Two years ago out of boredom, I look up and tag some special places on Google-Earth. Surprisingly the data is still there and wikimapia.org. Seeing all these places from above is like seeing through a porthole into our past. Where did we grow up? What is it like now? How did it shape us as a person?
I was born in this very remote and dusty little town called Pomalaa, south east of Sulawesi. Primarily it is a ferro-nickel mining complex for Aneka Tambang, a state owned company. It’s a rather calm and peaceful little city with around 2000 families.
That’s my old house in the center of the picture. We had a spacious backyard, and we grew a lot of plants. Papaya, mango, rambutan, and bananas are among others. Naughty monkeys from the forest behind our house steal them fruits from time to time. They were pretty smart.
Elementary school was over at 2 pm. I usually shepherd my two goats around the neighborhood looking for leaves of Kembang Sepatu (hibiscus rosa-sinensis) for them to eat. My handsome and sprightly dog always kept me company, keeping those goats on track.
One night all of a sudden a giant snake from the dark forest ate those goats.
We were woken up over some noise from behind the yard. When my dad turned on the flashlight, we were all shocked to see a python the size of a trunk entwined and ruthlessly strangled the poor animals. It injected some sort of poison into the goat’s buttock like a scene in one scary movie.
Oddly, the snake wasn’t injured at all when dad use a regular machete to cut it over and over. Like it’s impervious. Only when our neighbor came with his Toraja machete they can wound and scare the snake away.
The goats were all fried, blackened and dead. It was quite sad really.
Many kinds of snakes had been frequently spotted in the area. Apparently, in the past the housing complex was one large swamp.
Apart from occasional horrors, my childhood in Pomalaa was quite fun. Us little kids, playing Tarzan, dives into the muddy river. Weeks went fishing in the sea with The Wajo people. In addition to many more adventures.
Anyway, it is nice to be able to observe the dusty little town grow. Now there is a lot of golf course opened around the housing complex. It seems that, the good people in Pomalaa found a new hobby in that ‘trendy’ sport.
Well, that is a little bits and pieces of the place where I grew up. Good job Google for the excellent application. Have you tagged your old houses? Here is the URL to do so.
I was born in this very remote and dusty little town called Pomalaa, south east of Sulawesi. Primarily it is a ferro-nickel mining complex for Aneka Tambang, a state owned company. It’s a rather calm and peaceful little city with around 2000 families.
That’s my old house in the center of the picture. We had a spacious backyard, and we grew a lot of plants. Papaya, mango, rambutan, and bananas are among others. Naughty monkeys from the forest behind our house steal them fruits from time to time. They were pretty smart.
Elementary school was over at 2 pm. I usually shepherd my two goats around the neighborhood looking for leaves of Kembang Sepatu (hibiscus rosa-sinensis) for them to eat. My handsome and sprightly dog always kept me company, keeping those goats on track.
One night all of a sudden a giant snake from the dark forest ate those goats.
We were woken up over some noise from behind the yard. When my dad turned on the flashlight, we were all shocked to see a python the size of a trunk entwined and ruthlessly strangled the poor animals. It injected some sort of poison into the goat’s buttock like a scene in one scary movie.
Oddly, the snake wasn’t injured at all when dad use a regular machete to cut it over and over. Like it’s impervious. Only when our neighbor came with his Toraja machete they can wound and scare the snake away.
The goats were all fried, blackened and dead. It was quite sad really.
Many kinds of snakes had been frequently spotted in the area. Apparently, in the past the housing complex was one large swamp.
Apart from occasional horrors, my childhood in Pomalaa was quite fun. Us little kids, playing Tarzan, dives into the muddy river. Weeks went fishing in the sea with The Wajo people. In addition to many more adventures.
Anyway, it is nice to be able to observe the dusty little town grow. Now there is a lot of golf course opened around the housing complex. It seems that, the good people in Pomalaa found a new hobby in that ‘trendy’ sport.
Well, that is a little bits and pieces of the place where I grew up. Good job Google for the excellent application. Have you tagged your old houses? Here is the URL to do so.
5 comments:
what a great childhood story you had mr.heru :) wish i had mango trees when i was a kid (*reminds me how often i drooled over someone else's mango trees) he he he...
you? a goat shepherd? hihihi, can't imagine how you look at that time (^^p)
Pak Rishardana... dikau saya TAG...
Please read this... thank you very much...
http://www.chroniclesoftrisna.com/archives/131
Saya tunggu postnya ya...
CYA :D
Hi Tris :)
My hometown was in far corner of the world, plenty of land to plant all kinds of stuffs ... We had 3 kinds of mango trees, arumanis, golek, and kweni. It's one of the perks living in a village.
Hahaha yeah, I was a junior goat shepherd :D ... however when i came to Java because I'm from the village (kampungan) it was rather hard for me to adapt. Always got all kinds of ridicule to the more urban friends in high school hehehe.
Huaaaa TAG-ged ... :D hehehe the first time for me, so please be easy ya when you saw the tag result.
A trip down memory lane...
It is always fun to hear and read other people's stories. It is our history that makes us who we are today.
Iya Pak Rob :)
Kadang pengen juga jadi anak kecil terus hehehe, kayaknya gak banyak masalah hidup :D
Eh Pak Rob jago bahasa Indonesia kan? Aku pernah liat waktu itu reply dalam bahasa yang sempurna, hehe hebat.
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