Poso, where everyone is making a difference

As an Indonesian, I have never been to one of the biggest islands in Indonesia, Sulawesi. All these 26 years, I have never been there, but in my 27^th year alive in this world, I finally had a chance to go to Toraja in South Sulawesi and today, I made it to Poso, Central Sulawesi. 

With the Deaf Community in Poso - Signing "Poso"

Many Indonesians may remember Poso as a conflict-torn town. Started in 1998, a riot happened between Christians and Muslims of the area. People died and massacred by the other groups, their bodies were flown into the river for the whole town to see. 80,000 people fled their homes and stayed at refugee camp. 

The next following years, Poso made it to headlines of newspaper as a famous “terrorist nest”. Suicide bombers, gun fight between terrorists and state army were common sights. So I could not really blame my friends in Jakarta when they gave me a shocked face after I told them where I would be the next couple of days.

“Poso?! For what?”

“I am going to meet the Deaf community there”, I plainly answered. Like nothing is wrong. Well, actually nothing is. Poso has deaf people too, and I have promised them that I am going to visit, besides, my inner globetrotter wants another chance to visit the beautiful Celebes island.

So, I packed my bag, bought the tix and hopped on the plane this morning with my mum and Fingertalk’s manager, Ali. None of us has ever been to Poso, so this would be fun.

We had a very brief layover in Makassar before we were rushed into a tiny plane for a flight to Poso. Despite the fact that our luggage was left in Makassar (we got it later at night), Poso greeted us very well with its warm weather and beautiful sight. I had the chance to meet the famous women’s right advocate, a Frans Seda and Kick Andy Heroes nominee, mbak Lian Gogali. We had a brief introduction at the airport and we promised each other that we would meet the next day at Tentena.

With Gunawan, Anna, Bang Tris and Kak Lian Gogali at the airport

I met my fellow YSEALI Alumni, the person who made this trip possible, Gunawan. He works at a women leadership school, Sikola Mombine, loosely translated as “Women’s School”. He has a deaf cousin whom raise his curiosity about deaf culture, sign language and especially about post-conflict healing process among deaf people. 

Curious about all those, Gunawan initiated a meeting with deaf people in Poso earlier this year, despite the fact that he did not know sign language at all. The meeting was recorded and shared to me on facebook. At the end of the video, they invited us to come and share our story about Fingertalk.

As Poso was one of Indonesia’s post conflict areas, one of the goals of our visit is to understand the condition for the deaf during the conflict. We wanted to know how inclusive was the town during those moments. Did the Deaf have access to all information needed? Which area was safe? Which area was not? This is definitely a new area for me, so I was very excited to learn.

Also, we were hoping to make new Deaf friends in Poso, and hopefully we could start projects to empower them altogether.

With all those hopes, we landed in Poso, Tana Harapan, or the “Land of Hope”, at 10 am on Wednesday, 15 March 2017.

Our meal: Dui and Es Pisang Ijo

The first thing we did? We pampered our taste buds with local meals. Near alun-alun or town hall of Poso, our Posonese friends brought us to try Dui, a local Sulawesi dish of fresh & sour soup of sago and local fish meat. Sago is a very common staple food in Eastern part of Indonesia. Coming from the west, this was a new thing for me, but I am all in for new food, especially Indonesian dishes! Dui is also known as Papeda in Papua or Kapurung in South Sulawesi. Although it may not look like it, the dish is very filling, that I almost resisted having Es Pisang Ijo as a dessert, but when in Sulawesi.. you gotta have that!

Poso, where everyone is making a difference
Gunawan introduced his friends who came along to accompany us. Bang Tris is the leader of Venom Vector Photography, the biggest photography club in Poso, and a very famous one! The club promotes peace and harmony among local Posonese despite their differences in faiths through photography. The club has won many competitions and successfully connected their members beyond borders. We were also introduced to Anna, a 19 years old college student, who is helping Gunawan with his literacy community, Komunitas Poso Babaca. Anna was 5 years old when the conflict broke down and had to flee her village as her house and many others’ were burned down.

During the car ride, our three new friends shared their stories during the conflict. We passed a bridge with river flowing underneath. Gunawan recalled the time when he saw human bodies flowing that river after an Islamic boarding school up the hill was burned down, the students were massacred and their bodies were flown down the river to “make a statement”. I felt shivers down my spine and quietly praying for eternal harmony in Poso.

After lunch, we had the chance to meet Iwan and Nona, two prominent deaf leaders in Poso. They went to school in local SLB in Poso until high school. Iwan opened his hairdressing salon in city center and Nona has her own salon in her house. They used to work together in Iwan’s salon, until Nona had to take care of her parents and work near her home. Nonetheless they are still good friends. Iwan is a Muslim and Nona is a Christian. However, during the conflict, when your faith played a role for your safety, the deaf community did not care about that. They worked together, making sure their friends, Christians and Muslims, are safe.

With Iwan, the leader of the Deaf community here

At Iwan's Hair Dressing Salon

Nona recalled the time when a church in her neighborhood was burned down. She knew she could not stay any longer, but she did not know where to go. Her deaf friends, most of them are Muslims, texted her places that are safe for Christians to go, and how she and her family could flee the town. They helped her and she said she is forever thankful for that.

