BimaJemberBatik

@Ratu&Galih Wedding(LtoR):Lia&girls,Anne,Manda,me,Weilin,Ficky,P.Ali

 April 2013

4pm, Grand Palace, Grand City, Shiseido counter.

I sat facing Wei, with her both eyes look up and Susi's hand confidently eyelined her. We, both Wei and I had been in our party dresses for the wedding of Galih and Ratu (both are Pengajar Muda, fell in love in their duty days in IM placement in Bima). i wore the Jember batik i bought from one Unair student, Rari Sasoka (i love this name so much) and Wei in her tenun-ikat cloth from Bima with gorgeous horse-silhouette knitted.

Wei has been another Godsent miracle sent to me. Evi linked us and first time we met, we spent six hours talking like there's no tomorrow.

Say if i were a 4 year-old-girl loving bed time stories much, Wei's firm and deep voice sharing me the stories about the series of trainings and interactions with the chosen CPM (PM candidates), her visits to schools with brilliant children even in the most remote places of this nation, would be my most preciously awaited moment every time i meet her. Stories of hope, confidence, passion and love, for this nation.

So there we were at the party, watching Ratu glamorously shine both her inner and outer beauty! hours before, i was honored to attend her "ijab kabul" procession (it's like the wedding vow in church wedding). It was a grand mosque, a solemn atmosphere that Galih had to speak the whole-long-nonrepeated proposal speech in one breath to Ratu (that was the ritual to accomplish)

anyway, picture above got no "wedded couple" along, i had amazingly taken allll the pics with my cam with most Pengajar Muda and Kelas Inspirasi team and none of the pics with the bride n groom!

sleepyhead me

may 2012, universitas sebelas maret
Launching of Solo Mengajar.
Hanny Setiawan invited me to attend the launching of Solo Mengajar he had initiated with his passionate team in education.

Actually i just met him twice before. His apprentice, Elvin, was a dear friend of mine, a young woman who had come at the right time with the right questions to rejuvenate my long-dormant cells about the vision God has put in my heart.

Wait, that vision stuff, will be another one long episode to write, so let me just get back to this may 2012 event.

Hanny just told me to come for the lecture of Anies Baswedan and this name was totally a stranger to me. I did not even pronounce it correctly at the beginning.

yet, why was the drive so strong to go?
1. i needed a getaway, and solo i had never been before.
2. i respected hanny a lot
3. i wanted to expand my view, not just seeing the same spots, same holes, same angles around me all the time about education

i went with Elvin and this also pleased me.

i forgot the date, it was around 10am that you had found me sitting on the front row, jaw-droppedly staring and listening to every word this "Anies Baswedan" guy was talking.

-------------------------

"What do you think is the richest resource this nation has?" he asked. and the murmuring voices sound some agreed objects such as: gold, spices, coals and i myself murmured: cpo?

he said: It is you and me, the richest resource this nation has.
 ---------------------
 a young , fired-up-tone, but bitter (i think) gentleman raised a question:
"Why education has to be expensive, shouldnt it be free or affordable for everyone?"

ABW replied again: 
"Gentleman. Education is expensive. it is a matter of who has covered to make it less expensive."

i sat there among hundreds of those university students, watching the slideshows of "Pengajar Muda" (quality university grads who have devoted their "one primary year" after graduating to the remote areas of Indonesia and taught the elementary students there). 

I watched and i listened and i knew i was at the very moment witnessing the vision is just happening.

For two years (2000-2002)before i finally decided that i have to go back hometown, i kept asking GOD if Indonesia was still a hope, or a hole.

One night, in Vena's room (my friend in sunday school teachers team), i opened her Bible and somehow i was led to read this part, a chapter written by a prophet, Isaiah:

Isaiah 58:10-12

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁰ If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
¹² Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

As i was finally standing to sing together my national anthem "Indonesia Raya" and the song Hanny wrote "Berawal dari hati" with all of us that morning, i whispered to God in tremble and tears:
"Yes my Lord, i have seen it. i am not alone. i am now in one of these chosen people, you called as the repairer of the breach, restorer of the streets to dwell in"

ivy school

middle school facility

2012

My name has always been intertwined with the school I have started since coming back to hometown, Surabaya-Indonesia, in August 2003. Instead of remembering my complete name as Juli Indawati, many recognize me as Juli Ivy.

While how I ever decided to start the school was actually far beyond the school itself. It was a nation-scale dream and the dream I have walked all these years since 1998 has brought me up, dragged me down, crushed my hearts, lifted my hope. A dream that is much away too big for me, yet it stayed within each cell of mine.

A dream that I will see great people, great thoughts, great works will come from Indonesia. A dream of united love and zeal that leaves all the hurts, bitterness, hatred and prejudice behind. A dream that even in my lifetime I might not get a chance to see it completely come true, I know I have been one stacking brick by brick building it with my own hand, head, heart, joy and tears, all of my life.

Juli Indawati
--in my room
with my kids and husband watching Bruce Willis  "G.I.Joe"
20.20pm--