My Piece of Life with APS

It was started with a question “have you been abroad?” It was never easy to answer when students ask me this question. Not because I could not recollect where I went, in all trips I had had so far or that I was ignorance of the geographical location of those places in the globe but because I had to admit that I was no where but in Indonesia. As an English teacher, could you imagine how unpleasant it was to say, “No, I have never been abroad”?
I promised myself a scholarship. A hard but realistic way for a low-paid civil servant like me to go overseas was to compete with hundreds or even thousands of bright individuals all across archipelago to convince the team of interviewers for getting the predicate of awardees. I made it. I got the APS Scholarship in 2007. Thank to the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs that previously I joined the International Certification of English Teachers at Indonesia-Australia Language Foundation (IALF Bali) in which I also sat for the IELTS test with the ministry’s expense. I knew I would think twice for taking IELTS test if I had to pay by my self. My monthly earning was just enough for monthly basics. When the time was right, the gate was open. The funny thing was that I told the APS interviewers exactly what I felt whenever I was asked the question “have you been abroad?” as part of my reason to further my study in Australia. I believed they were convinced by that, in addition to my 7.5 IELTS Score.
Then I was preparing myself for being away from my beloved wife and two children. My wife and I had the deal. I would go and study in Australia and my wife would stay and take care of our children. It was all for the brighter future of our family. I was occupied with the hope of being able to proudly answer, “Yes, I have been abroad” that I left my beautiful wife, my severe disabled son, and my one year old daughter who had just started calling me ‘father’.
I had all the possibilities to enrol in any universities in Australia but I chose La Trobe University in Bundoora, Melbourne for a very personal reason, its beauty. There were many two-years Educational Master programs offered in Australian Universities and I picked one of them by judging which was the most beautiful campus displayed in the internet. Luckily, La Trobe provided me more than stunning peaceful location to study. When I was just arrived at the Tullamarine Airport, a pick up chauffeur hired by La Trobe University had been waiting for me. I thought he would take me to my temporary accommodation with a yellow cab but no, he led my way to a too-expensive car for a taxi, parked near the airport. It was not all. On the same day of my arrival, I arranged a meeting with the International liaison officer of the uni and I was surprised that she had managed all of my immediate necessities for my first week living in Australia. On my first visit to the uni, I had been registered as student and I could even draw my first Australian dollar from my living allowances. It was just spectacular.
I loved all parks in Melbourne. I enjoyed commuting one and half hours from Footscray to Bundoora. First, I took tram to Footscray station then train to Flinders station and finally bus to Bundoora and all for one metcard ticket. I was always amazed by the fact that so many people representing so many cultures around the world got together nicely in Melbourne public transport. I was in a peak of excitement living in a new culture when I felt so wrong not to share this experience with my family. I knew it could be tough for me to balance my time for studying and for taking care of my family in Australia. It could be harsher indeed, if my wife and I should go to work to fill in the gap between my fortnightly stipend and my family living expense. The urge to share with my family all moments of living in Australia was untamed. I though I was not the whole person I could be without my family in my side. No matter how nice it was my life in Melbourne, it was merely a piece of life that would never become a unity of life until I had my family with me.
What a wise consideration of APS officials in Canberra to allow me alter my contract from ‘single’ to ‘with family’. Perhaps, they foresaw that I would not be able to fulfil the expectations of an AUS aid student if I kept thinking of my family back home. Elena Dagis, the IPO at La Trobe, was so professional and thoughtful. I went home that time, on my first semester holiday, with all necessary documents from the university to apply for my family visa.
My wife and I hoped for the best and prepared for the worst though. I spent most of my time that holiday to indulge my family with things they might never imagine before APS selected me as an awardee. We spent a night at a luxurious hotel in Yogyakarta. My wife wondered why I did that and I told her, “You have to experience taking a shower of hot water or lying down on the bathtub. That is part of my daily delight living in Melbourne”. Honestly, it was the easiest why to compensate to my family for the difficult time they had without me. We invited all neighbours for religious congregation and we prepared for them two goats for the barbecue. We asked them to pray for our family visa application. Three weeks before my second departure to Melbourne we got the letter from the Australian embassy telling that my son could not get the visa. It seemed like we knew that this was what would happen to us that we generated plan b. We learnt to drive and we bought a used car. By the time I flew back to Melbourne, my wife was already a confident driver and I knew I had done my best to ease her worries taking care of our children by herself. Six months of my life with APS, things had changed a lot.
Many thanks again to APS Officials in Jakarta and Canberra that I could once again adjust my contract from ‘with family’ to ‘single’. This status entitled me for a ‘reunion fee’ in the form of a return ticket when I had finished my second semester. What else could I expect? I made myself busy reading new collections of books on Educational Leadership and Management and writing opinions for an international English newspaper The Jakarta Post. I deserved a new attribute on my second semester with APS, a part time journalist. I remembered well how proud I was googling my name and I found my name on many sites. I never knew what an online article could do until after The Jakarta Post published my article online. I also got email from APS director in Jakarta appreciating my writing on the newspaper. Until now, I could not really apprehend how all this could happen. I never sent any writing to any newspapers before and the first time I sent my article to the most reputable English newspaper in Indonesia, I got it published. Was it because I introduced my self as Indonesian student studying at La Trobe or was it because I gave my opinion on the lack of critical thinking practice in Indonesian schools? It did not bother me anymore as I had published three articles in the Jakarta post so far.
I would say at this moment things went to the direction that either the IPO at La Trobe or APS Officials in Jakarta or in Canberra expected. I was very grateful with all the facilities they provided for me to be able to finish my study well. I had satisfactory results of the six subjects I had taken in my first year study. I went home twice already and the second time I did it with the ‘reunion fee’. It was on the Semarang airport on my departure to Melbourne in June that I was aware of some blessings in disguise of my situation. I found new reason why I should make frequent trips from Indonesia to Australia, in addition to balancing my professional and personal life. The airport officer checking my passport remembered me as someone who was so lucky to be able to go overseas often. He said he was the one checking my passport five months before. Then I said to my self, “Yes I have been abroad, three times”. While I was writing this ‘good news’ with APS, I was three weeks away from my other trip back home and surely I would fly overseas again for the fourth times.
I believed I would not get extra attention from IPO at La Trobe or from APS officials now. There was nothing for them to worry. Despite my longing to my family, I managed to control my stress level and I was successful in adopting the culture outside and inside the university. How could I do that? My piece of life with APS was maybe a piece of pizza but it was definitely not a piece of cake. I did many little things to remind me of my objectives studying in Australia. One little thing I did recently was to take a picture of me with Mr. Paul Johnson, the vice chancellor of La Trobe. This picture would be the most expensive souvenir I could get from La trobe and it would become an example of what action the leaders of any universities could take in order to show their leadership vision. I was given five minutes. It was enough for the photo and enough for me to believe that a leader should always have time to serve others.