Going Home
I am in Terempa, Riau Islands, in Indonesia and this is where my father and his ten siblings were born. No words can explain the profound sense of history and gratitude I am feeling being here.
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I am sitting where my father’s mother, my Ma Ma (嬤嬤) lived. Part of me wants to kiss this ground where I sit. But I settle for touching it with my fingers and placing it on my heart.
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I met my 二伯’s (Yee Pak, or Second Uncle) daughter, my 堂姐 (paternal cousin. She is the lady in red).
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My late father was the third youngest of eleven children. He was 四叔 or Sey Suk to most of the cousins.
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Our merry band is led by my 五叔 (Mm Suk, or Fifth Uncle) who is the youngest son and second youngest sibling. Without him, this trip would not be possible because he has all the ties and knows all the relatives here. When he walked through the streets, we had to stop for him to meet and greet everyone in town, like a celebrity.
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And I also visited my my 二伯娘 (Second Uncle’s Wife) herself, at her home. She is 90 already. The home she lives in is 55 years old. Still in its original form. Strong wood floors, unfazed by age.
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Word got out to the village that we were visiting, and someone said, “She was so excited, she bought a new mat for the house.”
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I could see a few tears in her eyes as she saw us off at the door. She has not seen my Mm Suk for 33 years already. We told her we would see her again the next day.
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Terempa is the capitol of Anambas region in the Riau Islands. My uncles, aunts and paternal grandparents came from here. My grandfather came from 顺德 or Shun Tuck, in China. We are Cantonese.
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But we are also of hardy Indonesian island stock. It used to take my Third Uncle nine days to get to Singapore by sampan.
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This is the first time many of us cousins are traveling together. And it’s made doubly significant that this is the first time many of us have ever seen or set foot on our ancestral home. If you made a tv series out of our journey, it would be called 回乡寻根.
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Back then, life was hard. Children were often given away because families could not afford to keep all of them. But Mm Suk said my Nonya grandmother was firm and insisted no one would be given away, Without her, they may have been separated.
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It was not easy to get here. We came by ferry via Tanjung Pinang. Then a one hour flight from Tanjung Pinang to Matak. Then from Matak, we took a speedboat to Terempa that took 20 minutes (it would take 90 minutes if by Pong Pong, the boat bus).
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We started out at 9am and finally reached the island at 4pm. It was like the Amazing Race.
But I was finally home.
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