Okay. I have to say that this is madness. But first, let’s start from the beginning. Brace yourselves, it’s gonna be a long one.

We, as in me, Henry and Handry, shoot alot of brides and grooms. And I mean alot. We shoot them in beaches, we shoot them in forests, hills, valleys, on docks and old buildings, on sunsets and mornings. Then we shoot them in homes, churches, ballrooms, and on dance floors.

We become better. Because we do it right and also because we do it often. Well in here comes the paradox: Doing things often makes you better, but also makes you bored. Doing the same thing day in and day out, even what you’re doing is something that you’re passionate about, will cost you your passion, your zest.

Hence one always need some breaks. Or longer breaks. Like a sabbatical.

For those who just heard of the term, a sabbatical is a long break from your routine, often associated with a journey to find one self.

It is not a vacation, since a vacation is usually short and luxurious and involves a lot of money spending and having fun, while a sabbatical happens in a more longer stretches of time and involves a lot of enlightenment and new experiences that will, hopefully, change your live.

Think of all those people in Bali. Think traveler, not tourists. Europians who usually travel around the world for a year before they come back to work. Think Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love.

I love the idea of sabbatical. I think it just makes perfect sense. The purpose of life is not having an early retirement in a tropical island and drink pineapple juice with a straw for the rest of your life, but keep on doing meaningful work up until your old age with a lot of breaks in between to keep the passion alive.

Somehow, it is not a common practice here in Indonesia to do a sabbatical even when we already read so much books that advocate this practice. It is not culturally correct. If you live in Indonesia, just try to remember, when was the last time you heard of a friend planning to make a trip for like say, six months? Three? One? Almost never, right? Which makes all I’m about to tell you a bit more interesting 🙂

Since we held the first meeting of the year, I always pushed this agenda. It’s easy to just “go” for, say, a month to anywhere, but the key to a sabbatical is having a purpose. The extreme ones are like Scott Harisson,  who hopped to a hospital boat as a volunteer in the coasts of war-torn Africa (by the way, he came back as a person who founded charity:water). We tried a couple of scenarios that will fit the office and the purpose of our planned sabbatical, but back then, we still haven’t feel like we’ve found the right one.

Then I attended TEDx Jakarta.

TEDx is an independently organized event that mirrors the spirit of TED. Read more about it here. I loved all the presentations but the one that strikes me the most was the one about Indonesia Mengajar, a movement started by Mr Anies Baswedan.

Indonesia Mengajar have this one goal: to tackle head on our society’s most basic problem: education. They do this by a unique strategy: putting Indonesia’s most brightest people as teachers in far out regions for a full year, to give schools and communities a fresh and better teaching experience and to spark optimism in places that have not seen hope for a long time.

One of the key points that Mr Anies said was, “This is a two way street. People who go will definitely contribute something to the community, while they themselves will acquire a leadership and learning experience like no other. They will definitely come home as a different person.”

He also added, “Since the ones that are going most likely to be the future decision makers and leaders of Indonesia, what better experience is there to equip them than being in the frontline, on the frontiers of this nation?” Learn more about Indonesia Mengajar here

I got hooked. Down in this metropolitan heart of mine, I still deeply love this nation, despite it’s wrongdoings and disappointments. If we, her own people didn’t start something, when will the new Indonesia emerges? Like they say, be the change you want to see in this world.

Also, as you can see from my work, I am a photojournalist by heart. I love catching moments as it unfolds, in it’s true nature, describing a story by a single frame. Henry and Handry, growing up from the same tree, have the same deep affection to photo journalism.

Alas, our current field of work a lot of times does not give me a lot to work with. Instead, we would love spending a month in a village somewhere, out of the bustle and hustle of the city life, refreshing and sharpening our eyes story by story.

Well, if the adventure does not come to you, you just have to come to the adventure.

We approached the wonderful people of Indonesia Mengajar with the idea of us shooting them in the front lines. We told them about our idea of doing a sabbatical, that we are fortunate to be in a small firm so we could do pretty much what we want. We also told them that photojournalism is one of our strength, that we would love to have the opportunity to be embedded in a story for a longer stretch of time.

You know what?  They welcomed the idea so positively that it took us by surprise. They loved the idea of a sabbatical, the loved that they’re going to get loads of pictures, and they loved someone has stepped up to volunteer this kind of work. We have been in meetings with them to arrange the trip, so bottom-line, here’s what we’re going to do:

Me, Henry and Handry will receive no work for the month of April, and we will depart to three destinations in Indonesia for about three weeks long. Me (and Francy) will go to the islands of South Halmahera, Henry will go to these villages somewhere in East Kalimantan, and Handry will go to the plantations in Tulang Bawang Barat, Lampung.

View Indonesia Mengajar Trip in a larger map

These areas already have ten each of Pengajar Muda (that’s what we call the volunteers) and God willing, we will visit them one by one. We were warned that most of these areas have no running water, no electricity (only generators that run for a period of time in the night) and most importantly, no squeaky clean white porcelain toilet seats 🙂 And of course, this is not a three day trip we’re talking about. It’s three weeks long.

Our mission is simple: to get stories, and to be inspired. Stories of Pengajar Muda and the communties, while being inspired to be a better photojournalist and to be a better man. Details on how we are going to achieve this coming soon in another post.

We’re scared right now. Why shouldn’t we? City folks in a strange place, where in some areas you have to change planes and boats just to get there. What if things went wrong? What if we got mugged? What if we were not welcomed by the villagers? Heaven forbid, what if there’s a tsunami?

But we humans are not fair a lot of times. Instead of always thinking the worst, why don’t we just always hope for the best?

What if things went smoothly and we had an experience of a lifetime? What if we had these beautiful images of bravery that leaves the comfort of high paid jobs to contribute something to this great nation? What if we got pictures of the greatest sunsets and sunrises? What if we become so much better in photographing things? What if our presence made permanent change in everyone we touched? What if we were welcomed by the locals? What if we become good friends?

What if we came home a better person?

We would like to think that these things are the ones that’s going to happen.

Pray for us. This is our biggest, scariest adventure yet. But hey, like Seth Godin said, “If you can’t fail, then it doesn’t count.”

Please comment on this. We want to know what everybody thinks 🙂
Edward

PS: We’re planning to give you current updates on the developments on the trip, from the preparations, our departures, up until the live reports when we are on location.  Just follow the IM+ESP tag.