Pong ..........

Pong is a name of a friend from Cambodia.

We met in Japan while I took my Ph.D and he had his vocational training in Engineering for 8 months there. He is short as a man, almost the same height with me. He has simple face as simple as his daily performance.

All I know in the beginning was that he was an object of jokes by his group including some Indonesian there.

One day, in a dinner time in training center, he asked a permission to join my table. I let him to have it. He introduced him self. From that moment I knew the reason why that people laugh on him. He has very limited ability in English. The dinner over, and he said thanks for my acceptance for him, in very simple words.

Day by day we were not so much engage in any join activity. He had his own while I was very busy on my experiments.

In the same time I was not also much engage with those Indonesian since I had more interest in making friend with foreigners for I could learn their unique cultures, on the other hand, I could promote Indonesian cultures to them.

There were some conflicts with Indonesian of course caused by my stand. Yet, I keep my nationality spirit inside me, indeed, instead of showing off by gather only with them.

It was almost eight months after my first encounter with Pong.
It was the time to say good bye for his course had already been completed.
It was in the same dinning room, he approached my table and asked the same permission.

He had the same expression in his face as of eight months ago as his simple performance as well.
But there was a big different in one thing: he spoke English quite well, far better than that day I let him had his dinner with me.

He told me that he bought a pocket digital translator once he got his allowance.
And he spent most of his free time with that device. He went and enjoyed some beautiful places around Japan with his translator.

He thanked me again for my acceptance for talking with him that day. He told me that I encouraged him to learn English. I could not say any world that moment. I had never thought that it was meant so much to him.

But still one thing stay the same in him: his simplicity.

For my respectable friend: Pong.

"Wong alit menutupi kekerdilannya dengan kesombongan, wong gede menutupi kebesarannya dengan kerendahan hatinya".

"Wong alit menutupi kekerdilannya dengan kesombongan, wong gede menutupi kebesarannya dengan kerendahan hatinya".

Saya bertemu sangat banyak orang dari berbagai belahan dunia, dari mereka yang berwarna gelap pekat hingga yang bening bermata biru. Mereka adalah orang-orang pilihan dari negeri masing-masing untuk belajar hal-hal baru di negeri asing. Mereka memiliki kedudukan yang berragam dari seorang yang baru diwisuda sarjana hingga seorang anggota polisi internasional.
Tetapi berkumpul dengan mereka tidak terasa bahwa diri ini sangat kecil.
Mereka yang saya kenal dan kemudian menjadi teman melihat diri kecil ini tidak berbeda dengan mereka, bahkan setelah tahu bahwa saya sedang menempuh pendidikan tertinggi, sebagian besar mereka memberikan honor-addressing ketika mereka memanggil saya. Ada yang memanggil saya Madam ..., Doctor......, Miss.... yang seharusnya itu tidak perlu terjadi diantara teman.

"Honorable friend" begitu mereka menyebut saya.

Saya yang kecil ini menjadi malu dan berusaha untuk melihat diri ini siapa.

Namun saya tetap melihat bahwa diri ini tetap kecil.

Sangat kecil dibandingkan dengan kebesaranNya.

Kebesaran yang tidak terbatas.