The Legend of Lake Toba

Once upon a time there was a prosperous village in a far away island called Sumatra. In northern part of the island, lived a farmer whose name was Toba. He lived alone in a hut by a small forest. He worked on his farmland to grow rice and vegetables that he sells to local market. 

Once day he wanted to catch some fish so he went to a river and fished there. He was very surprised when he got a big fish. The fish was as big as human being. Soon he went home and put the fish in his kitchen. He planned to cook the fish for his dinner that night. When he got to his house that afternoon he took a bath. Then as he walked into his bedroom after taking a bath Toba was very shocked. Do you want to know what happened?

 
There stood in his living room a very beautiful girl. The girl greeted him nicely. For a moment Toba was speechless. When he could control his emotion he asked her.

 
‘Who are you? What’s your name? Why suddenly you are here in my house?’

 
‘Pardon me if I surprised you Mr. Toba, but you took me here. I was the fish that you caught in the river. Now that I become a human being again, I would like to thank you and I will be your servant to express my thankfulness’

 
‘Were you the fish?’

 
‘Yes, I was the fish. Look at your kitchen’.

 
Toba immediately rushed to his kitchen and the fish was nowhere to be seen. He saw some gold coins instead.

 
‘Whose coins are these? Why there are some coins here?’

 
‘Those coins are mine. As I changed into human being my scales changed into gold coins’

 
‘Ok you can live here and work for me. Your room is over there’

 
‘Thank you very much Mr. Toba’

 
Since that day the beautiful girl lived in Toba’s house. Since she was very beautiful Toba fell in love with her and not long after that they got married. The girl married to Toba on one condition that he would never tell anybody about her past. Toba agreed to the condition. Several months later Toba’s wife delivered to a baby boy. Their son was healthy. Soon he grew up into a handsome boy. Toba named him Samosir. Unfortunately Samosir was a lazy boy.

 He did not want to work at all. When his father worked hard in his rice field and farm, Samosir just slept. When he was awake he talked a lot and he ate a lot. Toba was very disappointed with his son’s nature. He hoped that one day Samosir would change into a diligent boy. Day in and day out but Samosir never changed.

 
Toba used to go to his farm and rice field early in the morning. Then at midday his wife would bring him food. They used to eat lunch at their farm. As he was a teenager Toba and his wife tried to change his behavior. They ordered Samosir to bring food for his father for lunch while her mother stayed at home to do household chores. But Samosir never did his duty well. He always woke up very late. He woke up after midday. Then one day his mother forced him to bring the food.

 
‘Sam, wake up. Go to the farm and bring the food for your father. He must be very tired and hungry now’.

 
But Mom, I am tired and hungry too’

 
‘What makes you tired? You just wake up. Go now. You father needs the food’

 
Toba reluctantly went to the farm.. He stopped somewhere in the street and ate the food. It was already late afternoon when he got to the farm. His father was disappointed. Then he was angrywords. Samosir’s mother was shocked. She was also deeply hurt.

 
‘O Toba. You break your promise so I cannot live with you here anymore. Now you have to accept to consequence of what you did. Samosir, now go to the hill, find the tallest tree and climb it’
‘Why mom? What will happen?’

 
‘Just do it, never ask any question. Good bye’

 
As soon as she finished saying that suddenly the weather changed. Sunny day suddenly turned into cloudy day. Not long after that the rain poured heavily. The rain last for several days. Consequently the area was flooded. The whole area became a big lake. Then it was called Lake Toba and in the middle of the lake there is an island called Samosir Island. Meanwhile Toba’s wife disappeared.



QUESTION


1. What is the moral message from the story above?
2. 'Toba reluctantly went to the farm' the synonym of the underlined word is?
3. Why Toba didn't to eat goldfish?
4. What caused the disaster to occur?
5. 'But he did not go to the farm immediately' what are the antonyms of the underlined word?


Change these sentences into direct or inderct from!

1.‘Pardon me if I surprised you Mr. Toba, but you took me here. I was the fish that you caught in the river. Now that I become a human being again, I would like to thank you and I will be your servant to express my thankfulness’

2.‘Whose coins are these? Why there are some coins here?’

‘Those coins are mine. As I changed into human being my scales changed into gold coins’
‘Ok you can live here and work for me. Your room is over there’
‘Thank you very much Mr. Toba’

3.‘Sam, wake up. Go to the farm and bring the food for your father. He must be very tired and hungry now’.

But Mom, I am tired and hungry too’
‘What makes you tired? You just wake up. Go now. You father needs the food’

4.‘O Toba. You break your promise so I cannot live with you here anymore. Now you have to accept to consequence of what you did. Samosir, now go to the hill, find the tallest tree and climb it’

5.'Why mom? What will happen?’

‘Just do it, never ask any question. Good bye’

My Holiday My Inspiring

This holiday may be only 2 weeks, but it is full of amazing ideas. In this holiday I have designed many business ideas. If a lot of my friends go to tourist sites, I'm just at home, but the 2 weeks that I went through were incredible.  I have done what I like. 

I have desingned my business planing to perpect my experience. I not only designed the idea, but I looked for ways to realize it.

Not only my business has also read many books about how to be successful, how to lead, how to speak in front of the public, and how to overcome anxiety in learning or doing activities.

I want to share something extraordinary that I read in a book by Dale Carnegie (the same as reading two of his books) in his book in giving a way so that I don't give up easily when it fails.  He writes "Successful people fail and try again with a different record."

That is the book I read.  In addition to motivation about failure, I also found a way to overcome my anxiety.

While at SMAN 3 Bandung I was sometimes dizzy and worried because there were many tasks that I had not yet done and often were delayed.  But Dale Carnegie in his book explains one way to overcome anxiety is to try today as much as possible do not think about tomorrow but focus on today.  If I apply it in doing school work, I immediately finish the assignment that day (if possible) so that I don't worry because the assignments accumulate.

Most of my vacation, I use to read new things far from school lessons.  I can learn to write essays, study electricity, and find DIY resources. Then I try to do it.  It was very fun for me.

In addition to the cool things that I mentioned earlier, there is one idea that I really want to develop.  The idea was to make a 3D printing machine based on plastic waste.  I feel that if this idea is developed it can overcome the plastic waste that has accumulated on this earth.

And the goods created are paving blocks, so that it can reduce flooding.

That's the exciting things I do during the holidays.  I realized that during the last holiday many ideas emerged, my creativity was honed.  Therefore in this second semester I try to divide my time so that I can do what I like even though I have a lot of work to do.

The lesson is important, but not the main thing.  The main thing is experience.  Someone can look better if you have experience and maturity in thinking.  This is what I am aiming for now.