First Time for Everything: Staffing Internationally

Since i fell in love with the original CISV program, Village, last year in China i again drown myself for another camp this summer. It was my 3rd Village since last year and this time i tried to restore my faith in CISV camp after what happened last year. Flashnews, i wasn’t so content the last time. I was so surprised as well, since i always happy and gain my knowledge everytime i’ve done CISV program locally and internationally. Not only knowledge, but also my confidence in general and gain the experience of educational content itself. Last year was sucks, not only some friction in between camp but also my personal life. But, hell yeah, i get over it and move on. Hence, it wasn’t about the organization or the way of living the experience. Maybe it was a bad timing, in the bad situation with several bad luck-ness. Anyway, as i said, Let’s move on!

In April i got a confirmation that i will be staff in Kiel for Village. Wait, where the hell on earth Kiel is? Oh, it’s the Northern part Germany near the border with Denmark. Never thought i will be staffing that far away. Then, i met the staffies, all girls. Woohoo! I had a feeling of having these catfight with them later. LOL. But thank God it never happed. Our campdirector is from US and two others are Germans, none from Kiel chapter. We finally a complete stuff when two male junior staffs come along. One of very shy Mexican boy who live in the US-yeah he was shy, trapped in the middle of four loud girls who talk a lot during 20 minutes of Skype meeting. And another one who ACTUALLY live (nearby) and belong to Kiel Chapter.

And it comes July! Flying across Asia to Europe with one huge luggage contains most of CISV t-shirt for 7 weeks– but apparently not big enough for some people- and landed in Berlin. Then, we have to take 4hrs train ride to Kiel. I met Mariann, the CISV virgin, who picked me up somewhere in front Starbucks. We hugged! Yes, WE HUGGED. We never met but we DID hug each other. Feels like i know her for years. Then rushing to the platform and catch our breath as the train start moving. With our huge luggage and Mariann’s guitar, we have to switch train in Hamburg and meet the other two girls. Then Nora comes along. Then WE HUGGED again! Three of us finally got in to the train, which BTW was the silent car- i dont know how people in Germany can stay quiet for that long, LOL.

When we prepare ourselves for quite a short one hour train ride, i slightly take a look on other people. Then i saw this blue shirt with CISV logo on it. Wait, dont you have like a week later for delegation to arrive? Because we arrived a week earlier to prepare stuffs. So, it can’t be leader, it can’t be JC and of course there’s some random people from the chapter nearby roamingg around with CISV t-shirt for no reason at all. Then she turn her back around, and...there’s Kathleen, our director! And we SCREAMED, oh yeaah, in the silent car.

We spent three days just the for of us, cooking, talking, eating, working until Alex, the Mexican who just finished his Europe trip join us calmly – and still very shy. Then we canoeing, swimming, working, ‘til we have to move to campsite in Kronshagen, Kiel. The day of preparing the whole campsite was one hell of craziest things for us. We saw huge truck carried tons of beds and other stuff for 70-ish people. All those people from chapter hand in hand helped each other. What so crazy about that? They just asked the staff to point which to go where, while they – mostly parents, mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, and ofcourse, their kids – working their ass off to make sure everything were in the right place. At noon, 90% of work almost done!!

Two and half day left before all adults group arrive, and it was only four of us in the HUGE building. We prepare dinner, and finally, Arvid arrived!! He has long hair!!! and i wasn’t prepare for that. Then we HUGGED again. That was whole fun week of getting to know each other. We did it through trainings, chatting, serious chatting-sometimes, and mostly cooking. So, when we welcome leaders and JCs, we hope we were all well prepared. The rest is history. Well, not really a history for whom wasn’t part of the camp itself. That was a slight behind the scene story about us, the staffs.

Eventhough i was a staff before, this one completely different stories and challenges as well. What i enjoy the most when i was staffing in my own country, i could share EVERYTHING about my own country and even the cities itself. I like to show them around, tell them a very local perspective as citizen or as CISVer. Also, i know most of everything around so we are the right people to ask for. It could be about your day off, custom, food or anything else if you want to know more about the culture. BUTTE..here’s the deal, you are in Germany and don’t speak German. At all. Oh no, its a lie, i can say Danke Schoen. Oh well. 

