Vincent & Ratna, The Separated Friendship, 1st Episode

In 1923 there was a friendship between a Dutch man and an Inlander in Parijs van Java. They were Vincent and Ratna.

The story began in 1920 from a little girl called Ratna. Ratna was a little girl who lived in Bogor and her father was a farmer and he wanted his daughter to study in Holland Indische School, a farmer who had a big dream.

 Then somehow  Ratna had an opportunity to study in Holland Indische School because of her uncle who worked in Dutch Tea Plantation as a manager. Her uncle had not been married yet but he desired to have a child, therefore Ratna went to the school as Inlander and she would never dissapoint her uncle to make her father’s dream come true.

Ratna and her uncle went to Bandoeng to start the day with a humble heart and they rented a little room near the school for Ratna. For a cheap room that was rented during Ratna studied in Holland Indische School.

One day February 17^th, 1921 Ratna Joined the class, especially in her own class of Holland Indische School. Every students thought that she was just inlander as Dutch man supposed that inlander was a servant. But there was a boy who looked at her called Vincent. He was a boy who always asked and talked to her.

Day by day passed them by untill Vincent became her close friend in the school. In 1922 they started the story by playing together where the other Dutch children did not want to be her friends but she was very happy because Vincent would be there always and sometimes Ratna asked him to help her in doing her homework because all of the task from the school was written in Dutch, however Ratna just spoke a little bit the language.

It was a hot day when they walked together to home and Vincent said “Ratna, een dag ik akan meninggalkan Bandoeng en ik ga in Holland blijven”. Ratna was surprised and said “Wat? Wat blijf je in Holland voor ? en hoe lang ?” vincent with his sad face answered “Mijn vader bekerja disana dan tak tahu berapa lama juga”. Ratna felt so sad and did not know what to do because Vincent would leave Bandoeng and lived in Holland for so long.

At home, Ratna still thought of Vincent that would leave Bandoeng and her as his close friend. She would be alone and nobody would be her friend in Holland Indische School. It was a very very hard situation where a friendship would be end because of the distance.

December 28^th, 1923 Vincent left Bandoeng and Ratna....To be continued