May 7, 2014

24th day : Mom! Finally I hear your voice again!

November 3rd 2012

It was Saturday. When I opened my eyes in the morning, I was thinking about what did I usually do in Saturday if I were in my hometown? I guess the answer will be sweeping and mopping the floor, do laundry, cleaning the entire house and spend the rest of my day to watch TV with my Mom. Then I blinked my eyes and all I can see is just the butterfly-kite in my bedroom.

I went to the kitchen to have some water, and found out that Evelyn—my host mother was sitting on the chair in the kitchen, sorting the raisins and currant for the Christmas Fruit Cake. That sorting raisins and currants thingie seems really an annoying work to do, so that I decided to helped her to sort it too, because somehow I think it was the same work as the work that I usually did on Saturday—to help my mom.

While sorting the raisins and currants, she asked me if every thing went well. We talked a lot, I told her about the group dynamics so far, the relationships that was getting more and more intense within the group and so on. I enjoyed the quality time that I spent with her to talk while sorting the raisins and currants for the fruit cake that morning. It was sweet. She reminds me of home—helping Mom and talk whatever I want to say to her.

Then, after the sorting works done, I decided to call my mom, via Facebook video call. It was lovely. It was morning in Halifax, but it was evening in my hometown. My mom teared a little when she heard my voice. I tried so hard not to cry too, because I was in the kitchen, with Evelyn and Yeniffer who just woke up and went to the kitchen too. It was a good time. Good time.

I spent the rest of the day to do some more research for the EAD, and working on the presentation, while Yeniffer were busy to bake a cake foooor.. Ananta! Yes. That day was Ananta’s birthday. Ariane—Ananta’s girlfriend also came to our house to help Yen preparing the birthday cake. Dhila—Ariane’s counterpart also came. The three of them then went to Ananta’s house to have a surprise party for him. I did not come because I still working on the EAD stuff.


That evening, when I almost finished the presentation and I was alone in the house—because my hostfamily went out—I decided to have another video call with my family in my hometown. Tears Tears Teaaaars. Lol. This is what we called homesick. Before I went to bed that day, Ona (or Ivona—the participant from Papua) called me via skype video call, and we talked a lot. She did not came to Ananta’s House either because her house is too far from Ananta’s, and she did not want to got back home too late at night. That night was the first time when I got close to her, because all of that time she was so quiet. I learned that she is a kind-nice-lovely girl. Oh how I miss her. We ended our chat by saying good night to each other and sleep. 


Ananta's birthday cake decoration. lol.

23rd day : Group Activity Day

November 2nd 2012

Just another morning in the program, when I thought nothing special will happen, or let’s say I just stayed in bed, in my flat mood and see what today will brings. I cleaned up my bedroom, made the bed, had breakfast, and walked to EAD space with my fast-walking counterpart.

We did not talked a lot on the way to the EAD space, simply because I was out of breath to catch up with my counterpart—who walked too fast. That day was Friday, and it means that we will have Group Activity Day, which is the day where we can share our knowledge about our culture, language, and so on. That day, Ken and Ichal present the whole group about our big project, called Giving Means Project. We also divided into groups—a comittee for each event : Mid Project, Giving Means Project, Fundraising Project, and Culture Show project. Guess what, I was elected to be one of the comittee for Culture Show with Ariane, Nikolai, and Ichal. Oh Yeah!

For the rest of the day, we learned French. Ariane, Terry and Daphne are our French Teacher. Suddenly I regret something—the French lesson in my High School. I learned a little-basic-French in my High School, but I was not paying attention a lot, because I did not interested in it. In fact, now here I am. Learning French in Canada, with the real Francophone teacher. What a lucky girl!

In the evening, after we had our dinner, Yen and I were busy to do research on our EAD and I started to make the presentation.


Actually there’s no picture of me that day. When I searched in the folder of ICYEP photos, I found some photos that might be taken by Ichal or Tika or Faisal, which are the landscapes of Halifax..





Let's go back to the right track!

SO it's been a very long time, seems like a decade, that I haven't post something for this blog. Get ready, yoow! I'll continue the story-telling session about Indonesia-Canada Youth Exchange Program 2012, very soon.

Mar 8, 2014

Feb 8, 2014

How can I write it all?

