Dreaming of Future through “Toto Kopi”
Coffee drinking habit in
East Manggarai is very well known with its “Kopi Pa’it” or drinking
coffee without sugar. If you happen to visit your neighbors, do not expect to
have sugar put into your cup of coffee, it is total black coffee that every
host serves their guest.
No day without drinking
black coffee, that is a simple sentence to describe how much people consume “Kopi
Pa’it”, in the morning after breakfast, during the day after lunch, and in
the noontime. This is totally different from other places in Flores that coffee
is usually mixed with sugar.
For me drinking coffee
without sugar is a true fascination. It not a matter of taste but community. It
unites and just like most people saying life is begun after coffee.
Sitting closer to furnace
for heating the body in the morning before going for sunshine is my common
activity before going to work. Sharing stories while keeping the woods fire is
worth the time.
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| source |
In Ntangis East Manggarai,
almost all people spend their time picking coffee at their garden. They have 2
major types of coffee Arabica and Robusta. During May to July, they harvest
Arabica and process it before selling to the traders in the capital city Borong.
That morning, I and my relatives gathered around by the front yard of house for breakfast while enjoying the sunshine. We sat by the resting place made of bamboo where we used to sit or laying during the break from work on fields or just to enjoy the view of the village and surroundings.
We were surprised by my aunt who at the time cooked for us taro before rice for breakfast. She joked us if it is aimed to have more power so that we could finish picking coffee much faster. The combinations of taro and coffee were just perfect.
Ngempit, the name of garden
where I and relatives were working situated by the cliff. To get there we had
to walk for an hour through rice fields, rocks and mountains. Just like most
places in Flores, almost every garden has shelters where farmers can stay,
cook, sleep and store their crops.
“Toto
Kopi”
We were all equipped with machetes at our waists and our baskets made of bamboo and ropes hanging by the shoulders signified that we were ready to pick coffee from coffee trees with height up to 5 meters and that made me had to climb to collect the red ones put into my basket.
While picking coffee, I was
entertained by my relative Ari who sang an old Manggraian song that he meant
for enjoying the works. Bapak Donatus Jeharum who owns the land shared a lot
about his experience while we were on the coffee tree. As I knew that he is “Ata
Mbeko” or magician of the village who has helped many people from illness
shared about “Toto Kopi”.
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"Toto" in Manggarai means to show. It is a unique way to predict the
future by looking at the patterns formed by coffee grounds in the bottom of a
glass or cup. Usually after the coffee in a cup runs out, the cup is then
facedown until the pulp in the cup dries and forms certain patterns. "Ata
Mbeko" then predicts the fate and future of the coffee drinker by
interpreting the patterns formed by the coffee grounds.
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| Ari still picking coffee. |
Bapak Donatus shared about
his experience when predicting a young guy who dreamed of a wife in his
village. He said that by “Toto Kopi” he knew the physical
appearance of the girl, from which direction the girl will be and the character
of the girl and even he knew when they would meet each other.
Bapak Donatus who has spent
about 7 years in Malaysia to work shared about his experience of helping some
of his friends who lost their belongings because of being stolen or they forgot
where they stored, he just asked them to drink coffee and then “Toto Kopi”.
He could point it out exactly where the thing they looked for or told them
whether it is being stolen or put somewhere they had already forgotten.
When I listened to the
story, I was amazed and asked if he earns something from his work, he said it
was all free. If people were helped he would be very happy because by hoping
something from anyone the miracle would not work," he added with a
blissful smile on his face.
By the time we got our
baskets full of coffee, we then went back to shelters for lunch. With rice,
squash, and piece of fish we had delicious lunch cooked by Bapak Donatus’ wife.
When we have finished with lunch, I was wondering when and how “Toto Kopi” was
firstly introduced. Bapak Donatus really had no idea but he said that this
tradition has been passed down from generation to generation.
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| Mama Erlin, Bapak Donatus' wife |
Fortune-telling activity itself is limited to coffee grounds, but
in its development it is included in traditional culture. In traditional events
that use sacrificial animals, fortune telling activities are usually held or
commonly called "Toto Urat". If in "Toto Kopi"
the fortune teller reads the future of patterns formed by coffee grounds, then
in "Toto Urat", fortune tellers read the signs found in the
intestines of sacrificed animals. Talking about results, everything can be
right or wrong.
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