The way we support each other and make each other’s tasks easier also challenging part. At the end of the day, what’s our goal and my personal goal mostly achieved. No one dies. And for me, no clash between adults group. We support each other and no gap between Staff, Leaders and JCs. So, it doesn’t matter whether you came from the local chapter or not, it’s all about team work and hard work.

As much as culture gap always arise, i think that one also the big part of being in CISV as well. And, the learning process is still going on...

When ‘How Are You?” Is Not An Easy Thing to Answer.

Most of people say how are you? or Apa Kabar? to greet each other when the 1st time they met.Mostly, people (in Indonesia) will just answer briefly, i’m good even though they were not. It was just fatigue answer. In the past two months, i was getting used to say those words to most of the people in the camp to actually ask how they feel. First of all, we use that to actually check on each other, mostly staffs, in case something happen during the day. Since a whole month camp become very intense day by day, it changed very fast and it’s important to check on each other everyday. One day, i told one of the staff (i forget whom), i suddenly become very bored everytime everyone ask me those question. I don’t feel like i really needed to answer to those five times a day. But then, when there was a breakdown, kids cried, adults cried (too), someone is sick or anyone really stress, i feel like we really need to express on those question.

I wasn’t really open to my feeling to random people, or people i don’t feel really close. That’s why, i usually just answer “oh yeah, i’m fine. I’m good.” or anything else sounds fine to those who asked. Then i realized, what if they really do care and want to know what i feel that time? I actually kind of person who very explicit about something, but when it comes to feeling, it depends. Then, i try to put on those situation to some of my relatives and friends. It’s not only about greetings, i actually care about some people and i really want to know how they feeling, or is everything okay with their life, but yet some of them didn’t take me seriously. Or maybe, they just don’t want to open up with me. Or they just not ready to open up yet. Maybe.

Another things i learnt from my previous camp, about how we can support others. It came up during the preparation of the staffs before everyone arrived. Then, we put all those words in our staff office a.k.a aquarium. It was right next to me and i can see it every second i sat there. It means a lot that time. How can we support you? By listening to you, by giving advice, by holding your hands or simply quiet time together side by side? Those all the possibilities. And then, if the quiet time together is the way we can support each other, why we have to force someone to talk? or simply force them to answer exactly about the how-are-you question? Well, it’s such an inception moment, but yet it got me thinking, aren’t we all human that once in a while want to hide from those how-are-you question by answer it by those fake smiles or answer?

Tiga Jam Untuk Selamanya

Local Work Bantul!

Lima dukuh dalam satu kabupaten di Bantul, Yogyakarta menjadi taman bermain kami bersama tujuh puluhan anak-anak desa sekitar hari Minggu pagi. Hamoir empat puluh menit dari pusat kota Yogyakarta, kami bertemu dengan mbak Wiwid, yang menyambungkan kami dengan teman-teman di Desa Canden, Bantul. Awalnya, tiga tahun lalu program International People’s Project dari CISV menghasilkan mobile library yang menunjang kebutuhan membaca masyarakat di Bantul. Tahun 2016, keinginan untuk mengunjungi kembali sekaligus melanjutkan program MOSAIC CISV x KIJP yang Juni lalu diadakan di Pulau Klapa – Harapan, Kepulauan Seribu.