Today is officially 99 days of the epic six months youth exchange program experiences that I haven't told you guys. Question. How can I catch up? While school will start like in two days, and I also have to help PCMI Bengkulu with the preparation for the next selection. I guess, I will finish telling you these stories in season 4 or season 5, just like my favorite TV show, How I met Your Mother. 

Oh well, I promise I will finish it. Slow, like melted-unsalted butter. Write again soon. 

Feb 7, 2014

The PPAN selection of Bengkulu Province 2014 is coming to town!

There is a huge gap of time from the last time I posted something to this blog, till now. I had a hectic clinical nursing activity in Bengkulu's public hospital, so I do not have time to post anything for this blog. Anyway, I'll explain you more about Indonesia-Canada Youth Exchange Program (ICYEP), since the new selection is about to come, soon, veeeery soon.
It will be more efficient if I explain it in Bahasa Indonesia.

Jika kalian, pemuda-pemudi Indonesia, yang punya jiwa sosial tinggi, apalagi yang senang jadi relawan, menggemari petualangan, pantang menyerah, mudah beradaptasi dengan lingkungan baru, tidak kolot maupun konservatif, bisa menghargai perbedaan, tidak labil dan berani hadapi batas, maka anda bisa jadi kandidat kuat untuk Pertukaran Pemuda Indonesia-Kanada (PPIK).

Program ini ditujukan untuk pemuda. Ya, pemuda, bukan pelajar. Pemuda berkarya, pelajar ya belajar. Jadi selama di program anda tidak disekolahkan di sekolah formal, tapi anda mendapatkan sekolah tentang kehidupan, yang jarang anda dapatkan di sekolah manapun yang telah anda tempuh, sehingga anda dapat berkarya.

Durasi programnya sendiri 6 bulan. 3 bulan fase kanada, dan 3 bulan fase Indonesia. Tidak menutup kemungkinan anda akan mengajukan cuti kuliah jika anda lolos. Saya sendiri cuti satu tahun kuliah, karena di Politeknik, saya tidak bisa mengajukan cuti hanya enam bulan, karena adanya praktek ini dan itu yang tidak bisa ditinggalkan

Rentang umur yang diperbolehkan adalah 18 - 23 tahun.

Setiap tahunnya, tidak semua provinsi mendapatkan kuota untuk mengirimkan perwakilannya untuk mengikuti program ini. Tahun 2013 lalu, Bengkulu tidak mendapatkan kuota. Sebelumnya, tahun 2009 - 2012 Bengkulu selalu kebagian kuota untuk mengirimkan perwakilannya mengikuti program ini.

Nantinya akan ada 27 orang perwakilan dari seluruh Indonesia, ditambah 3 orang supervisor. 30 orang tersebut dibagi menjadi tiga grup, yang akan mengalami program di tiga lokasi berbeda. Lokasinya juga akan berubah setiap lima tahun. Di program lima tahunan yang saya ikuti, ada tiga pasang lokasi, yaitu : Halifax, NS, Canada - Depok, Garut, Jabar. Kemudian ada Truro, NS, Canada - Sei Go Hong, Kalteng. dan terakhir Charlottetown, PEI, Canada - Cikandang, Garut, Jabar.

Satu grup terdiri dari 9 peserta Indonesia, 1 supervisor Indonesia, yang nantinya akan dipasangkan dengan counterpart (peserta dari kanada dan supervisor dari kanada) masing-masing (termasuk supervisornya). Dua puluh orang ini akan hidup bersama selama enam bulan. Sebenarnya tidak benar-benar bersama, karena kami tinggal per-pasang counterpart dengan keluarga angkat/host family yang berbeda.

Sudah bisa dipastikan peserta yang terpilih harus benar-benar tahan dengan kehidupan intens seperti ini. Hidup dengan orang yang mempunyai latar belakang berbeda, budaya berbeda, dan mungkin orientasi seksual yang sama atau mungkin berbeda :)

apa saja yang kami lakukan di program? silahkan baca satu per satu post-post saya sebelumnya. itu sudah mencakup jadwal kami dari awal program hingga akhir, dari senin sampai minggu, dari 00.00 sampai 24.00. Happy reading! Just read between the line!

Informasi workshop, pendaftaran dan seleksi akan segera diumumkan. Prepare yourself :)