Flashback: Madania in Memoir

Just before our teacher Pak Udin recites the Azaan for Fajr prayer, Bu Neneng — the boss of the girl’s dorm — with the help of other housemistresses wake all of us up, using her magic shouting words, “Ayo… ayo.. dibantu… dibantu temannya!” But no one wakes up. She would visit the entire 6 units (each with 3 rooms) chanting the same sentence, until she reaches the 3rd and last floor. She then goes back to the first floor and tries to wake us up again. Then she would say, “Ayo bangun. Ayo ini gimana BESTMAN, MAJIDAN… Ayo donk, kasih contoh yang baik sama teman-temannya!” Well, no one wants to wake up until 5 minutes before Iqama (Qamat). As for me, I have to wake up earlier than everyone else. Coz on that day, I have a responsibility to record all student’s names who come to the Mosque (piket). Female students who have periods are required to come too, or else they would receive a ‘cross’ sign, which is not good. Everyone who comes to the Mosque does not care how their faces look like. If you wanna see a ‘disaster face’, come during Fajr prayer hahaha. You’ll see a FRESH face… fresh from sleep :P. After the prayer, all of us go back to the dorm to continue our beautiful dreams. We still have 2 hours before our first morning class, so why not use those times for sleeping??

Then Bu Neneng’s unforgettable voice breaks our dreams again. I seriously don’t like queuing for shower, so I prefer waking up early. At this time, the dilligent Fauziah and the only BESTMAN in our unit, Tyas are already awake. We live in the second floor, unit 2A — referred by our friends as the best unit because of its beautiful view to the BOYS DORM hahahaha. As I mentioned before, each unit has 3 rooms, a living room, and 3 pairs of separate showers and toilets. During my last year in Madania, I live in room 1 (2A.1) with 3 other wonderful and noisy girls, the cow Ntie, Iren the Ade Rai, the Perkasa but extremely shy Devi, and myself… the camel “Truly Asia” LOL. The clock points to 7.15 am and it’s ticking. By this time, I usually see Dini Ndut aka Dindut (she’s not actually fat!!!), Fau “tompel”, and Tyas “jidat” — who live in room 3 — are ready to go to school. But room 2 seems to be so quiet. Apparently, Sonya “bibir” who has a sexy lip seems to enjoy her life (she might wake up early, but she will ALWAYS be late. Isn’t it amazing?). Her roommates, Anne Codot and Sarah Nyiti are not-surprisingly still on the bed. It’s almost 7.30 am and we all know that they’re planning to be sick again :P.

Yes, the bell rings loudly at 7.30. It’s time for school! Our school building is just a few meters away from the dorm. In the third year, there are a Social and two Science classes (Inferno — my class — and Gangsta), each of them consist of no more than 25 students. My classmates and I are heading to the Newton Class. Our Physics teacher, Papi Nono is waiting for us and ready to give us some challenges. He told us to split into groups. My ‘usual’ groupmates (we did LOTS of group assignments) are our only joker called Anas and Bima who is very proud of his origin, i.e. Cepu. Papi Nono gives us colourful markers and a huge tick paper. We’re given a topic that we need to be discussed together and do a presentation in front of the class later on. Then the bell rings again. We need to move to the Pak Uya’s Biology class — I forgot the real name of the class. Despite of his loud and funny voice, I always fell asleep in his class (no, actually not only in his class hahaha…). Honestly, all of us have slept in the class at least once. So it’s not embarrassing to be caught sleeping by your teacher :P. On this session, Pak Uya has a video player and a projector set up and he wants us to watch a video about evolution by Harun Yahya. It’s an interesting video that I always remember :). After that, we get on to the class of one of my favourite teachers, Ayah Uus. He teaches chemistry and always has great and different ways to bring complicated chemical stuffs into our brains. Then there’s also Pak Farid who handles a conversational English class. He’s a very fun and flexible teacher. He would bring us to the library or even sit on the grass in front of the school building to have a fun conversation in English! We keep moving into different classes until the time for Dzuhur prayer.

Right after the praying and Do’a conclude, the guys usually run as if they’re in emergency situation. No, nothing ‘big’ happens. They just want to get into a computer lab which is located under the Mosque as soon as possible, otherwise they won’t get a computer to play CS. When they play this game, they would forget about eating, studying, and even dating hahaha. Anyway, it’s time for lunch. Most students and teachers go to the refectory and patiently queue to get a plate of food. Everyone’s favourite food is ayam bakar! The refectory is gonna be sooooo crowded if Mbak Eni and other cooks make ayam bakar. After having lunch, everyone does their own stuffs. Some people would join extracurricular activities, e.g. arts with Pak Buyung (painting, etc), music with a cellist Pak Syamsul, or sports. Some people would watch tv at the cafetaria, chat with teachers and friends, or perhaps spending time with their boy/girlfriends. But some lazy people like me prefer to SLEEP! Hahahaha. As a third year student, we have to go to the Bimbel which is provided by our school. But you know, sometimes or maybe most of the time I just couldn’t bother going to that class since it’s sooooooooooo boring (the teachers are not Madania’s teachers. They’re from a Bimbel institution that come to our school every day). And I don’t know why I used to love sleeping that much LOL (I don’t think I am now).

When the sun sets, we once again go to the Mosque for Maghrib prayer. After that, we have dinner and then go for the evening Islamic class. We first read the Qur’an for about half an hour, then learn more about Islam for an hour. Depending on the schedule, we learn about Fiqh, Tauhid, Hadits & Sunnah, Islamic history, etc. I believe that I learnt about Islam in Madania more than the previous school. I’m thankful for that, though my friends and I tend to “play” a lot more in the evening class than in the morning class, because the evening class is less formal. After the class concludes, we have about an hour before a 10 pm curfew. This is the time when you can see all the couples together on every spot of the campus :P. Apparently, some of our parents are distracted by that “wonderful” view. So the school made a regulation: all couples, boys and girls CANNOT sit LESS than 10 cm with each other. It seems insane :P, but it’s funny if you think about it again. Then everything’s going to be so excited. The so called spies, our evening teachers who teach us about Islam, wander around the campus and distract each couples hahaha. Yeah! Meet the intruders!! Isn’t it exciting? LOL. It’s funny but everyone hates it. In the mean time, all single men and women usually sit on the Mosque’s, Mupeng, Tiga Roda, or Love stairs chatting and gossiping, watch tv at the cafetaria, or perhaps just sit on the ‘Jalan Tol’ starring at the beautiful stars. Then the bell rings again. We all have to go back to our dorm. The princes bring their princesses to the front of the female dorm and say goodnight to them. Then my own ritual begins (that’s basically one thing that my friends always remember about me LOL). I open up Nutella and prepare my bread to enjoy the greatest food of the century (no, I’m exaggerating). I give them to my roommates too and tell them to “be quiet” so no one will hear we eat it hahaha. Coz seriously, you have to give this to everyone! We have to share it, that’s what dorm is for! Sigh, I miss those old times…

* SMU MADANiA Boarding School was located in Parung, Bogor. It was founded by almarhum Nurcholish Madjid aka Cak Nur. The Boarding school itself does not exist anymore. The campus was sold and is now home to the Lembaga Pengembangan Insani Dompet Dhuafa. The Paramadina Foundation abolished the boarding school and built a new non-boarding Senior High school in Telaga Kahuripan, Parung. The elementary, junior high, and senior high schools are now located in the same complex under the name Sekolah Berwawasan Internasional (SBI) Madania.