Newsletter Halifax-Depok 2011
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Transcript of Newsletter Halifax-Depok 2011
It’s been a while since our tearful
goodbye at the Lutheran church in Halifax
but I still remember the dread I felt for the
many days we would spend moving from city
to city before we reached our new home of
Depok. We were all mentally prepared for
the crankiness, sleep deprivation and sick-
ness that come along with travelling but (for
the most part) we were pleasantly surprised!
After a couple stressful hours weighing,
packing, repacking, throwing out dollarama
souvenirs, and checking our baggage (I guess
some people might have overpacked?) we
boarded the plane and began our next ad-
venture. We arrived in Montreal before
lunch on Tuesday the 13th of December and
joined the other two Canada-Indonesia
teams at a hostel near the downtown of
Montreal. We were then free to explore the
city, catch up with old friends and family and
of course get some sleep after our late night
packing.
Downtown Montreal is absolutely
beautiful around Christmas-time and many
of us had the chance to walk around Old
Montreal at night and look at all of the
Christmas lights. We also did some shopping
and some last-minute binging on our favour-
ite Canadian foods. On Wednesday night at
10 pm we began our 12 hour flight to Doha,
Qatar. In the Doha airport we had fun walk-
ing through the duty free store (and being
followed by a suspicious security guard) as
well as playing many loud games of Catch
Phrase, much to the disdain of the nearby
store-owners. After about 5 hours in Doha,
we boarded the plane again for 8 hours until
we finally arrived in Jakarta and were reuint-
ed with Mumun who had taken an earlier
plane from Montreal. That night we stayed
in a hotel with the other two teams where
we met the Menpora officials and alumni,
and some lucky participants had visits from
their family members. I even met and took a
picture with the lead singer of Armada!
Church in Old Montreal
I N S I D E
T H I S I S S U E :
The Long Jour-
ney to Depok
After Halifax
Continue for
Small Village
The Yummy
Food
Gotong-royong
shows how
sweet the COM-
MUNITY is
New work
New Experience
Life Transition
I N D O N E S I A - C A N A D A
Y O U T H E X C H A N G E
P R O G R A M 2 0 1 2
P R O G R A M P E R T U K A R A N
I N D O N E S I A - K A N A D A
2 0 1 2
“We ate delicious
food, bought batiks
to wear, and took
a LOT of pictures.
Some group mem-
bers got to experi-
ence their first In-
donesian wedding
and some went to
the spa for a much-
needed massage’’.
The Loooong Journey to Depok!
The Way Home F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 V O L U M E I I , I N D O N E S I A
The group saying goodbye to our Ja-
karta host families
P A G E 2
There is no
sidewalk and
street light in
Depok so the
volunteers has
to be careful…
Gedung Sate
in Bandung
After Halifax, The Journey Continues in
a Small Village!!!
The next morning
we moved yet again to
host families in Jakarta for
two nights. They were so
hospitable and generous,
and they showed us all the
best spots in the cities. We
ate delicious food, bought
batiks to wear, and took a
LOT of pictures. Some
group members got to
experience their first Indo-
nesian wedding and some
went to the spa for a much
-needed massage. We
were all sad to say good-
bye when it was time to
leave, but were also excit-
ed to meet our Depok host
families. We took the bus
for several hours to Ban-
dung, the capital city of
West Java where we visit-
ed a government building
called Gedung Sate and
had a brief meeting. After
we took some pictures and
looked around we got back
on the bus and went to
the city of Garut where we
spent the night. Unfortu-
nately some of us were
sick at this point despite
attempts to stay healthy
while travelling, but we
were excited to get off of
the bus and sleep in a bed!
The next morning we
took a ‘delman’ (horse-drawn
cart) to buy some rambutan
for the road, and then got on
the bus for the last time! Sev-
eral hours (and Gravols) later
we got off the bus in Depok
and were greeted by an un-
imaginable number of chil-
dren at the Village Office,
including a marching band
from one of the elementary
schools. After a short ceremo-
ny we were handed over to
the community of Depok and
our brand new host families,
and so began the next phase
of our journey!
