Dear Kukka: Please Learn Your Lesson

You did it again. And like I said. I'm not mad. I'm not angry. But I am sad and I am disappointed. Because again, whenever it's about school, you forget. Homeworks. Tasks. Projects. Stuff to bring. Almost anything! And yesterday on Feb 7th you forgot that it was Thursday, which means you have to wear batik to school. But you didn't. Why not? Because YOU FORGOT. #bigsigh This is certainly not the first time that you forget. It happens more and more eversince I've stopped preparing your things for school. SiBapa reminded me that you ARE 10 years old now. You have to prepare everything by yourself. And if you do make a mistake, there'll be consequences.

Well you do know that your school is quite tough. There's a deal between the teachers and the students: whoever forget to bring something to school, he/she has to go home by him/herself to get it and goes back to school. And this school means business. You guys have to go home by yourself using a public transportation. Yup. An angkot. I had a conversation once with Bunda Uli that in your case this is impossible for a lot of reasons. So we made a new deal especially for you: do everybody's dishes after lunch. BUT there's another problem :)) You had a bike accident 3 days ago which left some pretty nasty wounds on your hand, arm and knee. The wounds have to be clean and dry which meeeeeans you can't do the dishes!!! Oh man! :))

After a conversation with Bunda Uli and SiBapa's advice, we came up with a solution: you have to go home, get the stuff you supposed to bring to school and go back to school USING AN ANGKOT! Obviously with a chaperone, who is no better than Mba Dewi :) Long story short you had a new experience. Mba Dewi told me that from school to our house you had to change angkot 3 times! You were lucky because none of the angkot was full. Mba Dewi also said that it looked like you enjoyed the ride in some ways :)) You even fell asleep on her lap! You were lucky, kiddo! When I was in school I had to sit next to tukang sayur, crying babies, or people with smelly armpits or body odors! And many times also with some chickens sitting right in front of me! I reminded Mba Dewi to let you count for the fare and give the money to the driver by yourself. Lucky me Mba Dewi recorded the whole thing. I had to laugh when you said "Terima kasih." and waved goodbye to the driver :))

Anyways, this is the consequence that Bunda Uli gave to you because of your lack of attention. That's not all. I expect you to write about your angkot ride experience in BAHASA INDONESIA. I want you to write how much the fare you've spent for you and Mba Dewi, what you saw all the way from here to there, how you felt, what you were thinking when you were in the angkot, basically about anything. AND...it has to be finished by the end of this week. I will double-check it to Mba Dewi. If there's any mistake or lack of information caused by your inattention, there will be some kind of...punishment. You also have pay back the angkot fare to me: yours and Mba Dewi's. Oh wait! You already paid back to Mba Dewi using your savings yesterday before she went home! Good girl :) You see, baby... From this experience I want you to pay better attention, to take good care of your stuff, to remember what you have to bring to school, and you can't always rely on your parents, Mba Dewi or Mas Ari to drive all the way to school just to bring the things you forget!!! 

Mein Schatz, you said yesterday's angkot ride was: "It's kinda nice... I prefer Mas Ari better though." :)) I expect you to understand WHY Bapa and I did this. There's a lot of valuable lessons that I want you to remember. I want you to know that there are many kids who have to ride public transportations or even walk every single day to get around! I want you to realize how lavish your life is. Whenever you want to go somewhere all you have to do is ask your parents, sit inside a very comfortable car: cool AC, pillow and favorite music included, no need to think how to pay for the ride, then without you know it, you've reached your destination. Meanwhile there are kids out there who can only DREAM to sit in a car and enjoy the ride like you have EVERY SINGLE DAY. 

So yeah... That's about it. I hope you've learned your lesson well. I love you, Baiyi :*