My own laskar Pelangi

I have just finished reading laskar Pelangi by Andrea Hirata. Kinda normal book. Telling about the auther's childhood added with his imagination. Reading laskar Pelangi made me memorized my elementary school period of life.I was still in an island where some of my college mate considered living in past, where there was no electricity and people are wearing koteka, and stuffs like that. Well, let me tell the truth. No! it wasn't like that. The Island has roads, electricity (we even got colored TV, yay!^^), and I went to school in uniform, I mean normal uniform... like white shirt and red skirt (well, not all of us wears skirts... The boys wore shorts, and wearing shorts? that doesn't include me...). Back to my point:My school were really-really-really in a pitiful condition. know the wires they used to place chicken eggs? Well, my school window were made of that. But going there was fune indeed. Although some of the teachers were abusive (God bless their souls), but most of them consider me and my friends, their students, as their own children.I did a lot of stupidity in this elementary school. (By the way, the official name is SD inpres 46 when I first stepped in 1st grade). Me and my schoolmates went fishing in somebody else's pond (it was exciting, trying not to be seen... In the end, it turned out, the owner of the pond was a kind priest, my junior high classmate... and he has known our activities since way back...T.T), making bubbles from jarak tree (which made my school uniform full with spots... And my mom kept asking me where do I dot those spots...And at that time I have no idea where I got them =D), climbing kersen tree (well, my friends did all the climbing, and I did all the eating =p), a lot of things that I could never do if I didn't go to that school.I also had the most great friends. And when I read laskar Pelangi, my thought went to Neville Pattikawa, my school friend, which has almost the same condition as Lintang in that story. He was a smart guy, really smart. And I was a smart girl (yes, at THAT time, now I lost all my smartness and transform it into stupidity, yay! ^^). We compete in school, but most of the time I lost (Hahah, no wonder). I remembered clearly, one day our teacher gave us math question, asking what time should a person arrive in the place. We competed, and he won. The answer was 11.10. (My answer was 10.70... my stupidity, in one hour, there's only 60 minutes!!!! how come there's 10.70???? I should have got the correct answer...T.T).Anywaaaaaay, his father was a priest (yes, I got a lot of friends whose father was a priest at that time), and he was the only son in the family. One clear day, when we were in 6th grade, his auntie (who was our school teacher) ran to him in our class, crying. HIs father passed away that day. And the world just like collapsed for my friend. From that moment, I have lost my competitor, I have lost a friend, I have lost the sparkle in his eyes every time we talk. He graduated elementary school and went to the same junior high as I did.But time passed by, and we went to the different pathways. I didn't recognize him anymore in junior high. He changed. Reading laskar Pelangi made me realize that his father was everything for him. And without his father, the world just stopped spinning for my friend.I never saw him anymore since 1999, almost 9 years now. I wondered what happened to him. So, Neville Pattikawa, this one is for you, mate. Hope u're fine, and I hope I can see once more, the sparkle you once had. I missed you so much...