BOROBUDUR WORKCAMP

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After eight months, I decided to join with other volunteering activities again. However, this program is more like a work camp so it’s something new to me. Great is the NGOs and provided many work camps, it’s up to us whether to join with work camp A or B or others. Why I choose Borobudur because I want to learn and explore more about this greatest Buddhist temple. To be honest, I did not want to join at first when they announced that I passed the selection since that time, I felt so tired. There were many things I did so yeah, I wanted to rest. However, I felt uneasy because the camp leaders kept contacting me. I am not a type of someone who let someone down because of my egoism. Hence, I bought a very last minute flight ticket to Jogjakarta.

I was the latest person who came in a work camp. I met with Rahma and Nua (the camp leaders) then with Kak Ayu (participant from Indonesia who is taking master degree in China). I met with others participants from Spain (Paula, Julio, and Alex) and the last was Shuran from China (he is studying in USA). My first impression of them was they were nice and some of them were quite. In the first day we had an ice breaking session to break the awkwardness among us. Nua made us to write the fear, expectation, and contribution from all of us. I wrote “Teaching Bahasa” in the contribution column so I had to teach them Bahasa. It worked quite well then we went to traditional clothes store because the foreigners had to buy the formal Indonesia clothes. Then we bought Mie ayam, the Spanish unexpectedly loved it so much.

On the second day, Julio got sick and Thanks God he got better. We went to Borobudur Conservation Office (BCO) to meet the people who work over there. We had free entrance ticket to see the sunset but unfortunately, it was cloudy /sobbing. In Saturday and Sunday we met with Young Guardian Club of Borobudur (YGC). YGC is a community club that engaged with the cultural heritage in Indonesia. They consist of less than 18 years old who is ready to promote and preserve Borobudur. I was so impressed by them since in that such age, they already cared that much to our culture. In the next days, we had school visit to promote about YGC and the presentation from the foreigner. Shuran and Kak Ayu did presentation about China’s world heritage while the Spanish did as well. Guess what did I do? I just did ice breaking session. I would love to do presentation too but hey, at least I did something. In Saturday, we learnt to clean the Borobudur. It has wet and dry methods. What can I say is that it did not need high ability/skill but more like a patience because Borobudur is so big you know, just imagine to clean all the areas. Then, we learnt to make batik. I am not artsy person so I did it so bad. Hahaha. Forget it.

After a full week of activities, we had free day. We decided to do tubing (?) Playing floating tyre in the river. And then visited Mendut Temple. The next day we had a meeting with UNESCO (kak Nana) to learn more about Borobudur and learnt to play Indonesian’s traditional instrument. The next day, we had Young Guardian Club of Borobudur orientation and farewell party. In the next day, we had to say Thank You and did farewell party with BCO. We had another privileged to see the sunset and sunrise freely. FYI, if we want to see the sunrise, we have to pay Rp 450K for foreigners and Rp 350K for locals. Remember on the second day, we could not see the sunset because it was cloudy and this day, we finally were able to see the sunset clearly except Julio and Paula I thought because the stupa blocked them. For the sunrise, it was magical, so pretty. I was so happy to able to see the sunrise. Yeah, that day was the last day of our work camp. I was so sad of course to say good bye. The hardest part to meet people is to say good bye, no? These are my evaluations:

1. The facilities and accommodation: I think it’s just “OK”, the house is like Indonesian’s typical house so yeah I get used to. The facilities are not that good, I mean the water pipe was broken. We did not have water for a day. The kitchen is not a good place to cook but it’s within my consideration so it’s still OK for me. But for the other participants: It’s meh.

2. The activities : We had too many free times I guess. However, we still had very fun times together. I want to give my impression for each person in our work camp :

Nua : The first camp leader, I love the way she talks. She talks sarcasm, and I like that. She is amazing person, she is the ambassador of Magelang’s culture and had traveled to Europe and in September, she will go to Europe again.

Rahma : The second leader. She’s like my little sister because we’re so alike /whiper fake product sister / Shuran’s voice. She is so friendly and funny. She and Shuran are like Tom and Jerry, always fight all the time especially at night. I could not stop burst my laugh if I saw them fight.

Kak Ayu : I thought she is Indian when we first met. I did not even lie. Hehehehe. She is pretty and friendly. I am so contagious of her laugh. Sometimes when I laughed, I did not laugh because of the silly things but her laugh. She is pretty closed to Shuran /Uhuk-uhuk. She made me want to pursue master degree.

Paula : A pretty girl. When we stand next to each other, we were like Beauty and the Beast (of course I am the beast lmao). She had better English ability compared to Julio and Alex. She is friendly and had joined with plenty of volunteering programs too. She made me want to join another volunteering program again.

Julio : A crazy person. He is the funniest and the way he walks is so meh, hahaha I am sorry Julio. Without him, our work camp will be flat. He had the way of talks like : Maybe in future; I like it but……; how much ; what the fuck is this? That’s so him. When I first met him, he reminded of Call Me by Your Name’s character which is Ellio (?) I forgot. He has many knowledge on some religions and we had argument but we respected each other.

Alex : He was so quite at first but he turned to be funny guy in the end. I always ask him mineral water because he always buys the big sized mineral water. He is good at drawing, as expected of fine art student. Btw, I already achieved 200+ level on Helix Jump.

Shuran : The rich baby. He is the youngest, 17 years old but he is the smartest among us I think. He can be so mature when there is a problem but he turned out to be a baby sometimes. Tbh, I want to have a son like in the future. Shuran, you have to know that you have misunderstanding about me and Fahmi. One thing I am sure I will miss : The fight between you and Rahma. It is the best thing that comes out from our work camp.

So yeah, that’s it. Good luck for each of us. I will share some of the pictures, enjoy!