By Bethany Steinman
have found it quite diffi-
cult. We finally realize why
its so hard to find in
google map because this
village is really in the re-
mote area. We have to
pass long and taft road to
enter this community, it
took us approximately 9
hours via bus from Jakarta,
the capital city of Indone-
sia. Depok is inside the
subdistrict of Cisompet
and Cisompet is inside the
town of Garut, West Java.
The volunteers
spread into 3 area in this
small village. Munawir,
Mark, Kaya, Mayfree,
Salam, Scott, Aryo, and
Cody live in Pangligaran
area. They live close by
Balai Desa, the office of
the village government
and the meeting hall also.
Reyska and Bethany live in
the middle area called
Pagelaran. The rest of the
group which are Dini, Sophie,
Kitty, Nithya, Zaldi, Chitha,
Junus, Jackie, Memel, and
Chuck live in Cipicung area. If
we walk from Cipicung until
Pangligaran it will take us
around 30 minutes walk.
There is no sidewalk
and street light in Depok so
the volunteers has to be
careful if they want to walk
in the night and even in the
day since a lot of big trucks
and cars cross this village.
Thats because this village is
the only road to go from one
province to another prov-
ince.
3 months have
already passed the pro-
gram in Halifax, here we
are continuing our journey
of Canada World Youth
with the Halifax-Depok
team in small village
named Depok. Anyone
who has tried to find
Depok on google maps will
The small
river near
Depok Vil-
lage
T H E W A Y H O M E
P A G E 3
Tips n Trick: always wear your flip flops or sandals when you walking in the Village,hahaha.. watch out the thorn / spine or shard on the ground.
Coconut becomes
favorite drink in this
weather.
What do we do for fun in
Depok? Here we found that easier for
us to gather since we live close by and
we feel like we can always do sport for
free here. There are volleyball court,
badminton, table tennis, soccer field.
You can choose which sport that you
like and can play in the afternoon before
the evening prayer. Then if you only
want to walk or run, you can always do
that even though its a bit challlenging
with the weather and the road. There
are mountains surrounding us that you
can always climb if you want, the view
from the top is so pretty! There are 2
closest beaches and it takes 30 minutes
drive out of the village.
The next village called
Pamengpeuk where we can get internet
connection in the internet cafe there,
there are also market, groceries store,
many clothing stores, etc that you need.
To get there, we have to take public
transportation called Angkot for 20
minutes and you only have to pay 2.000
-3.000 Rupiah for one way. The people here speak Sun-
danese, traditional language in West
Java but they also can speak and under-
stand Bahasa Indonesia. Their neighbor-
hood and brotherhood is so strong, they
always give support to each other and
they really love to serve you with food!
Everytime we go to someone’s home,
there is always food and drink! They
really love to greet people especially the
Canadian. Since they coming from an-
other country, for sure they make the
differences in this villlage. Hopefully in
the next 1 months we can get closer
with the community here and they are
happy for having us during 3 months in
their village! By: Dini Hajarrahmah
Caption
describing
picture or
graphic.
N E W S L E T T E R T I T L E
The scene of Depok Village
Santolo Beach, yeaayyy!!!!
Take care, guyyysssss... Let’s playing Volleyyyyy!!!
Foooood in Depok!!!!
P A G E 4 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1
credible amount of hungry
mosquitoes! During the third
goton royong we helped re-
build a bamboo bridge. Cross-
ing the old bridge to get to
where everyone was working
was a little scary for some of
us but it was surprisingly
strong... we even saw some-
one cross on a motorcycle.
Some participants helped in
the building of the new bridge
by cutting the bamboo and
weaving the pieces together.
Gotong royong shows
how the community relation-
ship is very strong and at every
gotong royong there are many
people, old and young, that
come to help with anything
they can, even providing deli-
cious snacks for the workers!
