Indonesia - Canada Youth Exchange Program (ICYEP) / Pertukaran Pemuda Indonesia - Kanada (PPIK) 2012-2013

All right, in general, Indonesian Ministry of Youth and Sport held a lot of Exchange Program with some countries, such as Malaysia, ASEAN-Japan, China, Korea, Australia, Canada, and so on. The program is called PPAN, Pertukaran Pemuda Antar Negara. So if you guys interested in becoming one of the participant in any exchange, typed it in the searching engine, or follow any blog and twitter account of PCMI. Purnacaraka Muda Indonesia is the alumnae association of PPAN program all across Indonesia.

One of the exchange program is ICYEP, held by Indonesian Ministry of Youth and Sport (Kemenpora) and a non-government organization called Canada World Youth (CWY). This Exchange is only for Youth, in Bahasa, we call it 'Pemuda', 18 - 23 years old, and may be more than 23 years old for Canadian participant. This program consist of two phases, Canadian Phase and Indonesian Phase. Each Phase is about three months, so the total of the program is about six months. Wondering what we did in six months? Well, I'll explain more about it later, but I am going to give you a clue. Just a simple word with a lot of benefit and experiences, Volunteering. That's why sometimes they call the participant as volunteer.

Before Indonesian participants depart, we had a Medical Check Up (MCU) and Pra-Departure Training (PDT). And, long ago, couple of months before we had our medical check up, we had a selection in our own province. So, Indonesian participants were elected based on a hard selection in their own province. The selection itself are different in every province. In my province (Bengkulu-Sumatera), we had three days of exhausting test. The test was held in Dispora Provinsi Bengkulu, which is the branch of Kemenpora in every province in Indonesia.

I already wrote the story about the selection process in my old blog, soon, I'll post it too, under the label "posts from old blog".

It was a lot of fun, including good, and sad memories, the Pra-Departure Training was held in Jakarta, for about nine days. We were prepared to be the great Indonesian youth that will keep Indonesian identity, the ideology, good behaviors, plus responsible for our self, and our country. We also learned a lot of traditional dances and songs, so we can perform it as the fundraising actions for our giving means project. There are 27 participants from all across Indonesia, and also 3 Indonesian supervisors. We're divided into three groups, so 9 Indonesian participants and 1 Indonesian supervisors in a team, will meet their own Canadian partner (we called it counterpart) in Volunteer Orientation Camp (VOC), Tatamagouche, NS, Canada. There were three teams, Halifax-Depok Team, Truro-Sei Go Hong Team, and Charlottetown-Cikandang Team.

I was in Halifax-Depok Team.

Let's talk about Canadian phase. We had an orientation camp called VOC for about four days before we went to our community, in this case, it's Halifax. We had sessions, games, counterpart revealed, host family revealed, and of course, we had fun.

Then whoop! here we go, Halifax. My counterpart, the girl that I lived with for the whole program, Yeniffer Pang-Chung and I lived with our host family, Dr. Evelyn Sutton and Dr. Robert MacDonald, with their son, James MacDonald and their daughter, Ellen MacDonald.

I'll upload more pictures and stories about my host family and me later :)

In Canadian phase, every Monday we had Educational Activity Day (EAD), which is the opportunity for us to learn new things, discussion about global issues, MDGs, Team Building games, Circle check, and time together with the whole group. Every week, different counterpart pairs is responsible to prepare the EAD, and then present it to the group.

Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we were volunteering in our work placement. We have different partner to work, mine was Ariane Michaud, and we're volunteered at Adsum House, Halifax. The shelter for homeless women and children. We sorted the donations, cooking, cleaning, and preparing gifts for christmas.

Friday. Thank God It's Friday. We had our Group Activity Day (GAD). The whole group gathered at the EAD space, to learn Bahasa (Indonesian Language), French, Traditional Dances, and traditional songs together. We learned a lot about our cultures. In some special occasions we did fundraising activity, such as performing Saman Dance, or sell Indonesian-Canadian cookbook and T-Shirt door to doors. The money that we collected was for Giving Means Project in Indonesia.

Saturday and Sunday, I spend my time with my host family, my counterpart, and sometimes with other friends, exploring, visiting tourism places, and so on.

We had our Mid-Project, a three days away from Halifax, the whole group went to Bridgewater to evaluate half of the Canadian Phase, and did team bonding activities. We revealed a lot of affairs, exclusive relationships, facts, and other awakening moments together.

In the end of the program, we did a culture show. It was cool, we performed all dances from Indonesian participant's province, we sang together, we cooked Indonesian foods for our host family. Then we had debriefing, went to Montreal, to meet another team, and travel to Indonesia.

Indonesian Phase, we also had a re-entry phase in Jakarta. Exploring Jakarta, most of the Canadian amazed by how hectic the capital city of Indonesia was. Then we're traveled to the remote village that we will stay for the next three months. Depok. It's the name of the village. Located in a sub-district in Garut, West Java. Yen and I stayed at our host family, Ibu Entin and Bapak Gojali, with their children, Akmal and Dewi, and another daughter that was studied in Bandung, named Nuri.

Same thing, every monday we had EAD.

Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we volunteered in many work placements, such as the elementary schools and the Junior High School to teach English, worked in the Health Clinic, Village Office, Bike Workshop, and Carpenter Workshop.

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we learned the cultures of the village, we practiced Qasidahan (an Islamic choir), Jaipongan (a traditional dance), Calung and Angklung (the music instrument). We also did our side project, to build a Dam for clean water access in the village. Oh, I almost forget about our giving means project, we collected a lot of money from Canadian phase, and we gave it to the Youth Organization in the village, for Internet access. So we brought internet access for the youth in the village.

We also had our Mid-Project, at Bandung, the capital city of West Java for three days. We evaluate, and we did team bonding activities.

In the end of the program, we had  another debriefing in Jakarta. It was emotional when the time to say goodbye was arrived. We knew it will come, we were so ready for it, especially when we had low low days in the program, we admitted that we're so ready to leave and say goodbye, but when the time's came, we.. cried. Spending six intense months together with the same people, high high days, low low days, sad sad days, fight fight days, all those days, will be an unforgettable memories. The time of our life.

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