Immortalizing Memories

Friday 16 September 2016

32 Days of Community Service

As promised, here's the post to share about my experiences in the community service that I have followed a month ago. I might not be able to tell you the full story of it, but I'm just going to highlight some of the things we have done there. Hopefully you will be able to get the essence from my experiences and learn something too :)


Sooo, here we go!

1. The House
 
"If you want to find yourself, get out of your comfort zone first."

Majalengka was where we have been following the community service at. We lived in a house which was owned by an old man and his wife. I was grateful that the house was overall clean.


So every morning, this is what we have been waking up to. Bare ceiling with all the crisscrossing canes and spider cobs formed at the corner of the roof. Water would leak occasionally when it rains. But having a roof over your head is really something one should appreciate enough already.

The water supply in the house was also powered by the electricity. And that is to say, when you have your electricity supply tripped in the house, you will be trapped in the washroom with your halfway shampoo-lathered hair in a complete darkness and... an immediate "water-boycott" until you light up the electricity again. So it's no surprise if you came out from the bathroom after one hour after getting the electricity tripped for 7 times during your shower. Hah.

Going through all these, it did made the experience a little less fun tbh. But I think I was wrong. Instead of that, I think it actually made my stay at this village more meaningful to realise how blessed are all of us everyday. One should be grateful to have a roof over their head and have basic supplies to sustain our human basic physiological needs.

Most parts of the house are actually DIY-ed by the house owner and I'm quite fancied this uber cute bell nailed to the door by a spring and so whenever anyone goes out or comes back, we would be alerted.

The house owner's wife washing up pots and pans behind the house on the first day we arrived. We also help and wash our own plates and utensils too. Was quite intrigued by this corner of the house because don't you think it's just a "painting-perfect" place?

Drew some caricatures for the 3 sweeties who always come to visit us at our place.

2. Food Connoisseur

"Can trying out different food can be a whole new knowledge?"
 
 A variety of Indonesian cuisine
LEFT; Soto (typical indonesian food)
RIGHT; French fries made by our team head and they taste so close to the ones in Mcd like, seriously!

The grand list of other food that we have cooked here (hah!):

Fried tempe (goreng/tumis=oseng/mendoan), tofu, bakwan, soto, kentang balado, nasi lengko, nasi goreng, bihun (beehoon) goreng, telor dadar, telor balado, nasi lemak/uduk, omlet (dengan mie instan), terong balado (eggplant), kacang teri balado, ikan goreng, ikan asin, sayur asem, ayam goreng kecap, sop sayur, tumis sawi, kerupuk, sardine, tumis kangkung, rebon dan kacang goreng, oncom, mie ayam, kentang goreng, lodeh, rujak...

And to name some of the food that I have tried here:

Basreng,  pisang goreng, martabak, roti bakar, jus alpukat, onde-onde, es buah, seblak...

And my all-time favourite tempe! Many people do not appreciate its taste but yeah, it's actually a really healthy food! (Minus off the oil..)

Rp3000 to satisfy my craving for fresh milk.

3. Jogging

"Run for your life, literally."

So the 6 of us people decided to go jogging one evening from our village. I personally enjoyed the lane that we took for a jog. The sceneries were picturesque and the place was tranquil. Not many vehicles passes by the road and the lane was wide enough too. We also jogged to the paddy field too.

Feasted our eyes on this golden field basked in the lovely sunlight on the sides of the lane we jogged. It was windy and the sun was setting too so we stopped by to take some of the photos here :)

4. Paddy Harvesting

"Blessed are the ones who have rice in their plates."

When it comes to muddy stuffs, never had I ever been enthusiastic about the idea. But this time was an exception.

 Reaping > Threshing > Drying

Paddy harvesting is never a clean job but also a dark job. Ermm I mean, you get at least fifty shades darker after exposing yourself under the scorching sun in the afternoon (just exaggeration, chill :P). And getting in contact with the hull of the rice grains may also cause itchiness to your skin.  But yeah, no harm of experiencing it for once in your life right?

So, everything was done manually. As you can see the picture from the left, you will have to walk through the thick muddy soil in order to get to the paddies to do the reaping with a sickle. Next after we have cut the paddies from the bottom of straw (above the mud), we collect them together aside and do what it's called the threshing. So this is where you will hold a bunch of the paddies and just hit it onto this wooden grain separator. The paddy grains will fall off from its crop and the grains are later collected into the gunny sacks and voila! Until the grains are being dried in the sun, the paddy grains would then later be dehusked and packed in sacks for sale.

So much of effort just to obtain the rice we consume for everyday.

 At their so called "Brick Factory".

After the grains are being deshusked, the husk are then collected to be reused as burning materials. At here, people collect and use them to "cook" the bricks at the factory.

5. Harvesting Onions

So on the other day we went onions plucking at the field! Not so keen with the idea of getting sun-tan under the weather but yeah, if not now then when again? After harvesting, the head of the village even gave us some of the onions for us to bring back. Just look at the loads of onions we have harvested! :P

We found this while plucking the onions. And if you have been following my instagram, I guess you already know what is this :) 


6. To Schools

"The name of the best gift you can give your children is called Education."

We made some of the dental models to demonstrate the proper way to brush our teeth for the children at the kindergarten. The kids were surprisingly cooperative, and needless to mention super adorable because they didn't cry and create troubles :P

Also, we went to the elementary school to teach basic subjects. We were welcomed with opened arms, enthusiastically by the kids especially but..

Sometimes.. a little too "excited" for them. When we were teaching the kids at the class here, we caught some mischievous ones from the other classes sneaking and peeking by the window and above the door.

The children we taught in our class.

Another group photo of us with the bigger gang again! Look at their smiles!


7. Wanderlust

"If not now, when then?"

Yeah, that's how we travelled. We mastered the art of cramming.

 A tranquil lake

Serendipity
 
Boat rides, wanna join? :)

Trees, plantations and meadows up the hill in the breezy weather.

Photo taken by my teammate. So in love with this!

And this too :)

Of caves and waterfalls.

8. Independence Day

"A little passion will work its magic in your goal"


In conjunction of the independence day,  many traditional games were held for both the children and villagers.

Panjat Pinang aka Pole Climbing. The contestants will have to climb up the greased pole in order to get to the top to get the prizes up there. This game inspired me so much.. it's like getting to the top to your goal but you might bumped into some nasty obstacles along the journey first before being able to attain to your goal :) Just do not give up!

At night, we had this event where it was organised by the head of the village. Unexpectedly all of us were called up the stage to do what they call "berjogeg" in front of the villagers of our place. Hahahahah can I like say nooo but... of course cannot. Although it was embarassing but it was another new crazyy experience again.

That's basically the highlight of the days we spent at the village. So much for today and..

Thanks for reading!

Till then,

xx


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