My Grandpa’s Funeral in Toraja

Last month my family and I went to Toraja to attend Grandpa’s funeral. It was my first time to go to such a ceremony. We gathered there with our kin in the ceremony.

Overall, the ceremony was quite elaborate. It took about a week. Several days before the ceremony was done, grandpa’s body was kept in a series of houses arranged in a circular row around an open field called tongkonan. His corpse was dressed in a fi ne wearing.

The funeral was performed in two phases. First, we slaughtered the pigs and buffaloes, and then moved the corpse to face north. In this ceremony we wore black clothes. After that, the corpse was placed in a sandal wood coffin. Then, it was brought out of the house and placed on an open platform beneath the granary. Meanwhile, my uncle, my brother, and I prepared the wooden puppet and a funeral tower called lakian. The next phase of the ceremony was held in this place. The coffin is borne from the house and placed in the lakian. During the day, there were also buffalo matches. They were great matches. In the night, we were feasting, chanting, and dancing.

On the last day, the grandpa’s coffin were lowered from the funeral tower and brought up to the mountain side family graveyard. It was followed by great shouting and excitement from the relatives and the guests. Finally, we installed the wooden puppet on a high balcony where other puppets representing the members of a whole family were already there. The funeral ceremonies made my family and me tired. However, we were grateful because it ran smoothly.

Camping

Last weekend, my friends and I went camping. We reached the camping ground after we walked for about one and a half hour from the parking lot. We built the camp next to a small river. It was getting darker and colder, so we built a fire camp.
 

The next day, we spent our time observing plantation and insects while the girls were preparing meals. In the afternoon we went to the river and caught some fish for supper. At night, we held a fire camp night. We sang, danced, read poetry, played magic tricks, and even some of us performed a standing comedy.

On Monday, we packed our bags and got ready to go home.

Visiting Bali 


There were so many places to see in Bali that my friend decided to join the tours to see as much as possible. My friend stayed in Kuta on arrival. He spent the first three days swimming and surfing on Kuta beach. He visited some tour agents and selected two tours. The first one was to Singaraja, the second was to Ubud. On the day of the tour, he was ready. 

My friend and his group drove on through mountains. Singaraja is a city of about 90 thousands people. It is a busy but quiet town. The street are lined with trees and there are many old Dutch houses. Then they returned very late in the evening to Kuta. 

The second tour to Ubud was a very different tour. It was not to see the scenery but to see the art and the craft of the island. The first stop was at Batubulan, a center of stone sculpture. There my friend watched young boys were carving away at big blocks of stone. The next stop was Celuk, a cente for silversmiths and goldensmiths. After that he stopped a little while for lunch at Sukawati and on to mass. Mass is a tourist center My friend ten-day-stay ended very quickly beside his two tour, all his day was spent on the beach. He went sailing or surfboarding every day. He was quiet satisfied.

My Propose Day

I woke up at about five o'clock yesterday. It wasn't a regular day, because I was about to propose a girl. After praying and taking a bath, I had my early breakfast. At about nine o'clock I was in my office but my soul wasn't there. I was thinking about the lines that I had to say to her. At one o'clock, I had my lunch but I wasn't enjoying it either. So, I practiced the lines to almost all girls I met at my lunch. Yes, I was a little bit crazy. Finally, it was three o'clock. I remembered all my lines. I wrapped my works and got ready to pick her up and of course proposed her.

I met her at four o'clock, took a little walk and went to a movie. At seven, we had a romantic dinner. I thought it was the perfect time to ask her to be my wife. Then I said the lines that I practiced the whole afternoon. She smiled. I reached my pocket to get a ring and put it around her finger. Then she said "Yes." After driven her home I went back to my house.

 

I heard later that all except four passengers had survived. I have sustained injuries on the face, hands and other body parts. Nonetheless, I feel that surviving was my destiny.

My Horrible Experience 

Let me remind you my experience during an earthquake last week. When the earthquake happened, I was on my car. I was driving home from my vocation to Bali. Suddenly my car lunched to one side, to the left. I thought I got flat tire. I did not know that it was an earthquake. I knew it was an earthquake when I saw some telephone and electricity poles falling down to the ground, like matchsticks.

Then I saw a lot of rocks tumbling across the road. I was trapped by the rock. Even I could not move my car at all. There were rocks everywhere. There was nothing I could do but left the car and walked along way to my house, in the town.

When I reached my town, I was so surprised that there was almost nothing left. The earthquake made a lot of damage to my town. Although nothing was left, I thanked God that nobody was seriously injured.

Vacation to London

Mr. Richard’s family was on vacation. They are Mr. and Mrs. Richard with two sons. They went to London. They saw their travel agent and booked their tickets. They went to the British Embassy to get visas to enter Britain. They had booked fourteen days tour. This includes travel and accommodation. They also included tours around London. They boarded a large Boeing flight. The flight was nearly fourteen hours.

On the plane the cabin crews were very friendly. They gave them news paper and magazine to read. They gave them food and drink. There was a film for their entertainment. They had a very pleasant flight. They slept part of the way.

On arrival at Heathrow Airport, they had to go to Customs and Immigration. The officers were pleasant. They checked the document carefully but their manners were very polite. Mr. Richard and his family collected their bags and went to London Welcome Desk. They arranged the transfer to a hotel.

The hotel was a well-known four-star hotel. The room had perfect view of the park. The room had its own bathroom and toilet. Instead of keys for the room, they inserted a key-card to open the door. On the third floor, there was a restaurant serving Asian and European food. They had variety of food.

The two week in London went by fast. At the end of the 14-day, they were quite tired but they felt very happy.