Ode to My Leprosy Affected Friends

The day when they are remembered and equally treated as human!

One of Mother Theresa’s famous quote was that “The biggest disease today is not
leprosy or tuberculosis, rather the feeling of being unwanted.”
Guys, welcome again to this page of my blog. I am writing here for you to
remember that leprosy is still exist here, in Indonesia as well as in the world. By knowing that, do let yourself aware of what leprosy is, is it curable, is there any medication available, and what are the early signs? You can safe many just by knowing the early signs of leprosy. Trust me, you can.

At six a.m last Sunday, 31 January 2010, the sky was not quite friendly. It was
drizzling when drove down town Jakarta to the Taman Senayan area. The traffic flow
was not at any bad condition at all. I said to myself that it’s going to be a wonderful cool morning to go. An hour later I arrived at the famous and green Taman Senayan. This Park is smack at the central part of Senayan, Jakarta. There were already dozens of people gathered in three different colours and writing types of T-Shirts. Some I knew, many that I don’t remember. For sure I know that many of them are fellows from Sitanala leprosy hospital. I meet with the chairperson of YTLI and chat a little bit with him. Friends from Health Department, the Minister of Health, representatives from WHO, PerMaTa, and other colleagues from NGOs which work for leprosy were also already there. Then the flow of people coming in eventually in order to get the celebration started.

In photo above I have a chance to pose with the project leader of The Nippon Foundation for SEA Projects (second from right), Chief of Directorate of National Leprosy Program (second from left) , The Chairperson of Yayasan Transformasi Lepra Indonesia (middle), and The Secretary of PerMaTa (far right).
What I like from the event is that after 3 speeches from Minister of Health (MOH), WHO representative, and the Health Department, the MOH went far from protocol and went closer with the audience, which were cured leprosy affected persons. She even posed with some of them. Some nice songs from disabled band group of Jakarta, a nice and strong poem by a cured leprosy affected friend from Sitanala leprosy hospital, plus one celebrity who is willing and concern about leprosy. Media people from printing do electronic are also there.
To my personal experience, this is a very special occasion for a World Leprosy Day in Indonesia. Its set in an informal setting, cured leprosy affected friends
were free to sing and express their personal skills. The situation was warm and friendly.

The above photo shows MOH among cured leprosy affected peoples.

The theme for the 57th World Leprosy Day was ‘changing society’s views about the disease’. This occasion is also celebrated across Indonesia the globe in so many countries; aiming to increase public awareness and express solidarity with those affected by the devastating disease. In East Jawa there are about 1000 cured leprosy affected people together with the Governor of East Jawa planting Mangrove trees at the northern beach of Surabaya, and many more activities involving cured leprosy affected people in Makassar and Kupang.

According to the most recent data published by the World Health Organisation,
more than 210,000 new cases were recorded in 2009. From that number, 17.000 are from
Indonesia, the 3rd after India and Brazil. There are many more in various parts of Indonesia. To name some are North Maluku, Papua, East Java, and major parts of Sulawesi.

Cured leprosy affected people are now more advance that it was 5 years ago. An
organization called PerMaTa (Perhimpunan Mandiri Kusta Indonesia - Indonesia's independence leprosy association) is now having its branches in South Sulawesi, East Java, and East Nusa Tenggara. Its central office is in Surabaya. The organization is aimed to empower and putting all the cured leprosy affected peoples into the mainstream of their community in order to uphold human dignity and their self esteem. Their main message is to make people aware that even leprosy affected persons are also human being with the equal rights just like you and me. YTLI (Yayasan Transformasi Lepra Indonesia - Indonesia's Leprosy Transformation foundation) which based in Jakarta is proud to be one of some NGOs to start the seed and facilitate, as well as help them grow into a national NGO. YTLI's dream is that PerMaTa will go global with their counterpart NGOs at the international level. One day, the work of leprosy (like finding new cases, treatment, medication, self care, and developing their diffabled friends) will be done by themselves. Is it possible?

Friends, you and me are actually just like one of them. We are equal, yet due to our misconception about leprosy we forget that the disease is just a disease, and that it is not to separate us and forget about them.

And, the celebration ends at about 09.30 before it gets too glary. I went home while whistling some of my favourite songs then pick up my family to church. If any that you have read above is then forgotten, please remember that leprosy is
curable. It is! Ask me for further information or simply get to www.transformasilepra.org or www.leprosymission.org for further details.

What are the symptoms - how does someone know they have leprosy? The First sign are usually numb patches which looks pale than normal and not itchy. Some nodules might appear as company.

Happy Leprosy Day to my fellow leprosy affected friends.


Jakarta, 2 Feb 2010
Alexander Mutak

He touches you in a way that you can't afford but respond

This is nothing about romantic nor soap opera's love movies. Its also not about an unanimous mingle that strolls along your mind when you think about 'touch'.
Its Christmas time guys. I just need to share with you a bit about the Wise Men (some call them as The Magi) from the East and how they spent their entire lives in astronomy and encountered the uniqueness of a star above the middle east sky two thousand years ago.
The story of a visit of wise men to the Christ Child is told in the bible in Mathhew 2:1 tells us: "...Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem . . ." This Bible passage doesn't state how many wise men actually came from the east nor does it mention their names or their method of travel. It is only assumed they traveled by camel and they could have easily traveled by foot. The Bible doesn't claim these men to be kings, however it is speculated they were at least learned men and perhaps even astrologers.
It is interesting to note that in Matthew 2:11 it states: ...and when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped HIM..." The statement of coming into a house instead of a stable (or cave) and seeing a "young child," not a newborn, leads one to think that the wise men didn't arrive until quite some time after Jesus' birth. It is believed that the wise men came from the east by following a bright star that led them to to Bethlehem.
What most interesting for me is that the wise men, who ever they were and no matter how many fellows joining their journey; it shows me that God knows how to talk to you personally. In the wise men's case, God talks to them through the star. When they do their routine work as the astronomers watching the stars with their less sophisticated than today's observatory equipments they saw something unusual. It must be begin by one of the three seeing a strange bright star and end up telling their friends all about it. One night they saw this bizarre and obvious as well as distinguished star stop by atop Betlehem's night sky. Then this led them into a further investigation and search through their bibliography and found it is a once in a lifetime's sign that a King of kings is born.
I imagine that in our today's culture, they must have got their own facebook group or mailing list to share this new finding and start to pop out the idea of going to where the star stops. And it all ends up when they finally go to Betlehen, and got to the 'city of David' approximately two years later. There they meet the child and worshiped Him.
Did you see what I see? God touches the wise men through their profession and their personal interest. The reflection is if this year or this time you know someone who doesn't know about God and the salvation, God might be having a plan to let someone else knows about HIM through you. Are you a professional, a non professional, a merely layman, God can accommodate you to be the person to introduce God to others.
Have you wonder? Its simply because God knows how to touch you and those who know you in such a way.
Let Him touch others in His way! And you guys, just do what you can. If you can be of an example of a Chris follower, do so.


Merry Christmas
Jakarta, end of December 2009






God touches men the way the men most appropriate to be touched.

me, my days and radiotherapy

I know that anything to do with radiotherapy is not a pleasant topic to talk about. Do I like it? Then I can merely reply in a simple argumentation; its necessary.
For these past weeks I have been dealing with at least 3 persons needed what I called as the necessary to talk about. The first person came in the shape of patient, laid weak with vividly slow eye movement. He was not that bad actually, yet looks very weak. He has to have the therapy because it’s the only last chance to ‘help’ him with the uncontrolled malignant ball he had at his prostate.
The second person is a young lady. I say young because she had just finished her golden years at the college. Then her unexpected Medical Check Up results saying that something ‘unfriendly’ is spotted at her left lung. This brought her to her ever darkest dreams and put her to be hospitalized until about 2 weeks later.
The last one is about an elderly person with so called adenocarcinoma. What sort of creature is this? In our daily colloquial we say that its an uncontrolled sprouts of cells (then forming bizarre meat) originating in glandular tissue. Boy, I really hope that what I am saying here is right.
And the tree persons were just ordinary people like you and me. They never expect to have such experience in their lives. They tried hard to never think, mention, or even wanted to know what cancer is.
The good thing is that they all needed radiotherapy for the first step to help. Did you by any chance know what is it? Google tells us that It involves the use of radiation which is targeted to the cancer site in order to destroy cancerous cells. Treatment is planned meticulously in order to minimize harm to normal cells. Treatment is usually carried out as an outpatient procedure, and lasts for several weeks (depending on the nature of the tumor). There are different forms of radiotherapy for the prostate available.
My only intention is writing this here is so that I myself made aware that any kinds of illness my occur to you, me and anyone. And such illness has its powerful strength to change the direction of you and your family’s plan. How do you cope with your life if everything you have planned is changed?
Guys, life is about choices and changes. You have all the capacity to cope with everything that comes to you. Be wise in taking them.

Jakarta, 5 November 2009

It shakes my heart as well

I clearly remember that it was about an hour and thirty minutes after I returned from a long lunch out of the office. Everyone was busy at their cubicle ; typing, calling or answering phones, chatting with their neighbors, or simply staring at the monitor (as some of them are finance persons… doing what they called as reconciliation some numbers for sure). And me, I was answering some e-mails I needed to answer the morning before. While drinking my 4th glass of water for the day.
Then suddenly someone yelled, ‘its shaking, it s shaking…” while at the same time she rushed to the exit door, followed by all the staff. I stood up and can really feel that the 4th floor of that Research Institute was a bit shaking. It felt like you are standing in a cable car while the car was about to go. You can feel it slightly like you can’t trust the floor you have been standing and working for all these months and weeks. Then I realize that that was it. On my way following the crowd I can barely see the water in the dispenser make a wave-liked movement. And the walk I did was not steady until I reached the door to the exit and rushed outside.
Out there, everyone is already crowded in awe. Looking up to the sky and every corner of the outside building, wondering what will happen next. Half of the more than 100 people there were making phone calls. Some do the talk, some showing frustrating face knowing that there’s no connection.
That was my first real life earth quake experience since I was born. Boy… I must say that it was not fun at all.
Then today, when I put this article in the text, I can vividly recall what I had weeks ago when a friend of mine unofficially ‘announce’ her resignation plan. Though I am a calm type of person, in which from my face you won’t see anything change, yet within me I felt like standing on the floor which is shaking. After months of ‘being’ with her in all the moments; travelling, events, meetings, and sharing ideas, world knows that the time tells it all. All through the time I learned a lot. I experience many. I had it impartially.
Well, life is about coming and going. One goes, other comes. Change happens every time. I learn that to stay up is to adjust yourself to the ever changing life.



Jakarta, 3 September 2009

Headache, oh headache

It was actually not a big surprise knowing that tension headaches are the most common type of primary headache. It is said that as many as 90% of adults have had or will have tension headaches. Tension headaches are more common among women than men.
That’s what the doctor told me a while ago after a special session I had at the clinic with a neurologist. I felt like a hopeless patient when she did a through check to all my nerve function. I honestly feel like saying, ‘No doc, I am actually ok, please don’t treat me like a patient”. But I know she has to do her job.
Knowing that its my fourth day having this headache, she asked like do you feel tension at your neck? Did you vomiting? Do you experience any high blood pressure before? Do you feel any numbness around your cheek? Do you feel nausea? I feel sorry to her that all the questions she asked was replied by one word, ‘no’, which is good for me and her. From her explanation, she told me that there are so many people suffer from headaches, and because treatment is sometimes difficult, there is a new classification system that allows health care practitioners to understand a specific diagnosis more completely to provide better and more effective treatment regimens. Nowadays they classified headaches into primary headaches, Secondary and cranial neuralgia which then including facial pain and other headaches. Secondary headaches are those that are due to an underlying structural problem in the head or neck. There are numerous causes of this type of headache ranging from bleeding in the brain, tumor, or (these are the most horrible ones) meningitis and encephalitis. When she mentioned vocabularies like migraine, blood pressure, nerve imbalance, and tumor… gee I couldn’t imagine how on earth do I ever get those symptom to hit me.
After about 15 minutes in her room, what’s the diagnose? To my surprise she said that I am actually ok. I just need to sleep and wake up at regular times. And, this is the most impossible one, to reduce tension during work hours and some others. I was prescribed three regiments of medicine. She told me to come back three days later if the medicine don’t do any tricks.
Well, I hope that what I really need is a good weekend and relax days. But for the next 4 days to go, I sure have lots to do. Oh headache… if we can ever stand on our own sides without disturbing to each other.

