Bulan Patah

This novel is all about sincere humanism brought but none than the main character, Rosa Dalima. She is known as a midwife who has really great passion on nurturing other. Ros, she usually called, always gives soothe feelings for her surroundings by her actively caring.
Has a Flores, Northeast Timor, setting gives harsh layers to the story about misconceptions and injustice on marriage for most women and little girls. To be precise, it leads to abusive sexual treatments of adults for most teen girls. Not to mention the situations worsened by the patriarchy traditions which held long for since the time being. Death and abortion are always like two sides of coin that lingering to the situations.

With all might she has, Ros always tries to cope the situation particularly those who come to her public health facility where she works from time to time, Puskesmas Bugenvil as she works previously at Puskesmas Flamboyan. Of course, nothing comes easy for her to deal with. Some troubles knocked one after another upon Ros’s door to the extents of Ros’s heart strength in almost gave up on everything. Alongside those troubles she deals with others, she herself has personal problem with the man she thought she fell in love with Yordan, a doctor she met at works. However, as time passes by, unfortunately all she’s got only a heavy barrier from Yordan family’s blessings. It feels like Ros has to go through a long and dark tunnel for finding light at the end.
In the end, nothing is last forever. Not even hardships could be meant to torment someone’s life but only to build strongest heart and soul. One day at a time all Ros’s has everything falling into places as they are all found its resolves end meet. Even though the end of long and dark tunnel not always the light that makes everybody happy. Beside relieved and joyful, there are tears, sorrow, remorse, and also farewell. That’s life. It never easy, yet it is forever worth to roam and explore in every bit and piece of path to go through.
Bulan Patah is well deserved novel to acclaim a devotion since it portrays throughout the story from the beginning to the end. Even precisely, it portrays strongly within the main character of the story, Rosa Dalima or Ros as she is the one who carries on relentless devotion whenever she is.

As a midwife in Flores rural region, it never easy to endure the job on merely just helping people in needs who come to the community health facility–or called Puskesmas. It never stopped on common patient – midwife relationship because there are always some critical issues that lead into conflicting arguments in between. So, that’s the reason why it makes Ros’s job as midwife never resolved in easy ways. Let’s say on of them is about the uphold strict traditions or like it sounds as simple as to provide water supply at the Puskesmas.

With strong personality on nurturing others, Ros has devoted her life to the surroundings whenever she is around. She has touched many lives wholeheartedly as the flower blooms and lush greeneries, also children often times voluntarily hand in hand to collect water supply. She receives warm welcome from fellow parishioners–teens and adults–at her community church while she often shares the counsels on crucial matters of healthy relationship and marriage. No wonder then, she loves by her colleagues, friends, and her lover at the most–Yordan.

Of all time, Ros is busy being the light of others with her abundant cares. Yet, it doesn’t mean that she is someone who always has big heart enduring those day by day. The seemingly imperfection makes her complete as human being. There is the time when Ros sometimes really has to give up on herself when she feels she can’t do more to resolve her heavy heart over troubles mind particularly her problem involving Yordan and his family. Still, she can bear her everyday life with firm resilient and meaningful smile.

With strong main character personality–Ros’s, it drives the story uniquely through some obstacles and its resolves all over the story. Fortunately, the climax of the obstacles finally put Ros’s state of mind to hold on once again and perhaps forever in the warmth of Yordan’s embrace. Once after Ros felt like she must give up her feelings on the man she is still falling in love with. At the end of the day, all is falling into places.

The story took place in a region of Flores, NTT–an eastern of northeast island, as an island of the northeast archipelago at the eastern part of Indonesia. The region itself is really stood out as it lies near to the equator, so it is known as the savanna lowland with broad steep and rocky hills, and also has dry climate all over region. Those geographical remarks are spreading through the story particularly when it is affected to the distribution, transportation, and the lacks of water supply for daily needs as the region itself has the lowest rainfall rates.

Ros often times needs to travel all over the region to pick up or to accompany the patients. Sometimes, that sound so simple task not really as simple as it is to be done when it comes to realize the path has to be taken with inappropriate vehicle or bumpy rocky road to go through. Those can make the conditions worsen to the ill patients–mostly the pregnant teenage mothers. Not to mention, even though rainfall harshly come, one day at a time the flood never hesitates to over flow down that it can make the journey even the worst to transporting the patients.

For the sake of hygiene, Ros always put some efforts to collect water supply at the public health facility she’s been working at, the Puskesmas Bugenvil. Somehow, she could manage to mobilize everyone she knows dearly to collect the water voluntarily hand in hand from children to adults. So, that the water supply available enough not only for proper hygiene needs, but it is expanding to nourish blooming flowers and lush greeneries as well. So, it is devastated for Ros, when those hardworking eye candy of flowers and plants once ever destroyed by a family of Ros’s patient-friend out of rage and misunderstanding. It took some time for Ros to finally regain all heals as ever before.

Lastly, the Flores region has beautiful panoramic shoreline view as the region has adjacently bordered with Indian Ocean and Flores Ocean. It is mentioned deliberately twice when Vero has announced her overwhelmed feelings for marrying Nazar in an immediate time. She told Ros about how beautiful her hometown shoreline views from Lembata island as well as from Lamalera island. Then, once again, it is noted when Vero has taken the sunset stroll only to console her feelings over heart breaking.
The story of the novel Bulan Patah has been narratively told in the utmost thorough plot over the descriptive way. Sometimes, some important factual knowledge and local wisdom are inserted within the narrative for making stronger of the story facts, such as some health terminologies about pregnancy and also the elaboration about marriage traditions to uphold. One of the occasions is held by Ros and colleague during their sharing meetings with fellow parishioners at their community church.
Another way, the narrative is showing the description on how close the relationship’s Ros has with the people around her as she is the kind of person who never takes anyone for granted. She is like the magnet of sincere kindness that everyone looking for, not only for the adult colleague and friend, but also the children who know her best–not to mention Yordan, as her lover.

Once the narrative is described on how Ros always reminds of what her mother has ever told her to comforting her heart breaking. It was the timing when she forced to decide to break up with Yordan. Ros remembers her mother said beautifully that she has to be strong enough for taking none other that she belongs to. At the time, everything will come her way, even when she is not asking it. Her mother words always linger in her heart and mind, just in case she has doubts how to face Yordan now and then.

As the main character of the story, Ros has been walking the journey of her path with lingering troubles that come and go in never an easy way. It makes the story going through the tensions and its solutions one after another. Finally, it came to its peak of tension that gave ultimate trouble for Ros heart and mind as well. However, in the end, Ros is found her way to find the resolve of trouble with long contemplation she shared with Gabriel or Biel. Her awareness comes along with deep conscious of sanity that reality indeed bites hard.

Ros realizes that nobody knows what will come in our way, sad nor happiness that everyone will always face our own locked door before proceeding to walk on our own path. Ready or not, everyone has to be brave whether has to be falling down all over time or running in the fastest pace after taking some slow long walks. Both attempts are hardly called happiness because sometimes it comes only a vague meaning one’s must face in every day’s life even though everyone is fighting hard to embrace, even only to feel, the happiness. One thing for sure, everyone must never stop to keep on walking the path presenting before us with beliefs over faith that everything happens for a reason and will be falling into its places in the end. One thing, we must only belief there is no reason for sincerity and kindness.