KEBUN CERITA

To read "Part 1" click here! To read "Part 3" click here!   Time by time, year by year, Amat grew up and became a teenager. He always helped her mother with effort he could do. Still, how hard he had tried to work, he still lived in a poverty. Kruen Raya is a river where there was a harbor at that time. People used to send things from Aceh to another place there. Also, imported goods passed this harbor before they were taken to the place where they were going to use or sell. Aceh merchant was already big at that time. There were lot merchant ship sailing and docking in the harbor every day. The crowds were always seen in the harbor. Hundreds of boxes were being loaded and unloaded. By the time a ship would sail, many paddle were moving in the side of the ship. The paddles were moved from the inside of the ship. As the movement of the paddles got faster, the speed of the ship would be too. As the ship started to leave the harbor, many people that were t...

Once there in Pasie village, near Paya Senara in Krueng Raya, Aceh, lived a family consisted of a father, mother, and a son named Amat. Amat was usually called “Agam.” (In Aceh tradition, Agam is a nickname given to a son while a daughter will be called “Inong”).  That family was poor, the parents’ job was collecting the coconuts’ fiber and making salt. The coconut fibers that were commonly thrown by people were gathered by them. Then, they soaked the collected fibers into mud. Then after a while, they took the fibers and washed them then they were made as ropes. To cook what they were going to eat, the family took the coconut midribs and used them as the firewood. To the poor family like them, all that coconuts parts were useful while for rich families, they were not considered as something that can be used. So that they usually throw the midrib, and fibers away. If those rich families want to use them, they may just use them as a bonfire that was set near the ox’s c...