Balik Kampung...

(Saraan, all packed and ready to go...)

(Saraan with his boss (my hubby)

Saraan, who has worked with us for the last two years, returned to his village in Lombok last Tuesday evening.  Hubby and I sent him to LCCT Sepang after asar prayers.  His flight to Bali was at 8.25pm, and he had a connecting flight to Lombok the following day.

I bought four sets of 'telekung' (prayer robe for women), made in Vietnam, for all my Indonesian workers' mothers.  So, Saraan will have to pass it on to them.  My other Indonesian workers, also from Lombok, are Rizal, Bahar and Ghouslan.  Rizal and Bahar had already celebrated Eid Mubarak last year at their village.  Ghouslan's turn will be next year, InshaAllah.  All my workers are somehow related to each other.

They are all very young, still in their early twenties, and having to leave home, away from their mothers, to earn a living, I salute them.  They have framed pictures of their mothers in their rooms at our farm.  Whatever amount they earned, they will send back to their mothers.  All of them have lost their fathers.  Rizal's father passed away three months ago.

When I asked them why send so much home, they said, so that their mothers could buy back the land they mortgaged. Whatever extras, they will renovate their dilapidated house.

Saraan was so happy to be able to buy two sets of weed killer machine to bring home for his mother and uncle.  He said now his mother no longer needs to borrow the machine every time after harvesting their padi.

Well, Saraan will be away for a month.  He will return two weeks after Eid Mubarak.  He called on the eve of Eid Mubarak to wish our family Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin.