Klaten, 2008: It took about 20 minutes walking and less than 7 minutes by becak, a common three cycle in Indonesia, from the hotel i always stayed to the office i worked at Bapeda Klaten office compound. A few meters beside the office compound, there was a paddy field. It was a perfect time to plant paddies around February-March.

One beautiful  morning, i passed the paddy field and saw two women planting paddies. I asked the becak drivers to stop and payed the fee right a away. I thought that it was a good time to take some pictures of them. The background is green mixed with a glitter-like from a goldy color of sunrise. The scene like that usually occurs in the early morning (5-6.30 am). And it is the best moment to get some pictures. Well, i learned it from one of UNICEF Media personnel about that.

Back to the women, I though it was a unique scene to be pictured as they moved their body with certain patterns and created a synchronized moving. I called it “synchronized dancing” of planting paddies. Because they were about 5 meters from where i was standing, they noticed me taking couples pictures of them after sometimes. A few minutes later, they stopped what they were doing and together looked at me with a smile then said something in Java. I didn’t really catch each words of what they said but i completely understood the meaning. They asked me why i took picture of someone work in planting paddies. They thought that it was not nice to be pictured as they were very dirty. So, I understood.

As a reply, i smiled back at them and yelled, “Maturnuwun bu, kulo hanya ambil photonya. Photonya apik loh bu. Maturnuwun, Monggo”. It means “Thank you mam. I’ve just took some pictures of you. They are good. Thank you, excuse me”. So, i continued my walking to the office.

(This story is still Draft and will be updated soon)