By Ellen Nugroho | Project Leader
Dear friends,
We are so excited to learn that we can give full Pluralism Trail scholarship to 10 participants with donations you and other generous people made through GlobalGiving last June. It means this educational program will impact at least 10 youth communities the participants represent.
This week EIN team went to Lasem to survey locations for the Trail. We met Hajj Mohammad Zaim Ahmad Ma'shoem (Gus Zaim), the highly respected founder and leader of Pesantren Kauman, a Moslem traditional boarding school located in Chinatown. He warmly welcome us and even offered his house to be the venue and lodging for our participants. What a kindness! We feel so honored!
We also listened to heartwarming stories of Aunty Ratna, an elderly Chinese-Indonesian woman who owns the oldest bakery in town. She has been working together with Kasmuri aka Pak Jon, her faithful (also elderly) Javanese assistant baker for decades. "I take heart to keep this bakery going on eventhough the sales have dropped significantly nowadays, because I don't want him to become jobless," she told us. We watched them mixed the dough and baked it in an old-fashioned stove, heated by burnt woods. We bought the freshly baked bread. Yumm ... the old, handed-down-over-generations recipe is a real delicacy! And it is only USD 15 cents a piece.
No matter how often we come, Lasem always fascinates us with new experience and deeper wisdom. "We need more than formal dialogue," said Gus Zaim. "We need to have better ways to communicate peace so that people are willing to listen and join hands."
The trail will be held in October 2017, probably the second week. We will come up with further report on that. We hope this news make you as excited as we are here. If you feel like you want to support us more, you can still donate or invite your friends to donate for our cause through our page in GlobalGiving. Every time we've got sufficient funds, we will provide this program for next batches of youth.
Once again, thank you for making the next Pluralism Trail possible. You have made a meaningful contribution to Indonesia, and to the lives of our young participants-to-be, and their communities.
Bahasa Indonesia version:
Halo, kawan-kawan!
Kami senang sekali bisa memberi kabar bahwa berkat donasi murah hati kawan-kawan sekalian, kami bisa memberikan beasiswa penuh Pluralism Trail kepada 10 peserta. Artinya, program pendidikan pluralisme ini akan berdampak kepada setidaknya 10 komunitas anak muda yang mereka wakili.
Hari Kamis (3/8) lalu, tim EIN melakukan survei ke Lasem. Kami bersilaturahmi dengan HM Zaim Ahmad Ma'shoem (Gus Zaim), tokoh Muslim setempat yang sangat dihormati, pendiri dan pemimpin Pesantren Kauman yang terletak di Pecinan. Beliau dengan hangat menyambut kami, bahkan menawarkan rumahnya untuk menjadi tempat menginap dan kelas bagi para peserta. Kebaikan tulus yang sungguh membuat kami merasa terhormat!
Kami juga menyimak kisah yang menghangatkan hati dari Tante Ratna, seorang perempuan Tionghoa pemilik usaha roti tertua di Lasem. Telah puluhan tahun dia bekerja sama dengan Kasmuri, asisten beretnis Jawa yang biasa dipanggilnya Pak Jon. "Saya berjuang agar usaha roti ini terus jalan meskipun penjualannya sekarang jauh dari dulu, karena saya tak mau Pak Jon kehilangan pekerjaan," katanya pada kami. Kami menonton mereka menguleni adonan dan memanggangnya dengan tungku kayu kuno. Kami membeli roti yang masih baru dari oven itu. Nyamm ... resep warisan turun-temurun itu sungguh lezat! Harganya pun hanya Rp2.500,- sepotong.
Seberapa pun sering kita berkunjung, Lasem akan senantiasa memesona kita dengan pengalaman baru dan hikmah inspiratif. "Kita perlu lebih dari sekadar dialog formal," kata Gus Zaim. "Kita perlu cara-cara yang lebih bagus untuk menyampaikan pesan perdamaian supaya banyak orang yang mau mendengar dan ikut."
Kegiatan Pluralism Trail diselenggarakan bulan Oktober 2017, kemungkinan besar minggu kedua. Kami akan mengirimkan laporan lebih lanjut soal detilnya. Semoga kabar ini membuat Anda bersemangat sama seperti yang kami rasakan di sini. Anda bisa memberi dukungan lebih dengan memberi donasi, baik dari Anda sendiri atau mengajak teman lain ikut menyumbang, lewat laman kami di GlobalGiving. Tiap kali tercapai dana yang cukup, kami akan memberangkatkan rombongan anak muda berikutnya.
Sekali lagi, terima kasih telah memampukan kami mengadakan Pluralism Trail di bulan Oktober mendatang. Anda telah menyumbangkan kebaikan bagi Indonesia, bagi kehidupan anak-anak muda calon peserta, serta komunitas mereka.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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