How sweet this community is!
Every Friday morning
from 7 until 11, there is always
a community work time called
gotong royong. The task de-
pends on what the community
needs to fix at that time, which
is primarily fixing the road in
Depok village. So far, the vol-
unteers of Canada World
Youth have already participat-
ed in 3 gotong royong. The
first one was fixing the broken
road in a small area in Pangli-
garan which for us meant
passing buckets full of wet
cement from person to person
as pictured above
The second was
weeding the road on the way
up to the mountain as it was
overgrown with wild grass...
this proved to be more difficult
than imagine due to the in-
‘Gotong Royong’ Shows The Strength of Depok Community
Pass the bucket of cement..
New food new
taste, become
used to for
spicy and fried
food..
Make the
bridge from
bamboo, let’s
weave..
By: Dini. H
Work Placements in Indonesian Phase
P A G E 5 V O L U M E I I , I N D O N E S I A
The volunteers
were excited to know
their work placements in
the Indonesian phase and
finally we have 9 in
Depok village. They are:
SDN Depok 1, SDN Depok
2, SDN Depok 3, SDN
Depok 4, SMP 2 Cisom-
pet, Madrasah, Kinder-
garden, Ricefield and the
Furniture Shop. SDN is an
elementary school, SMP
is junior high school and
Madrasah is an Islamic
school.
Like in Halifax, the
volunteers work on Tues-
day, Wednesday, and
Thursday. The
school nor-
mally starts
around 7.30 or
8. The volun-
teers are al-
ways trying to find crea-
tive ways of teaching to
make it interesting for
the kids. It’s definitely a
different way than what
their teachers normally
do so it gives the stu-
dents new learning at-
mosphere during the 8
weeks the volunteers will
work here.
The difference
with in Halifax is that we
rotate our work place-
ments in Indonesia. Each
work counterpart pair
goes to a different place-
ment every week so at
some point, so everyone
gets to experience some-
thing different each week
in this small village.
We also give an
English course to the stu-
dents in grades 4-6 in the
elementary schools every
Tuesday and Wednesday
afternoon for an hour.
The students are happy
to learn English with the
volunteers and the Cana-
dians can also learn Ba-
hasa Indonesia through
teaching them English.
Thats a really mutual
learning! By: Dini H.
house that smells spicy and
sweet all at the same time.
From Sharon Mead-
ows kitchen table to where I
sit at this very moment, it has
been quite the transition to
say the least. One could argue
that life is just a series transi-
tions. We transition from the
I am sitting here on a
patio , under a big beautiful
tree overlooking a pond. In the
backround, I hear voices I
don’t understand – in Bahasa
Indonesia and Arabic – , the
sound of motorcycles whizzing
past and childrens laughter
permeates the air. I smell
something wafting from the
womb, to diapers, to school,
adulthood and eventually
death. These are just some of
lifes larger and more signifi-
cant transitions.
Over the last six
months, we have gone
through a series of transitions
as individuals and as a group.
Planting
in the
rice pad-
dy
Life Transitions
“Learn as
much as you
can, learn
from
everyone and
everything”
One of the
classes in
the English
Course
P A G E 6
“it was the first
Christmas away
from home.
Without snow,
eggnog, or gifts
under the tree from
Santa “
The scene from up hill
the mountain..
The dynamic of the rela-
tionships with each other,
our host families, the com-
munities we live in and
even ourselves have gone
through so many stages.
Strangers have become
friends, the people in
which we live with have
become family and intimi-
dating work placements
are now second nature.
Like many parts
of our experience, the
transition from Halifax,
Canada to Depok, Indone-
sia has been difficult and
easy all at the same time.
Learning a new language,
different bathroom eti-
quette, the constant
stream of delicious food
and the sometimes intense
heat have all been adjust-
ments.
At one point or
another, there have been
difficult and joyous times
experienced by each of us
as individuals, just as there
was in Halifax. Together -
with the support of each
other and our community -
we have slowly learned to
transform the outlook of
mild discomforts in to op-
portunities to learn, love
and live peacefully.
