Ni Komang Santi: dari Jualan Jagung Hingga Jadi Koordinator Spa
Simak cerita seorang perempuan dari Bali bernama Komang Santi yang pernah dapat sukses dalam kehidupannya melalui berniat yang kuat dan mencoba sebanyak-banyaknya untuk berkembang secara profesional dan pribadi.
Saya lahir di Karangasem di Kabupaten Kubu, daerah pergunungan. Tanggal lahir saya sebenarnya 10 Juli 1992 tetapi beda kalau di KTP. Ibu melahirkan saya di rumah dengan cara tradisional. Sebenarnya dulu melahirkan di rumah itu malahan lebih bagus daripada di rumah sakit karena ada dukun bayi.
Komang Santi di tempat kerja. Foto: Komang Santi
Karena desa saya ada di atas gunung, dulu motor tak bisa naik, apalagi mobil dan kita harus jalan kaki. Di sana cuacanya kering sekali dan susah nyari air. Dari kecil saya diajak oleh ibu untuk ikut jualan di Badung. Awalnya, kita menjual garam, kadang-kadang kita nukar sama beras. Kita keliling sampai Nusa Dua. Biasanya kita membawa dua karung, dan kalau habis, kita pulang. Setelah itu, karena sudah terlalu banyak orang lain yang ikut jualan, kita memilih untuk pindah ke Kuta. Saya pernah ngamen. Ngamen di lampu merah Jimbaran sama ibu. Botol kosong itu saya kasih batu dan nyanyi-nyanyi. Malu ya kita… but it’s okay.
Sorenya saya ke Tuban. Kita ngelapin motor di sebuah mini market di sana. Paginya kita ke pasar Kuta dan bantu untuk ngangkat-ngangkat belanjaan orang. Karena ada Bom Bali pada tahun 2001, kita nggak bebas lagi. Kalau ngamen gak dibolehin, ditangkap. Akhirnya ibu memutuskan untuk saya jualan jagung dan kita pindah ke Jalan Legian. Setiap hari, itu dua kali saya jualan. Paginya saya bawa 50 biji jagung rebus di kepala dalam keranjang, dan itu kadang-kadang panas sekali karena plastiknya bocor dan air itu netes di badan saya. Saya jalan kaki, jualan bolak-balik di pantai. Itu 50 biji jagung harus habis. Kenapa saya sangat beda dengan kakak saya yang tinggi-tinggi tapi saya pendek sendiri? Mungkin itu karena dulu saya jualan jagung itu (haha).
Setelah itu, jualan jagung nggak dibolehin sama pemerintah. Sometimes kita berpikir ini nggak boleh, itu nggak boleh, bikin stress. Akhirnya, saya mulai berjualan gelang-gelang kecil-kecil di pantai. Sebenarnya itu juga tidak diperbolehkan karena kita masih kecil. Kadang ditangkap, dimasukin ke asrama gitu, tapi kita kabur (haha).
Bersama keluarga angkat. Foto: Komang Santi
Saya umur sebelas tahun waktu ketemu sama bapak angkat saya. Masih ingat sekali. Waktu itu saya lagi marah sama ibu karena nggak dapat hasil dari jualan, dikira main. Saya kabur tiga hari ke Jalan Legian. Karena sudah terbiasa hidup di jalan, saya merasa tidak masalah. Saya ambil kardus kosong dan tidur di emperan jalan. Karena hujan, saya pindah ke papan berbentuk V, dan diam di dalamnya. Nah, dilihatlah sama babak angkat saya. Saya diajak makan. Dibeliin pizza. Wow! I really love pizza! Itu pertama kali saya makan pizza. Setelah makan, dikasih 50 dolar untuk bekal, jadi saya bisa pulang. Saya kasih uang itu ke ibu dan ibu bisa masak untuk keluarga. Seminggu lagi, bapak angkat datang untuk ketemu sama orang tua saya dan mintalah untuk saya diangkat jadi anak mereka karena istrinya belum bisa punya anak. Saya pindah ke rumah mereka dan disekolahkan.
