That second when everything changes

I got to know Diphta in 2013, when she spent her 6-week volunteering in a school in Hungary by AIESEC. I met her first, when I helped her to manage her visa. She was a very kind, open, nice and patient person. We spoke a lot, mainly from cultural and natural differences between our countries. It was a very nice time, because she could learn more about Hungarian and European culture and we could also get to know more the Indonesian culture. After her volunteering, Diptha went back to Indonesia, but I could follow her life events and happenings on social websites.

Events of the last period…

We can say that 2015 was unfortunately overloaded with crimes, terror attacks and natural disasters all over the world. It started on 11th January, with a terror attack in a French newspaper editorial office, where 12 people died. At the beginning of the year we still had the fight in Eastern Ukraine. Then on 26th March an airplane crash happened where the pilot led the airplane against the French Alps, 150 people died. In 25th April there was an earthquake in Nepal where around 7600 people died. In June, Tunisia 38 people was killed in 2 hotels by terrorists. In the summer the biggest issue was most probably the big amount of refugees who decided to go to Europe. Many of them died during the difficult journey. 31st October a Russian airplane crashed over Egypt where 224 people died. 13th November, in the Paris terror attack 129 people died. In December in San Bernardino, California there was a shooting incident, where 14 people died.

After a year like this, I hoped that the new year will bring something better, more peaceful, but already on the 12th January 2016 a new explosion happened. 11 German and 1 Peruvian tourist were killed by a suicide bomber in Istanbul.

And yet there is more to come…

The 14th January

The New Year just began 14 days ago and already 1 attack happened in Istanbul… on Thursday I had to read something new. I opened my browser to check the daily updates on the internet and on the social websites where I am signed up… I was shocked when I saw that Diphta — who spent her volunteering internship 3 years ago in Hungary — posted what happened a few minutes ago, in the area where she works in Jakarta. I saw her post at 11:11 am, so everything happened very fast. She wrote that they heard the first explosion at 10:45 am in the center of Jakarta. Later I wrote her to ask what exactly happened and if everything is fine with her. She said the following:

It was around 10.45 am when we heard an explosion. No one thought it was bomb. Thunder or building construction, maybe. We just talked about it for a little then we forgot about it. Two colleagues went out to buy something. Me and other colleagues went to the window and we saw people running away. We thought, maybe there’s a gas explosion in the shopping center next to us like some months ago. Those two colleagues who just came back from outside had a girl with them. They looked panic and frightened. There was a bomb in the cafe near us. The girl was a witness who came here to evacuate the building since it was so close to the location. We heard more explosions. Gunfires. An announcement from the building management said we should stay in the room and stay away from the window. Everything was happening right in front of our building but since the office´s windows were facing the other side we couldn’t see anything. This scared us even more. We were frightened. We were petrified. We hid behind the tables and tried to figure out what was happening by reading the news and broadcast messages. Apparently there had been more attacks in other party of Jakarta but it turned out to be hoaxes later on.

Every single noise scared us. It was the most intense experience in my life.

Later on crime analysts announced that the attack had failed and that the terrorists were amateurs.If this is true or not doesn’t matter in the end. It made my days so different. I cross the police station everyday. I had several cups of coffee in the building where everything happened. Actually it is one of my favorite places to hang out. Now it never be the same.

The people reacted differently. At first, people made hashtags #PrayForJakarta, then some start to make another popular hashtag “#KamiTidakTakut”(means : #WeAreNotAfraid). 80% of the Indonesian population are Muslims and they condemn this attack and attacks in other countries. It means, most of the Muslims do not support terrorism. I was afraid when the incident happened, but now, as people said, we are not afraid. We should unite, preventing, and fight against terrorism!

What I felt after that…

17 people died in the attack in Jakarta. 7 civil, 5 policeman and 5 person who made the attack. I was glad that Diphta was fine despite the shocking experience. When I read news like this and I know that people who I know can be there, my heart gets heavy. What I realized that unfortunately I also take less care about things what are happening far from me and I am not directly affected.

You feel you would like to do something against violence and harmful actions? Here is what I do: I develop myself continuously — mentally and physically — by volunteering and doing sport. I also do ask myself many times, what would be the right way? What environment do I wanna see around me? What I’ve learned from Diphta’s story and since I take more care about people, that we have to start to do actions also individually and we should never give up to believe.

This article was written by Zora with the help from her friend Diphta from Jakarta.