For some of us it
was the first Christmas
away from home. Without
snow, eggnog, or gifts un-
der the tree from Santa –
we all arose early on the
twenty fifth and took a
truck to Santolo Beach .
Just as we were climbing
out of the truck, the rain
began to pour and we
took shelter in a beach
house before stripping
down and running full
speed into the warm tur-
quoise waters. We spent
the day eating fried noo-
dles, playing games, swim-
ming and exchanging small
gifts. It was another expe-
rience we shall not sooon
forget.
For New Years
Eve, we climbed a moun-
tain behind the villiage and
and spent the evening
singing, playing cards, talk-
ing about resolutions for
the next 365 days and at
the stroke of midnight;
screamed, hugged and
kissed as we watched
bright pink, green, blue,
gold and red fireworks
over take the inky sky
streched accross the hori-
zon. Shortly after, we retired
to our tents – one for the
boys and one for the girls of
course – While the tents were
full of holes, bugs and
raindrops, our spirits could
not be broken with the prom-
ise of new beginnings still
fresh in the air and most of us
eventually fell asleep amidst
fits of giggles.
The last month has
been spent getting to know
our new families and commu-
nities. Most of us have been
busy teaching school three
days a week and on the
weekends – spend the days
reading, playing volleyball,
haning out, reading koran,
and exploring the area. Over
the course of our time here,
our Mondays have been filled
with Educational Activity
Days spanning topics such as
education, beauty, traditional
games, nutrition and values.
As we are coming to
mid point of our time in Indo-
nesia, our schedules are be-
ginning to fill up and we are
becoming busier with facili-
tating our midproject retreat,
community development,
sector project, work place-
ments, and culture show. As
much of a transition as it has
been, it has truly been a great
one. Our Bahasa is improving
everyday, the winding village
road is as familiar as the Com-
mons in Halifax and either
it’s getting cooler or we are
adjusting to the weather.
New place,
new
friends..
T H E W A Y H O M E
P A G E 7
Our Bahasa is
improving
everyday, the
winding village
road is as familiar
as the Commons in
Halifax
New Years Eve Cel-
ebration..
Like all transitions in our lives, this was a
risk that I think we can all safely say was
well worth taking. It hasn’t been all sun-
shine and rainbows – but is anything
worth anything ever truly easy?
With genuine growth comes challenges
and while there have been many, eve-
rything we’ve faced as a group and indi-
viduals has increased our knowledge,
skill set and growth in exponential ways
that would have never been possible
with out the commitment and dedica-
tion of CWY staff, our host families,
work placements, host-communities
and ourselves.
As time will most certainly fly
by, we are preparing to make another
important transition in our lives. We will
be leaving the sleepy town of Depok,
friends, workplacements, counterparts
and families. The big difference from the
transition we all bravely made six
months ago is we will be transitioning
back into our lives with new relation-
ships that won’t be ending anytime
soon, a broader world-view, increased
confidence and skills, precious memo-
ries, new language skills and some
stamps in our passports. Most im-
portantly, we hope to make this upcom-
ing transition with the intention of shar-
ing the compassion, knowledge, and
love with all of those we meet in the
next stage of our lives.
By: Cody .C
N E W S L E T T E R T I T L E
Beautiful rainbow..
Smileeeeeee...
Marching band welcoming us..
P A G E 8
With santa and host
family in Jakarta..
To get home, we find another
home.. Halifax and Depok.
N E W S L E T T E R T I T L E
Teach the children how to make
snowflakes..
Writer : Bethany, Cody, and Dini
Edittor : Aryo , Memel dan Reyska
Traslattor : Memel and Reyska
Design of Newsletter : Reyska
Source of Pictures : Nithya, Dini, Bethany and Reyska
EAD in a bamboo house..
Teach the children Likopulo
dance..
The Way Home...