then he asked "did you see any dropped keys nearby?". Yes, the person got the keys on his desk.

I told you that i am supposed to be attending a lecture right now. The reason i'm not coming is, how can you concentrate on the lecture when all the thing that's in your head is questions like "how will i go home tonight, my room mate will be home very very late. he has a night shift tonight", or "why am i so stupid", and "why does this keep happening to me??", or "oh no, now what..."

And i'm already way too late anyway...

You think that the person i'm talking about was myself? You are absolutely right. The last event happened just an hour ago :)
Monday, May 15, 2006

Mas Bejo,

Selamat tinggal Agung... all the best.
Saturday, May 06, 2006

Unforgettable Day: Sydney Buses (continued)

An old type of bus. This one almost hit me though, as it passes swiftly so close to the kerb.

Alright guys, tenang.. tenang.. Just take it easy lah, everybody. I never knew that my last post would be this interesting huaha.

Okay, so i dropped my wallet on the bus. And i didn't realize that this had happened until i was standing in front of a sushi bar at Myer's food court ready to pay for a prawn roll i ordered. I got a dollar from my back pocket, i tried to look for one more dollar and 50 cents from my wallet. But wait... "where is my wallet? why'r my pockets all empty!?", i thought. The sushi bar waiter was still waiting for me to handle in the money to her.

Luckily, Agung came. I borrowed some money from him and immediately payed the cold prawn sushi roll.

Agung and I took a seat, and searched for my wallet in the bag i was carrying. Nope, it wasn't there. I was almost sure (about 90% sure) that the wallet is lost in the bus, not stolen by some thief or bad guy.

I quickly ran to the closest bus stop and took the first bus heading for Circular Quay. After i reached that place, i talked to the bus driver about my situation. And then he advised me to go to the other side of the block where all the Port Botany Depot buses would be in. "They might help," said the bus driver.


A bus with two humps. One is for natural gas storage, the other is for air-conditioning. The newest type of buses has only one hump though, they are diesel-powered instead.


So i went to the other side of the block, close to McDonalds, and soon asked almost all bus drivers there about my wallet. (you can see a picture of these buses at my last post before) None was actually driving the bus where i lost my wallet. A driver told me that i should contact their bus depot office in Port Botany. He gave me the phone number, and i immediately called the number... but no luck. They hadn't got my wallet.

I stayed there for almost an hour, and i approached almost every air-conditioned bus with a route number of three nine something (39x) to ask about my wallet, and none was the actual bus i was looking for.

During this, there was a nice bus driver who talked to me a lot. He started talking about my problem, and then about types of buses in Sydney, and about some people who got injured after being hit by his bus haha.

There was two interesting things that i got from one of the bus drivers i talked to. The first is that the long "bus gandeng" here are called "bendy-buses", because it can bend on turns. And the way it bends make it easier for the driver to turn. These buses are rear-wheel drived, and it only has one pair of wheels at the back stage of the bus.

The other interesting thing I learnt from the bus driver was that people injured from bus-relatd accidents are common. There are two main causes for those accidents: standing too close to the kerb, and crossing the road exaclty in front of a bus when a car runs beside the bus who couldn't see the person crossing and then "gubrak!".

Around 4.30 pm, i got tired and soon decided to get home. At home, i called the bus depot again to ask whether anyone had handed in a lost wallet to the office ... and alhamdulillah dear brothers and sisters... they've got my wallet :)

"Where are you now?", asked the person in the bus depot.

"Kensington.", i answered.

"Do you know how to get here? Take the 391 bus to Mattraville, and then take a 309 to Port Botany Bus Depot. The next 391 will arrive in 5 minutes!" asked the person on the phone again.

"Oh thank you, i must go now. Thank you, good bye"

So i ranned to the bus stop in front of Pondok Buyung, and in less than a minute the bus came. I got off at Mattraville, which is very close to Pak Tatok's house in Hillsdale. I've been there for only once, but that was enough to make me a bit familiar with the area. I waited for the 309 bus which should come at no time, according to the bus timetable at the bus stop. And yes, i am right, the bus came in a sudden and i waived my left hands to give a signal to the bus driver who appeared to be a woman :)

Whooshh, the bus kept running in full speed and did not stop for me. "Oh no" i thought. That was the last bus going to Port Botany bus depot that day. So, i've been given no other choice than to walk to the bus depot. Alhamdulillah, there was a bus route map on the bus stop, so .. yes... i know my way to get there.. hopefully..

It took me about 20 minutes to reach the bus depot. It's not too far actually, but it was already dark, quiet, and so windy on that evening. There are even no concrete sidewalks to walk on over there. It's all grass and dirt. The place was an industrial zone close to the docks of Port Botany.

I entered the huge bus depot and approached the security post at the gate. I met a nice security officer. I forgot her name though. She asked my name and then she gave me a name tag i should wear. She walked me to the office where i met two men. One was an irish, and a bit old (his hair was white). The other was a turk (which i found out the next day). They matched my face with the photo ID i had in my wallet. They also asked me about the value of the foreign currency they found in my wallet: a Rp50.000 and a Rp20.000 currency note. They seemed a bit surprised when i answered "Less than $10."










This name tag was given to me at Port Botany Bus Depot


The people in the bus depot were so friendly. The old man thinks i'm an irish. The other guy laughs and said i must be a chinese irish. He than say "assalamualaikum" to me, and i smiled and answered "waalaikumsalam" :) The nice security lady walked me back to the front gate and wished me "God bless you" after pointing to the bus stop i should wait at.

I waited around 15 minutes until the 309 bus came which took me all the way to Central Station. (i should've got down at Redfern station, but i didn't know that the bus passes it) I took a train to Sydenham and then i had to transfer to a Rail Bus which took me to Lakemba. There were railtrack works that day, that's why the train wouldn't go until Lakemba.

It was certainly an unforgettable day with sydney buses :)