Di sekolahan itu, walau umur saya sudah sekitar dua belas tahun, saya masih bergabung sama anak-anak TK karena saya sama sekali nggak tahu huruf. Dari kelas satu sampai kelas tiga… Saya kadang-kadang pakai seragam sekolah. Akhirnya selama tiga tahun, saya bisa baca, bisa nulis sedikit, saya dicariin paket kayak SMP atau SMA tapi saya menolak. Karena saya harus membantu keluarga asli saya, akhirnya saya berhenti sekolah. Sambil bersekolah, saya belajar training spa di tempat kakak sepupu saya. Pulang sekolah, saya ke sana dan bisa melihat caranya massage. Karena kebetulan ada terapis cuma satu, saya ditawarin untuk mengambil lagi satunya. Pulang sekolah, kerja di sana dan dapat uang kalau ada tamu. Waktu itu saya ingin sekali bisa hidup mandiri. Akhirnya saya kumpul cukup uang untuk ngekos. Tapi kosnya masih sangat sederhana. Waktu ibu angkat saya mencari saya, dia kaget melihat kamar saya, tidur di lantai, pakai kardus.
Dengan seragam baru setelah lulus masa percobaan di tempat kerja. Foto: Komang Santi
Saya ingin mencari pekerjaan yang lebih yakin dan saya mulai melamar di daerah Legian. Waktu itu saya hanya bisa satu treatment, yaitu Balinese massage. Akhirnya, lamaran saya diterima dan saya dapat training beberapa treatment lagi. Akhrinya saya menikah. Setelah menikah dan melahirkan anak pertama saya, saya mulai bekerja di villa. Di sana saya mendapatkan banyak pelajaran profesional. Itu membantu saya menutupi kekurangan saya karena tidak sekolah.
Karena mereka melihat niat saya untuk belajar, saya dicalonkan untuk pindah ke suatu tempat dengan pendapatan yang sedikit lebih tinggi. Waktu saya ikut interview, saya menceritakan kekurangan saya. Syukurlah beliau mengerti keadaan saya. Sekarang saya kerja dengan orang yang sudah kuliah. Kadang-kadang saya sadar bahwa ternyata pola pikir saya dengan orang yang kuliah S1 itu hampir sama. Kadang-kadang di sekitar saya ada yang mengeluh dengan apa yang dia punya tetapi sebenarynya, kalau diceritakan, pengalaman saya jauh lebih buruk daripada mereka. Cerita saya membuat motivasi mereka: “Wah, ternyata ada orang dari latar belakang yang jauh lebih buruk daripada saya tapi dia bisa menutupinya.”
Jadi saya selalu punya pikiran seperti ini: kesuksekan seseorang bukan dari seberapa tinggi pendidikan mereka, tapi seberapa tinggi usaha mereka, seberapa tinggi niatya mereka, seberapa tinggi cita-citanya mereka.
AIYA Blog mengucapkan terima kasih banyak kepada Jane Ahlstrand atas bantuannya menceritakan kehidupan sulit para pemuda di Indonesia yang kemudian dapat sukses dan kebahagiaan. Artikel-artikel yang lainnya dari Jane dapat dibaca di sini.
Precious Lundberg is a year-six student. She currently attends East Manjimup Primary School in rural Western Australia. She has been studying Indonesian for six years. Precious loved the challenge of the NAILA competition, since she only had a short amount of time to practice and memorise her speech. At school Indonesian is one of her favourite subjects along with literacy and sport. Precious loves to play basketball, to swim and to act in the Manjimup Repertory Club. She enjoys getting involved with social activities with the school and the town.
Lazuli Chittleborough enjoys Year 7 at Cornerstone College, South Australia where she now studies German and Chinese. Her enthusiasm of Indonesian studies at primary school was enriched by having been surrounded by Indonesian speakers when living in Medan, Sumatra for three years of her early childhood. The NAILA speech competition gave her a chance to reflect on cultural differences and similarities between specific communities within Indonesia and Australia. Having travelled to several Asian countries, Lazuli loves reflecting on cultural difference. She also likes spending time with her family, gardening, writing and loves days at beaches.