Discussion with Nona at her house: "We wish for interpreters in Poso"

Through our discussion as well, Nona and Iwan expressed their hope for interpreters in Poso. Apart from teachers in SLB, there are not many people know how to sign to deaf people. During conflict, it was really hard for them to know what going on, as the information was not very accessible without sign language.

We just have to pose with Nona :)

My mum, Ali and I were going to meet more Deaf people later the night at Iwan’s house and I knew we would talk more about this issue. We also hope to bring hearing friends to the discussion so that they could see how great deaf people are!

I am very thankful that day, because besides meeting the Deaf, I also had the chance to meet the local hearing Posonese youths who work really hard giving access to books and literacy programs to underprivileged children in Poso. They are called “Komunitas Poso Babaca”, or “Poso Reading Community”. They have a mobile library called “Perpustakaan Kardus” or “Cardboard Library”, where they carry the books using cardboard boxes. Komunitas Poso Babaca also started reading corner at local coffee shop, owned by one of their members too. So, when Gunawan asked us to come to the coffee shop and meet everyone, the coffee addict in me jumped in happiness!

On behalf of As Sakinah Foundation, we donated some books to the community. My mum picked my favorite books, such as series of “Mengapa Begini, Mengapa Begitu” – a children book series about why things happened and explained scientifically with cute drawings and informative explanation. We also brought some National Geographic magazines in English and Indonesian. We really hope that those books and magazines could be useful, and most importantly, be a bridge that connects Posonese with one another beyond their differences.

Komunitas Poso Babaca really convinced me that people in Poso, are people who make a difference. The community is made up of different people from different background. Some of them are people who migrated to Poso for work reasons, yet they blend in with the locals and create projects to empower others, especially women and children.

During the sharing session, some of the members shared their story during the conflict. The scar from religious violence years ago, is still there, they said, but it is slowly healing. Meeting friends and other people from different faiths, working together in projects or communities like Poso Babaca or Venom Vector Photography is one of the best healing process.

Burned houses and ruins of buildings – that are not yet rebuilt – are scattered around the town. They are powerful reminders of what has happened here and how we can stop it from happening again. It reminded me how divided people in Jakarta were couple weeks ago, over their choices of new governor. The voices of intolerance were loudly heard, and some extremists even shouted civil war – just because one cannot accept other’s choice? Here in Poso, they went through that. For years.

“Believe me, you don’t want that happen. You don’t want a civil war”, my Posonese friend said, while he recalled the horrid days of the violence.

It was just the first day, and I have learned so much.

At night Gunawan hosted us for dinner at his place. The meals were very delicious. We tried Woku fish with special homemade chili sauce and vegetable. Everything is fresh and made by his awesome mum. We were very thankful and our stomachs sure were full.

After a filling dinner, we went to Iwan’s house to meet the Deaf. When we arrived, there were 10 people there, but more people came as we started the discussion. At the end of the night, we had 20 deaf people and 10 hearing youths from Komunitas Poso Babaca. Most of the hearing people never met deaf people before, so it was a new experience for them.

From the discussion, we understood that many of them could not finish the school. Some of them left due to financial reason, some left due to the conflict. The school was closed for two years, so they stopped going and never went back. Some said that the school was located in the Christian’s area, so they were afraid to go there before. Now, when everything is peaceful, they thought it was too late to go back. It saddened me to hear that.

Some of the deaf were working in a bakery and some worked as cleaning staff of mosques or churches. Iwan and Nona were probably among the few entrepreneurs in the group. Iwan said he held trainings for his deaf friends in his salon, so that if they want to open their own, they certainly can.

During the discussion, the Deaf were hoping for more hearing people who can sign, or communicate with them. They admitted that during the conflict, they were very confused. Hearing people could easily discuss information as it came. It happened real-time. They can flee their houses too if danger is near. However, for the deaf, sometimes they heard the info from third, fourth or fifth person. Sometimes it was too late and it could be dangerous for their safety. One lady said her house was burned down, luckily, she could run away in time.

Gunawan, who now using sign language to communicate with the deaf, told everyone that he would try to organize meet-ups at the coffee shops once or twice a month. He wanted the deaf to teach sign language to the hearing. Slowly, we could make Poso an inclusive town, he said. It starts from us, and it should start now. Other hearing people in the room nodded in agreement. 

This first day has shown me that everyone here was trying their absolute best to make Poso peaceful again. Everyone has their own role and we could really learn from them. It's time to throw away our first world problems and start being useful, for your town, for your island. 

It has inspired me so much to do something.

Later that night, we came up with a plan for some projects together that would bridge Komunitas Poso Babaca, Sikola Mombine and the deaf community. We hope that the project would empower many more people, and enhance the accessibility for Posonese deaf and other people with disability. 

Let's get some work done!!

(Coming up: second day in Poso, exploring Tentena and enjoying the breathtaking scenery of Poso Lake and Saluopa Waterfall.. one of-if not THE-most beautiful waterfall ive ever seen!)