ESL Blogs

Why did I come to Indonesia?

INTRODUCTION:

Good evening, everybody

I am going to talk about the reasons why I came to Indonesia.

My presentation will be in two parts. First of all I will mention the reasons connected to my status of life and in the second part I will consider the personal reasons that contributed in my coming to Indonesia.

I will try to answer any of your questions after the presentation.

First part:  So first connected to my status of life I would say I was sent…

-          I am a religious, member of a teaching congregation that has a long tradition in sending Brothers abroad. A little about our History.  Our congregation was founded  in 1819 in France by a catholic priest who wanted to take part in re-building France after the destruction caused by the French Revolution. John de La Mennais, realized the importance of the school apostolate and became involved in the foundation of two religious orders. Schools for boys were urgently needed at that time. So he founded the Brothers of Christian Instruction.

He sent  his Brothers to the French colonies for the first time in 1837. John de La Mennais was asked by  the French government  to help in Senegal(West Africa) and in the West Indies(two islands nowadays attached to France): Martinique, Guadeloupe. At that time the government was concerned about the inevitable abolition of slavery in the French colonies, and was seeking teachers capable of preparing the slaves to cope with liberation. The first five missionaries landed at Martinique in 1838. And this tradition of sending Brothers abroad is still alive today in spite of the lack of new young Brothers.

-          As a religious and as a member of the Brothers of Christian Instruction I make vows. One of them is obedience. One of the consequences of this vow is that I don’t choose alone where I want to live and to work. It doesn’t mean that I am not free but I choose to be always ready to serve. Moreover, I depend on a family who has needs. And in this family we elect our Superior and then we are called by him and listen to him who gives us our mission. In our understanding receiving a mission from our Superior is like being called by God to answer the needs of determined people in determined countries and places.

-          Until now I have been sent to various places, first in France, then in Togo(West Africa) for four years and since 2000 I have been in Indonesia. I have taught French, Spanish and also English in high school and religious convents.

-          Why in Indonesia? The point is that I came because I was asked to. Better say I was proposed to and I said “Yes”. The presence of our Congregation in Indonesia was initially the consequence of a meeting between our Superior and the catholic bishop of Larantuka. Mgr Darius, SVD needed religious teachers for his schools in his diocese, so he  suggested to our Superior to come and see. First, in 1998, our Superior sent two Brothers to study the situation and the petition of the Bishop. He received their report and decided to open a new mission. Then, he sent four Brothers to Flores, including myself. There were two of us from France and the others are Spaniards.

So, I am in Indonesia since the beginning of the year 2000. It  may surprise you but I must say that I didn’t come here because of my own choice. Neither did I come here because of my special knowledge of indonesian culture and language. Honestly I wasn’t specially prepared before coming. I didn’t even know where Flores was before I had a look at the map! I had to learn since the first day I landed at Ende, in Flores Island. And after a few years in Flores I felt that I was still learning and I had to. For the next two or three years I will be living in Yogya. It will probably be very different from Larantuka, in east Flores where I lived during almost nine years. I will have a lot to learn.

Second part:   Not only I was sent but I was glad to be called…and sent.

In the first part I explained some of the principal reasons why I was sent to Indonesia. But, If I only tell you that I was sent, you would probably understand or you may understand that I was forced to do it, that I wasn’t free to choose. And maybe you would ask for yourself: “What does it mean? How can he be happy?”

It will be a lie telling it to you like that. I must give you some others elements to help you understand and to look that I am happy being a brother in Indonesia. These are the principal steps I will follow:

My childhood, my adolescence, when I entered the Congregation, my experiences in Togo and Indonesia.

-          First of all, I think it is a response to a personal desire that I have had since I was a young child. There were two reasons which make me think like that.  First, I am from a sailor family.  My father was a sailor and fisherman. When I was young, we were always waiting for our father coming back from the Sea. He used to go out for one month or more. At home, he was not very talkative but when he was in good mood and not too tired or drunk too much, he was very interesting to listen to telling about his adventures on the Sea. I think that the example of my father motivated me or in other words provided the impetus, the impulsion to go and see. The second reason is probably linked to my primary school teacher. He obviously  loved  to tell us stories of adventurers like Robinson Crusoe or pioneers catholic missionaries  and he succeeded in making us dream. I was always interested in their capacity of adaptation and in the attention they received from the people.

