0 The spirit of Bubohu-Bongo

“This village used only to be known for its poor fishermen, drunkards and barren land,” said Yosep Tahir Ma’ruf, 43, a native of Bubohu-Bongo village in Batuda’a Pantai district, Gorontalo regency. His concern prompted him to do something for the greater good. In 1997, he started planting trees and buying plots of land. Locals saw his efforts and thought his goal was an impossible dream. The arid soil turned out to contain deposits of water from the hills, which he pumped and then distributed. 

With his trees growing larger, the man usually called Yotama started building dormitories on the lime-filled and sandy land, followed by two swimming pools, one named Santri (Islamic students), the other Asmaul Husna, meaning the 99 names of God. The Asmaul Husna pool is designed like the number 99, and the Santri pool is small and intended for children. The two pools are located at Pesantren Alam Bubohu, an Islamic boarding school in the area. Most of the school’s students, totaling around 600, are local residents, and they are both children and adults. 

Besides discussions and Koran recitations, students at the school are taught to appreciate the natural world, including by planting trees. Pesantren activities start in the evening because people generally work or attend formal schools during the day.   Yotama has developed his birthplace into a religious tourism site without charging visitors wishing to observe the existing facilities. “Since its introduction as a religious tourist village in 2007, the number of drunk people has declined, perhaps they feel embarrassed,” he said. It takes only 20 minutes to reach Bubohu from the city of Gorontalo, though one has to be careful during several steep ascents, particularly in the rainy season. 

The sea and coastal panoramas of Gorontalo Bay and fishermen’s settlements along the shore offer a visual sensation not to be missed. Pesantren Alam Bubohu has also set up the Gorontalo Culture Museum and the Wood Fossil Museum, with a collection of centuries-old wood fossils gathered from different sites in Gorontalo. Gorontalo State University (UNG) has even made the boarding school a geological laboratory for research purposes. In 2011, Yotama initiated a tourism vocational senior high school (SMK), with priority given to disadvantaged families. Today, two classes of 60 students each enjoy vocational training free of charge. The school building has a unique small pool around its terrace. 

Yotama calls the classrooms the “palace of science”, and a separate room with palm-leaf roofing for teachers is called the “palace of models”. “I want students to appreciate science and teachers to become exemplars,” he said. The other important building frequented by tourists is the Walima Mosque, located on a slope about 250 feet above sea level. There visitors can enjoy magnificent expanses of sea, hills, settlements and rows of fishermen’s boats. The 10-square-meter mosque with an open second floor was built in 2008 and inaugurated on Dec. 12, 2012. 

“I purposely built it at a high elevation so that mosque-goers can observe the almightiness of God which hopefully will enhance the quality of their worship,” he said. On the side of the mosque’s stairs is a Muslim calendar that locals claim is the biggest in the world. The calendar is in the form of large cement blocks with the names of the months of the Muslim calendar carved into them. Near the gate to the mosque’s compound are seven blocks with the names of the days based on the Gregorian calendar. Yotama said he was the sole architect of all the facilities and didn’t use blueprints but instead drew the structures on the ground and had them built by workers according to his designs. 

With regard to the funds for the development of this religious tourism village, Yotama said, “Apart from using my own money I also had some donors, among others from New Zealand.” He said he has no idea the exact amount already spent to realize his dream. The man known to dress in white and go barefoot most of the time is in the construction and trade business. He makes frequent visits to Jakarta and benefits from his peers’ donations, without any formal proposals. “They voluntarily provide aid after seeing what I’m doing in the village,” he said. “When funds are running short I pray to God, pleading to get some relief. 

Then I contact my business partners and there’s always a solution. I believe it’s the will of God,” he said. But there are times when he stops the donations only because he hasn’t returned home for quite awhile to inspect the latest developments. “I’ll tell them to suspend their aid and go to Bubohu-Bongo to see what has resulted from their previous assistance,” he said. He is also against seeking regional government aid, let alone submitting formal proposals. “I object to this method because those conveying and receiving such proposals are vulnerable to allegations.” 

Still, he admits that his network of donors isn’t always reliable. Consequently, he is promoting export-oriented agricultural laboratory research at Pesantren Alam Bubohu. “We’ve started cultivating corn, cassava and sago. Recently we exported eight tons of sago and cassava flour to Denmark,” he said. Visitors to the village can observe various crops growing on previously barren land. Around the SMK, paddy is even thriving in the sandy soil. The santri and SMK students assisted by local experts have also developed microbe liquid and organic fertilizer with the trademark “Walima Super”, which has been sold in Sulawesi and Java. 

The microbe liquid, made of processed vegetables, water hyacinth and animal waste, has proven to be a great fertilizer, capable of inducing the growth of plants on barren soil. According to Yotama, this business is designed to support the tourist village he has fostered for 16 years. To further sustain the effort, a college named the Wadipalapa Islamic Institute of Technology will open soon. The college will have only two departments, religious agriculture and spiritual economics, and 33 students will receive free education. According to Yotama, Indonesia is an agrarian country that ironically has a poor majority due to the loss of agricultural religiosity and spirit, thus leading to greed. “Students will be taught a new crop planting method that combines agricultural technology with spiritual practice, like offering prayers before planting and communicating with crops,” he said.

source : the jakarta post