#entabai

End of the day...

That day felt so fast and it was time for us to say goodbye to those wonderful students and teachers there. We end the day by took the picture together. We also gave them balloons as our last gifts. Even a balloon could make the children there so happy and it showed clearly from their wide smiles.

After the photo session, we took a little bit time to explore near the school. We went up to the hill beside school and saw a view that we hardly find at the city, welcoming us a wide paddy-field and a clear sky. Such a view that I missed so much at the city.

Then, we have to packed our belongings to go to the next destination. Before that, the boys took some time to played in the river behind the house together with some of children. It felt so refreshing after a fun long day with the kids. 

I would like to tell a flashback story while I taught at the class. It was when we have to ended the class and said farewell to the kids. And a boy named Aris (last picture - the middle boy), who always called me Om (uncle) even I said just call me Bang (brother), said to me, “When will you go back here again, Om?”, I just stood still for a moment without say anything. Then I replied, “Hope we could meet again someday, just pray.” That’s all I could say to him, I didn’t want to make a promise that maybe i can’t make it. Just pray to God and let Him make that hope become reality, someday. 

After about 3 hours sharing knowledges and experiences with the children, all of us together with the children made a colorful hand stamp. It shows how colorful and cheerful the kids are, with all of the dreams without any worries.

Afterwards, we taught them how to wash their hand correctly accompanied by “7 Langkah Mencuci Tangan (7 Ways of Washing Hands)” song. That song is fun and catchy, that’s way the kids could remember it easily. Thanks to Bang Anca (8th pict) who introduce this song to us. 

7 Langkah Mencuci Tangan (7 Ways of Washing Hands)

♪ Ada 7 langkah untuk cuci tangan....

Mulai dari depan, hingga ke belakang....

sela-sela jari, buku-buku jari, 

Time to study...

We divided into 6 groups which is one group handled one class. Not only in the classroom, some classes studied outside the class to gave the children different atmosphere. We’ve been given a main topic to delivered in each class and the rest we could improving ourselves to give them some kind of motivation to continued their study to the higher level in order to reach their dreams that they wrote on the Pohon Harapan (Hoping Tree). 

Pohon Harapan (Hoping Tree) is a media for the children to write their dream and the reason behind it (if they could). It will be hang on their class wall so they could see it everyday and remember what their dream. Most of students ,especially in class that I’ve handle, chose President as their dream. And others said want to be doctor, teachers, and army. That’s it. Such a simple dreams out of million dreams and professions out there. Children in remote areas are not really know about any other profession that not in their surrounding. And most of people there are not really continue their study after the primary school because of the access became the main problem. Most of kids there just followed what their parents did which is a farmer. 

At the second day, in a early foggy morning, it was our time to share what we’ve got, from knowledge, experiences, to donations for the children.  They are surprisingly very excited to see us again. They waited us in front of the school and warmly smile to welcome us.

We started the day by the light exercise that hopefully could build their spirit so they would not bored. We also sing together with them, such as children song, washing hand song, their school anthem song, etc. 

Afterwards, we had flag ceremony that the children themselves run the ceremony. For your information, it was the first time they had flag ceremony so it was kind of strange to them which sometimes become a boring activity to the students in the city. We taught them how to run that for about 15 minutes, and surprisingly they could do it well and solemn. Proud of them.

Jan 29th 2016, I got a chance to have a trip together for 3 days with this amazing team, 1000 Guru Kalbar.

The event called "Traveling and Teaching #3", an event that provide the volunteers who come from various backgrounds to visit beautiful and exotic places in this country and learn about the culture and locality. They are also required to share their knowledges and experiences to the children in remote areas who are not as lucky as children in the city, in order to improve the children’s education and their spirit to reach what they dream.

School: SDN No. 28 Entabai

Location: Dusun Entabai, Desa Lubuk Sabuk, Kecamatan Sekayam, Kabupaten Sanggau, Kalimantan Barat