Zahra is 15 years old and attends Glenroy College in Melbourne, Victoria. She has been learning Indonesian for three years while simultaneously studying the English language. Indonesian is her fourth language after mother tongue, Arabic and Persian. When Zahra arrived in Australia three years ago, she started school at Glenroy College and was inspired by her Indonesian teacher, Miss Cole, as she taught with passion and inspired Zahra to learn more about Indonesia.
Penny is a Year 12 student at Carey Baptist Grammar School in Melbourne and has been learning Indonesian since Year 7. Her love for Indonesian culture was first sparked in Year 9 when she participated in an exchange program in Surabaya, and has grown steadily ever since. She has also visited other parts of Indonesia, including Jakarta where she was able to volunteer casually for a short period teaching English. Next year, Penny will be taking a gap year and spending five months in Indonesia, volunteering in Lombok and Jakarta, revisiting her friends in Surabaya, and following Ramadan and Lebaran celebrations in Yogyakarta, where she also plans to commence learning Javanese language. At university, Penny plans to study a Bachelor of Arts including a major in Indonesian, with other areas of interest including Asian Studies, Philosophy, Literature and International Development. She hopes one day to be able to live and work in Indonesia to study its culture in more depth, and is inspired by figures like Irish scholar Benedict Anderson who became an expert on South East Asian anthropology, specialising in Indonesian studies.
Shanti has spent the past four years splitting her time between Indonesia and Australia. As well as completing her undergraduate degree in Development Studies from the University of Adelaide, she has participated in a year long exchange to Indonesia as well as a short exchange through the Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP). When Shanti does return to her hometown of Adelaide she is often busy volunteering within the Indonesian community. Previously Shanti held the role of President of the Australia-Indonesia Youth Association South Australia Chapter and more recently she was part of the INDOFest team, helping to organise one of the largest Indonesian festivals in Australia. In her academic life, Shanti has spent the last year conducting her Honours research through Flinders University on religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue in Indonesia. She was awarded an ANU Indonesia Project research grant to conduct this research.
Tom is an Indonesian teacher at Christian College Geelong, and has always been passionate about the Indonesian language and fostering the relationship between Indonesia and Australia. Currently teaching middle years (grades 5–9), his goal is to raise the profile of Indonesian study in early years. He began his language journey in Prep, and credits his love of Indonesia to his primary school teacher. Over 20 years later, he is still heavily involved in growing Indonesian study and involvement in Australia. In late 2015 and early 2016, Tom was selected to participate in the Australian-Indonesian Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP), and brought a breadth of knowledge and experience in terms of Education to the program. In his spare time, Tom is a keen volleyball and tennis player, and enjoys relaxing in front of the TV with his PS4. After achieving his goals in teaching, Tom plans to extend his passion for Indonesia into other areas, further promoting the language and country to the broader community.
Sally is in her final year of a Bachelor of Laws/International and Global Studies at the University of Sydney, and was recently selected as a New Colombo Plan Scholar and the 2016 Indonesia Fellow by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She volunteers as a ChilOut Youth Ambassador and as Secretary of the West Papuan Development Company, an Australian NGO that constructs wells in the Papuan provinces. Sally has published several pieces focusing on Indonesia and Melanesia, including a stint as the 2016 Indo-Pacific Fellow for Young Australians in International Affairs. She clerked for Harmers Workplace Lawyers in 2015 and has worked at Allen & Overy as a paralegal and Indonesian translator. She has completed research internships within the Melanesia Program of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, and recently worked for General Electric in Papua New Guinea on a maternal mortality research project. She is currently based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where she is completing a law exchange at Universitas Islam Indonesia as part of her New Colombo Plan Scholarship.
Arif Zamani originally hails from Bandung, Indonesia and currently resides in Canberra as a master research student at the Research School of Accounting of the Australian National University. He is an awardee of the prestigious Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education administered by the Indonesian Ministry of Finance. Arif actively promotes Indonesian cultures through organizing various traditional music and dance performances, culinary and language exchange for those based in Canberra. Currently he serves as an Event Director of the ANU-Indonesian Student Association and General Officer of Australia-Indonesia Youth Association (AIYA) ACT Chapter. In his time off, Arif enjoys travelling around Australia and now calls Australia his second home.