Jakarta, 25 August 2009.

You are for a reason

If you choose the same belief as I do, you will surely understand when I say that its not a coincidence why you are in the present state of life. Then we can come to the next statement that every single thing happens for a reason. And the reasons I mean here is that when we choose to obey then we will find out the reasons unfailing itself for us.
I am proud to say that my life happens for one reason. For sure the reason is to glorify HIM in and through me and to make a difference in others’ life. Just like the hardship and hard edges of Israelites when they were travelling the desert to the promised land, its all to the glory of His name, the ultimate owner of life.
I belief that the best decision I ever made in life is to choose to commit to follow HIM. I follow Him not because I choose to, rather because He called me. Not because I am fulfilling the status He wanted me to, yet due to His grace to me.
A new life essentially begins when you know what are you here for! This is well stated in Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life which I have read three times already and just finished reading for the 4th time just last week. The beginning of real life is the moment when you realize that you are here not for your personal goal, but to obey HIM who put and created you and choose this time to let you live this life now and here. He could have put you to live 5o years back, or 100 years from now. But because He knows who you are and what you are here for, so He choose to put you at this era.
A total change in life actually begins at the moment you realized that you are nothing, and that you are – because HE is.
Isn’t it amazing knowing that you are special? If you ever feel like useless, hopeless, and nuisance to others, believe me that God never counted you so. He chooses you simply because He has planned you for a specific function. Once you realise this, you are starting your own new life; for Him.

Jakarta, mid of August 2009

When Jakarta Shaking

I have just again have the same feeling; the feeling of disguise and hatred. Why? Its due to the incidence that happened at a luxurious restaurant of Ritz Charlton and at the left wing of the lobby of JW Marriot in Mega Kuningan Area, South Jakarta this morning.

The news is everywhere. From the web, TV live shows, radio, sms, facebook, twitter and all kinds of communications modes. Just two hours after the twin explosion that killed (at the moment I am writing this) 9 and wounded 50 others, my niece’s daughter sms-ed me whether or not her grand uncle is ok. Man, this sort of communication would never happen 5 years ago.

When I relate my feelings to what I read on the daily devotion this morning, now I realized why Anne Cetas was uniquely used by the Lord to deliver the devotion the way it is. The topic of the devotion was When the Ground Shaking, and it helps us to see with our clearest and pure heart that there’s a place to where we can always hold firmly when the ground is shaking. Jakarta is shaking this morning. It hits all corners of the city. It filled up the air and the feelings every Jakartans.

Shall you afraid? Are you creeping? Are you feeling unsure of your life amids this uncontrolled life on earth? Bambang Yulianto, one of the security of the hotels knows best what I am saying here. He was having his Friday off during the previous bomb at the same hotel 4 years ago. But today he is one of the wounded. Poor man.

Guys, here is what I hold from today’s devotion and news, “In my distress, I called upon the Lord”. —Psalm 18:6

When you fear of uncertainty, call upon HIM, the Lord of Abram, the Lord of Jacob and the Lord of David. I hold on to HIM as well. He is the only certain source of life’s security. None else does!

Jakarta, 17 July 2009