I am back with story as promised!

We left with Company bus around 7:30 am on Saturday from Senayan. It is not purely coincidence that the Committee (which most of them are my friends) put us in Bus 4 - Pink. Yes, the bus is color coded and one of them is coded to my liking. Yay! We sat right behind the driver to give the kids broader view. Both Pascal & Mika were very excited. Mika chatted endlessly and invited giggles from the rest of the passengers. Pascal as usual, being a follower, replied back in his toddler language. And when Pascal looked bored and the boys started to shove each other, I asked the driver to play the Peter Pan karaoke DVD that I specially brought. Fortunately, he has the same DVD so after a while, we listened in peace to the same songs I’ve heard everyday. Peter Pan from the album of Hari Yang Cerah Untuk Jiwa Yang Sepi. This has successfully brought big grin from Pascal and both boys sang endlessly until the rest of the journey.

We arrived at Mambruk around 10:00 am. The boys run directly to the play ground whereas I sat through the opening ceremony peacefully with my woman friends. It was only around an hour when one of my friend’s son ran to inform me that Mika fell from seesaw. I saw Mika crying and when I checked, I saw the right corner of his upper lips slitted open! I started to panic and called the Hotel staff and also our Safety guy. Our Safety guy then came with his first aid kit backpack. But when he saw it he told me directly that he could not do anything about it as the wound is too wide and too deep for him to handle. It needs to be stitched up. The Hotel then provided us with a car and we went to a clinic.

I already got a bad feeling when I saw the clinic. It was dark & gloomy. And when the (so called) Doctor came in his casual checker shirt (+ goatee) and check the wound without even thinking to see it with the flash light, my heart sunk so low. He said that it need to be stitched up but there is no way I will let my son to undergone a surgery there no matter how simple the surgery is. I felt like crying and ready to ask somebody to take me back to Jakarta where the civilized hospitals are everywhere. Fortunately, a colleague who is also dear old friend of mine called. He suggested me to take Mika to Krakatau Steel Hospital and has sweetly offered his help to accompany us. He said that I am going to need somebody to be with me to go through this. However, knowing that he came with a daughter, 10 months baby and 37th month-ish pregnant wife, I told him that it would be best for me to be accompanied by somebody else. I would feel really bad to trouble him and his family. I then called the Safety guy and we returned to the hotel to pick him up, change the car with the one with better Air Con. Nevertheless, my good ol’ friend came to checking up on us and helped to find us car. Thanks, dear friend, for extending help when it needed most. I was so glad that you are there for me and my kids.

So again, all of us and the Safety guy drove for almost an hour to the closest hospital where the Emergency Room look bright and the paramedics wear sterile uniform. Mika needs to be stitched. No doubt about that, so Mika started crying when he realized that there is no way to get around that. It took three men to hold him for he was a big boy. I calmed my self as best as I could and talked to Mika in the firmest tone I had that he had to stay calm. It will hurt but it is to stop the germs from entering the wound. So Mika got three shots in the open wound (in which he wailed and cried) and had it stitched.

I believe I have never been a weak woman, but when I saw my son’s lips being stitched my knees went rubbery and I felt like crying. I felt like I was going to faint so I really had to push away the troublesome motherly emotion, compartmentalized my self and be as strong as I can be. The advise given by my good friend was so true. The present of my other colleague really helped and the fact that he is one of our Safety Engineer had really helped me a lot going through the first hand experience seeing somebody being stitched.

We went back to the Hotel and I noticed that my colleague’s wife kept on calling him to check his whereabouts. He then explained that his wife is in the early pregnancy. And because she had miscarriage before, she can’t run around watch their son. Oh no, I felt really bad to hear that and endlessly apologize for troubling him. But he was very sweet and said it’s okay. He even carried Mika around to soothe the boy. I really hope nothing happened with his backbone otherwise I will never forgive my self.

The remaining 2 days went without any major incidents. Mika participated in games as much as he could whereas I took Pascal swimming. Pascal, who is in terrible two stage, was a bit challenging to manage. He pushed the bed lamp, pour the juice to the bed, called my friends ’stupid’, refused to wear his pajama which made him really look like Obelix with his white blue stripes pajama pants and refused to wear his swimsuit and jumped to the water naked. Oh dear…

I did not manage to participate to any game for apart from not really being a game fans, I also have lost my appetite to do anything but to return to Jakarta. My other colleagues have also been very sweet in checking up on us and excused me for not participating fully. The GM came to see us and spoke to Mika kindly on how brave he was. So I think he did enjoy all the attention.

We managed to return safely to Senayan on Sunday at 05:00 pm where Pascal run around and hit the metal detector frame right on the face. He still have not get the chance to heal from his purple bruise on his left cheek and now he will have another bruise. Oh dear. Why all my kids seemed to be always in some sort of wound? Does anybody’s kids as active as mine? I have never been happier to see hubby pick us up. Things seemed to be more manageable when he is around.

Anyway, it was 2 fun days after all where drain my physical strength as well as my emotional endurance. But it was fun and I managed it okay after all. We came back with sandy laundry and two stitches richer. Phiew…