Three hours journey paid a lot of meaning for my soul. I climbed up to the top of the land and walked down the hill. I saw the land was over thirsty and dry. Its ground broke apart without mercy for any plan to grow. "It was paddy fields" said a girl who walked before me. Since there was no rain for about three months, paddy would not grow. people in the village could only depend on other way of earning.
Finally I met her. She was a woman under my four months care. She was rescued from traffickers. It was the first time I saw her after she returned to her village. I could feel tears on my face after I entered an even bamboo building which she called house. My imagination took me to the nights when temperature dropped quickly and fierce icy wind entered the room to hit anything inside the house without mercy.
She told me her life story: "we are seven people living in this house. My aunt got mentally disturbed. I have 10 siblings and I am the oldest". I knew her age, a 26 years old woman with amazing unforgettable memories. She was forced to marry a man when she was 16 though arranged married. Her parent reduced their economic burden through giving her to a man who wanted to take her as a wife. She had no option. She was very young when she got pregnant and delivered her baby. She had no support when she had to deal with a new born. A lot of people blamed her when her 8 months son died because of diarrhea. After few years of waiting, she got pregnant and delivered another baby girl.
Having baby girl was not the man favor. He left her and the two years old daughter to find other woman. The man's family also pushed her to leave the house. She refused to leave the house because was a legal wife of the man. Her refusal created anger on the family who was only value male human. They burned her house down and left nothing for her. That day she had no other place than her parent house to live. Avoiding adat punishment, the man family created forgiveness and separation ceremony by only giving her parent a goat for she has no rights to any belonging according to adat.
Her creativity made her survive. She realized that her parent had only small land with can only produce very few crop. She decided to sell fried bananas in marker nearby her village. She got bananas from the house garden, she made frying oil from coconut, and she bought flour from her saving money. It was sold out. She became the only fried bananas' seller in the market.
However, she could not avoid temptation. One day her relative from a city visited her family. She came with a woman who wanted to recruit women to work in Malaysia with high salary. She was told that her salary would be 100 times higher than her income from selling friend bananas in the market. She thought that was the only opportunity to have better live. She decided to go with the recruiter together with her 14 years old sister. She was transported to city where she could see her sister for the last time because they got separated.
She was trapped in inhuman condition until she was rescued. She was locked up for months in many places until she could not remember how long it was. She lived with limited water to drink and insufficient amount of water to clean her body. She had no way to go and nobody to contact. For her it was only luck that made police rescued her.
I could not forget her as she could not forget her lost sister.
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