#kknlyfe: BL-01

Finally, here we are again. August! My favorite month since I have my birthday :p

As I promise on my previous post, I will write about my community service program (Let’s we call it KKN – Kuliah Kerja Nyata). This program is compulsory for all undergraduate students to finish their bachelor degree. Happy reading :)

- How do you choose your group?

If you have a desire to go somewhere far away or to the most wanted places, you better make your own group and prepare it from the very first beginning. Make sure that your group consists of people from all clusters. And of course don’t forget to post on the FB group so that many people know that you have already had a group for that place. You can ask other friends to join your group by interview. It will makes easier for you to choose the best people for your group. But in so many cases, for the favorite places, it is very possible that there will be more than one group which have the same destination. If it happens, there will be a battle for each group. So make sure that you have prepared it well. If you are the kind of people who choose to be calm and could accept any place, you can also wait for the system to place you in the certain group and location.

In my case, in Susut, Bangli, there were 3 groups at first which want the same place. But finally after the battle was held, the result forced us to merge into one group (only 2 groups which merge into one since the other one choose to step back). It was very hard at the beginning because we had to accept and try to work together as a team. The hardest part was to make some friends leave the group because a group has limited member, 30 at maximum. By the time went by, I think that we learned how to make a solid one. And the day was coming, we left for Bali on June 20.

Desa Susut is located in Kabupaten Bangli, Bali, the eastern part of Bali Island. Before I went to Bali, many people asked me where will my KKN place be? And every time, I answered “I will be on Bali”. The responses were always “So fun! Are you going to go for holiday?”. Well, it’s totally no. My place is near Batur Mountain so it is definitely far from the beach. It takes about 15 minutes to the city. The weather was mostly breeze at the early morning and night. I love this place. We can see the greenish rice field and many temples around. Far from the hustle bustle of the city.

Classic thing about moving in are trying to adapt with new environment. It took time to settle down with everything. Maybe it seemed easy, but for me, for the record, it did not at first. My group was divided into 3 small groups which live separated in 3 different houses. Naturally, each house has its own characteristic problem :p I was belong to group 1 (sub unit 1). We lived in Pak Dewa Brata’s house. The whole family were very nice to us. There was also a little doggy called Derry. She’s so cute but she’s so naughty as well. She always run into us everytime we entered the house. The most irritate thing was when she strewed our garbage. She was getting clever day by day anyway. She could recognize us and did not bark all the time.

And of course, I had the best roommates ever. I miss them anyway, I miss our late night chit chat before we went to sleep, which often made the baby Dode cried because the uncontrol laugh :( I am so happy to meet many new people and get to know them better every day. I far more understand about one thing to another, here and there, well, something that we cannot learn at school. I learn how to accept something and be more grateful for what I have. Try not to make any complaints about something I dislike because somehow it was so much better than the others.

In this village, most of the people is Hindu. And for that period at time, they had been so busy for preparing Ngaben (cremation ceremony, a funeral ritual for Hindu people). They worked together to purvey everything. This Ngaben ceremony was prepared for about 70 people, so that many things should be prepared in huge amount within 2-3 months. Unfortunately, we came back home on August 5 while the ceremony was held on 6. So, we missed it. When we was there, sometimes we came to Balai Banjar (a gathering place) helping the villagers to prepare the ceremony (we call it Ngayah). I thought that it was so awesome to see many people work together as a family. And what I like the most was the strong culture which they still have. We also watched some others ceremony and had some activities with the youth.

I acknowledge the fact that things would not go as well as we had planned before, no matter how perfect our plan was. Because when it comes to the reality, there will always be any probability to fail. In the real practice, we often met the case that made us had to reschedule the program because of the religious activity. We had to think again and again to make our plan works somehow. But all of those hardships finally would be paid when we finished our program and saw the enthusiasm of the people, the happy face and curiosity of the children, and the real results of our efforts. No other words that can describe those feeling anyway. The people here were very nice to us. I miss their hospitality. And of course, I miss the verve of the children who came to our house every afternoon. Those cheerful children walked from their far houses to study with us. Their spirit taught me about so many good values.

Above all, I am beyond grateful and happy for belong in this BL-01 group. These 50 days taught me so many things. And since this community service program is only happening once in a lifetime, I would embrace every moment. We were all having a great time there and it was truly an amazing experience. Thankyou dear Imung, Mba Woeland, Vina, WB, Weldan, Sinyo, Andre and Mas Hanif as the lovely housemates; Tsaniya, Sito, Hani as the holiday partner; Emma, Albi, Kanda for being together since the very first beginning; Satria, Clara, Ratih, Tika, Arya, Mas Ryan, Mas Takumi, Abet, Ruth, Erlin, Dinda, Shinta, Mba Ima, Aster, Sita.