Sonom, a Village Near Lake Toba

[caption id="attachment_71336" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The view from Simarjarunjung Mountain to Lake Toba. Sonom village is down there at the left side behind the hill. (Pic. by: LTS)"][/caption]

From a Village in Simalungun

I visited Sonom, a nearby village of Salbe in 2008. I stopped for a cup of coffee across GKPS (Simalungun Prostestant Christian Church) Tigaras before I walked to Sonom.

The majority of people in Sonom come to GKPS Tigaras for Sunday service. The distance between Sonom and GKPS Tigaras is about 3 km. All of the villagers here are Christians, mostly member of GKPS.

I stayed for a night at a house of St. Sitio, an elder at GKPS Tigaras. He and his wife have 4 children and the youngest stayed with them who was still in his high school year in Sipintu Angin. I got there around 3:00 pm where mostly villagers were still working. I decided to go with St. Sitio’s wife to their coffee-garden just near their house. There, his wife and I spent around three hours to harvest ripe coffee-beans. Around 6:00 pm, we decided to go home after taking cassava-leaf and rimbang.

[caption id="attachment_71337" align="alignright" width="300" caption="This is the view from the window of St. Sitio's house. (Pic. by: LTS)"][/caption]

Right after supper, we joined a community Bible-study, commonly known in GKPS as Partonggoan. Literary, it means: a place to pray for people. This is a weekly meeting from one house to another where every family come to host at least one time a year. Less than 50% of the community member came to this meeting. They seemed to be already tired. I noticed that some of those who came to this meeting were so sleepy with their tired-looking face however, they still managed to follow what’s going on.

I talked a lot with my host, St. Sitio’s family. I got to know that the majority of their young generation usually go to Batam to find job. All of St. Sitio’s children except the one who was still in his high school year were in Batam. Usually, they finished their high school year and then heading to Batam.

[caption id="attachment_71338" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="My host in Sonom in her coffee-garden, Mrs. Sitio. (Pic.by LTS)"][/caption]

Who they become in Batam? Generally, they work as laborer where many of them have to live below the standard in term of salary and the place to stay. However, many of them prefer to live that way, hoping that life will be better. They prefer to live in rantau (far away place) for it gives them a better social status especially once they come to visit their own village during specific seasons such as Christmas and New Year. Somehow, just the same with mudik, commonly known for the Muslim majority in Indonesia when they come home to their own village even thought it doesn’t necessary that mudik is only a term we use during Ramadhan; any one can go mudik.

Why the majority of the young generation in Sonom village have to go to Batam to become laborer? One of the most important answer is: their parents cannot afford it to send them to university since it is quite expensive. High education such as going to university in Indonesia is expensive. I guess, less than a half of middle-class family can afford to send their children to university. Farmer here such as in Sonom is at the bottom of the middle-class if not part of the lower-class. Some are in between; they can afford to send their children to school till they finish their high school years. Then, these chidren have to find job unless they have to stay with their parents which is mean to become farmers.

[caption id="attachment_71339" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sonom girls on the way to schools (Pic. by: LTS) "][/caption]

This young generation don’t like it to become farmers. They want to go out, to search for a new experience. They have their own dream no matter how the challenges they might to face out there such as in Batam, a city of many faces; cheap labor, long-hour to work, prostitution, etc. A young girl from my village who had been working as a labor in Batam for several years becomes so sick and has to come back for treatment. This girl comes from a poor family, they had worked their best so that she was able to finish her high school.

In villages, at least in Simalungun as I know better, school teachers tell the students to have high-dream; to become success-people. Farmer is not part of success-people as they come to believe. Since the majority of students’ parents are farmers, these students also get to understand that to become a farmer, one doesn’t need to go to school, just like the majority of the farmers they know who didn’t have and necessary need a good education.

[caption id="attachment_71340" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Boys on top of the bus on the way to school. (Pic. by:LTS)"][/caption]

It is unusual that a student has a dream to become a farmer. Teacher, parent, and the community in general don’t think that farmer is a noble profession. Indeed, none of us can live without farmer, don’t we? Farmer work to prepare for us what we come to eat everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner but how do we acknowledge them?

I once met a father in Dolog Huluan, another village where the majority of them are farmers and member of GKPS, telling me that one of his son decided to become a good farmer instead of going to the university, spending a lot of money and then has to work for somebody else. This son know that some of his friends are willing to become civil-servant even though they have to pay (behind the curtain) between Rp. 10.000.000 to Rp. 100.000.000. However, this is a rare phenomenon, one amongst a million.

To look at the village such as Sonom and villages nearby such as my home village Urung Panei, I used to wonder: Why the young generation from villages now prefer to live in cities mostly as laborer instead of working as educated-farmer in their own village? Even to have a university degree today, it can be quite difficult to find a decent job in cities.

GKPS has several schools, elementary to high school. However, none of these school has a focus on agriculture which is important since the majority of GKPS members, almost 90% of them are farmers and live in villages.

The road from Pematang Siantar, especially after Panei Tongah to Pematang Raya (the office the regent) is full holes. Generally, infrastructure in Simalungun does not support agricultural-development here. Farmers can work from morning to evening until the day is dark but sometimes, they have to let their vegetables rotten right on their farming land since the price is so low that to sell them is more expensive than to let them rotten.

Till the end of the world, we are always have young generation. One of the most crucial challenge to the future is food sustainability and sovereignity. None of us can live without food; none of us can survive without a supportive nature. We cannot have food without having a supportive environment, a supportive nature.

One of the most important and possible work to do for GKPS and other churches here in North Sumatra together with international partners is to design school or training center focuses on agriculture and environmental development here in this province. By doing this, slowly but certainly, we encourage young people to get actively involve on agriculture as well as environment in a better and supporting way.

[caption id="attachment_71659" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="View to Lake Toba in Sipiso-piso. (Pic. by: LTS) "][/caption]

All of the villages near and around Lake Toba where the majority of them are farmers have extraordinary view. However, this God-given beauty especially at Simalungun part (except Parapat), from Sipiso-piso to Tanjung Unta all the way down the hilly and cape beach gives unnecessary contribution to people economy. It is possible to have these villages as tourist-destination villages. The view here is more beautiful than Bali. All we need is a willingness to cooperate between the community, the church and mosque and other religious community, the government, schools and university as well as related institutions. ***