-          During my adolescence, this desire was confirmed by my interest for outdoor activities. Every summer I had the opportunity to go for a month hiking and camping in the mountains:  once I went to the Alpes, I wont forget it, we, a group of five students ran from the village we were staying in  and went on foot for three days and nights to the top of a mountain we wanted to reach. But because of the intense cold we couldn’t do it. We had to abandon but we went down pleased(cheerfully, excitingly)  and were proud of our experience.

-          A personal desire that became deeper when I entered the Congregation. When I graduated from High School I entered the Congregation.  I entered first because I wanted to become a Brother. But I felt quickly interested in becoming a missionary. It seemed to me that offering my life to serve God and the people was more generous to do through missionary life. The example of the missionaries, pioneers in our Congregation inspired me. I read books and watched films…one of them particularly touched me: “ The Mission”. It is a 1986 British film about the experiences of a Jesuit missionary in eighteen century South America. The film is set during the Jesuit Reductions, a program by which Jesuit missionaries set up missions independent of the Spanish state to teach Christianity to the natives. It tells the story of a Spanish Jesuit priest, Father Gabriel, who entered the South American jungle to build a mission and convert a community of Guarani Indians to Christianity.  What strikes me as interesting is that how the film ended. Father Gabriel, the other Jesuits and most of the Guaranis were killed by the Portuguese but  at the end we saw a little indian boy coming back to the village looking for the violin Father Gabriel used to teach music to them.  And the little boy entered the bush bringing the violin with him. Apart from the story in that film,  I liked the acting of the principal actors: Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro.

-          In 1989, at the end of my Theology studies, for the first time I was offered the chance to go to Togo to teach French and Spanish. I was very happy. My personal desire  became reality when I went to Togo. I began learning one of the local languages and made many african friends. It was a pleasure to teach there. The students were very kind and were eager to learn. And I appreciated their way of life. I would have stayed longer in Togo because I felt very at ease there.

-          But in 1991 I had to come back to France to study again. For the first months in France, after living two years in Togo It was quite difficult for me to adapt myself again in France. At the beginning I felt lonely in that city I was studying. The french way of life was not my cup of tea. I came from Togo where natural and friendly communication still exists to France where many people seem to be very busy and do not care about others. Individualism gets the better of community  life or social life. But my personal desire became clearer and clearer at that moment.  I studied Spanish and also a bit of Portuguese at the University in France. During my studies I went very often to Spain and I kept alive a dream. I wanted to become a missionary in South America and so at that time I courageously wrote to my Superior. He answered me asking me to be patient and that I was needed in France at that moment.

-           From 1997 to 1999 before coming to Indonesia, I went back to Togo but I knew since the beginning that I would have to  prepare myself to go to another country where our Congregation had never gone before.

-          When I was in Togo, in january 1999,  I received a letter from my Superior and he offered me the chance to take part in the foundation of a new mission.  This was a new challenge for me! There were four of us called to start the new mission in Flores at the beginning of 2000. First we learnt Bahasa Indonesia and then we began teaching in SMP and SMA. I began by teaching English. In 2005 I became the headmaster of an SMA in Larantuka, Flores. But after getting to know the situation of Larantuka and the surroundings we decided to withdraw from running the SMA and tried to find an educational solution for many young students who dropped out. For some years now we have run  formation courses for the young  and adults in information technology(computer), needlework or sewing and motor mechanics. And 3 lay people have arrived to reinforce our team and share this mission with us. So we feel quite confident about the future of these formation courses.

CONCLUSION:

By way of conclusion I will first list the two main points again: I was sent and I wanted to be sent.  All this leads to the conclusion that I am happy being a missionary so far because I have had the opportunity to learn a lot, to meet many different people and to live abroad and fulfill one of my dreams.  Am I going to stay in Indonesia for a long time? I hope so but I don’t know. I will be happy to be called again for another mission.

I thank you for your attention.

Now I will try to answer any questions you may have.

                                                                                                                        By Steve