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...