Only the Cassava Child
Poverty that almost killed me with my family

I started studying at elementary school.

Still vividly remembered in my brain memory, two days before entering school my two brothers prepared my equipment to be taken and used to school ,starting from my sister's worn uniform and my sister's old school bag that reads Aci(i love Indonesia), where the bulkhead used to place the pencil has been damaged and torn,my brother fixed it and patched it with a torn, shabby sheath so it wouldn't blend between the book and pencil.

At the beginning I felt ordinary and happy because I could go to school and meet many friends.

But what happened, when he arrived at school many eyes looked at me with an unusual look.

Yes, the cynical gaze that noticed my appearance from head to toe and not infrequently they whispered while laughing at me.

I am indeed a poor girl who was born with dark skin and not beautiful at that time (said my friend), especially coupled with my appearance is not at all feasible.

My first day of school was just getting a cynical look, but not the next day.

The first day of school I played only with my neighbors in front of the house and had not studied, just introductions between teachers and students.

Time passed quickly, and the school bell rang the sign for class and went home.

I walked home from school with my friends, no parents to pick me up, although the distance between home and school was quite far.

Once at home I rest for a while and continue playing with my friend until the afternoon, when the afternoon arrives I must go home because I have to go to surau to teach, to receive religious knowledge.

My father was not a good man, but my father never forgot to teach his children to be children who are Sholeha and understand religion, not infrequently if I am late when it is time to teach, my father will be very angry.

The day passed very quickly, and the morning came, and I had to go to school, this is where Bulian for Bulian got it.

Still remembering clearly my upperclassman named Luh putu lifted my skirt and laughed out loud and shouted

"pants pants bolts", he said.

Yes, at that time I wore *********** that was broken and hollow, if you remember that time, it really hurt my heart.

How not, I was humiliated by my upperclassman in front of the crowd, I wanted to feel like I was crying so much, if I wasn't ashamed.there was no place I leaned and complained.

It didn't happen once but repeatedly, an unbeautiful big brother with thick lips, he was Luh putu upperclassman who slalu mem bully me.

Days changed, months changed and years changed, so I got to graduate in elementary school.

It happened in my day, where my father changed the year of my birth, so that I could be in school in elementary school.

Even though I was young in elementary school, I was not a stupid student, I was quickly able to accept and understand school lessons.

Without a kindergarten or private tutoring.

Before going up to the second grade of elementary school, I was fluent in reading and got a big ranking at my school.

During the school holidays I spent a lot of my time working with my friends, starting to look for pumice stones for sale to find used goods, to get pocket money.

My father who worked as a fisherman did not live at home every day, sometimes my father migrated to Madura to the sea to fish, leaving his family for a month.

Not infrequently my father did not leave a penny for his family at home.

There was a time when my mother had no money to buy side dishes.

because of confusion, for the sake of his children who have not eaten. my mother was looking for anything that could be made a side dish.karna at that time there were still many fishing groups that netted fish in the sea using a large net.They took off a large net of sea and pulled it on crowded land,once in the taste of the fish is trapped in a large mesh.

And usually the local people help, while the mothers wait on the beach looking for the rest of the fish caught by fishermen .

That's what my mom did.

It's just that the fish found by my mother is not a fish that can be consumed safely, fish that my mother found was pufferfish.my mother rushed home to cook it.

Lucky at the right time the neighbors found out about it and forbade my mother to cook it, a toxic color.

If no one had known it, my family would have died at the same time.

My life is really concerning, the poverty that makes me a subject of humiliation and almost hunger.

One month passed, suddenly it was time for me to start school, obviously at a new school, junior high school.

Like before, I was wearing a uniform from my former brother, but this time I had to buy a new uniform.