Energizer, Pemanasan Di Bawah Matahari Bantul yang Panas

Kami mengadaptasi kegiatan teman-teman Kelas Inspirasi, mengenalkan tentang profesi sekaligus kemampuan lain seperti tari, arts & craft, dan juga kegiatan menonton bersama. Kali ini, ada empat belas relawan yang terlibat untuk berinteraksi soft skill.

dengan warga Bantul. Anak-anak dibagi menjadi tujuh kelompok dengan anggota  9-10 orang tiap kelompoknya. Awalnya, kami berharap usia anak-anak berkisar 10-15 tahun tetapi yang akhirnya datang sangat beragam bahkan mulai usia sembilan tahun. Setelah permainan untuk saling berkenalan, tiap kelompok memulai perjalanannya yang diberi nama “Anak Bantul Keliling Dunia”. Konsep awalnya mengenalkan dunia luar dengan berkunjung ke ‘negara’ yang menjadi nama pos-pos. Setiap pos memiliki pengalaman yang berbeda-beda, ada yang pengenalan profesi ada juga yang mengasah

Kak Dayat Beraksi, Kak Ina Sampai Terlena

Nonton Film Boncengan

Selama lebih kurang tiga jam, ada tujuh pos yang bisa didatangi oleh tiap kelompok. Di pos profesi ada Thailand bersama kak Didi yang mengenalkan profesi bidang humas, ada Belanda yang diisi kak Irma sebagai pengamat burung, mengasah kreativitas di Mesir dengan berkreasi lewat gambar daun bersama kak Dayat, lalu saya sendiri di Brazil mencoba membuka imajinasi sebagai filmmaker. Di pos selain profesi, banyak permainan dan kegiatan yang tak kalah seru. Mulai dari arts & craft bersama kak Uke yang membuat boneka dari benang wool, keliling dunia dan Indonesia bersama kak Novi, atau permainan berdasarkan nilai-nilai kejujuran dan kepercayaan bersama kak Dini. Waktu selama 20 menit pun terasa begitu cepat dan tidak cukup untuk menjabarkan semuanya sampai detail.

 Keliling Dunia dan Indonesia bersama Kak Novi

Setelah makan siang, acara berlanjut dengan menonton film pendek Boncengan dari sutradara Senoaji Julius. Menariknya, film berbahasa Jawa ini ternyata diproduksi masih di wilayah Bantul. Tidak sedikit anak-anak yang menonton bereaksi ketika melihat dan merasa latar film tersebut begitu dekat dengan keseharian mereka. Setelah menonton, rangkaian terakhir dari acara Local Work Bantul ini adalah sharing session bersama kak Made. Ia adalah seorang penari yang besar di Bantul dan kini melanglang buana dan berkarier sebagai penari. Tidak hanya itu, kak Made mengajarkan gerakan-gerakan tari dasar dan juga menantang adik-adik untuk membuat koreografinya sendiri. Tak terasa hari makin petang, saatnya berpisah dengan Desa Canden dan anak-anak yang sebenarnya masih bersemangat.

Dalam waktu yang begitu singkat, mungkin perlu waktu lebih lama untuk akhirnya memahami apa yang kami coba sampaikan pada mereka. Kebanyakan dari adik-adik hanya mengenal dokter, polisi atau astronot sebagai cita-cita. Tidak banyak dari mereka yang pernah menjejakan kaki di luar Yogyakarta, apalagi melihat Tugu Monas. Bisa juga Indonesia hanyalah satu-satunya negara yang ada dalam bayangan mereka. Saya sempat kebingungan ketika kelompok pertama yang datang ke pos saya, segerombolan anak-anak usia 9-10 tahun. Ketika ditanya, apakah pernah menonton film, jawabannya hanya geleng kepala. Ketika dipancing dengan tontonan TV – saya menghindari menyebut judul sinetron – seperti Upin Ipin atau Naruto barulah mereka mulai ngeh. Akhirnya perjalanan menyusun bagaimana film itu dibuat baru bisa muncul di kepala mereka. 

Pos Kak Uke yang Paling Populer

Gengs, You Guys Rocks! Kalian Batu!

Kegiatannya pun saya ubah lebih sederhana. Saya sudah siapkan beberapa kartu dengan tulisan satu buah kata, mereka harus ambil dua-tiga kartu dan mencoba merangkai menjadi sebuah cerita. Kata-kata yang dipilih sudah saya coba pilihkan yang dekat dengan mereka, misalnya Borobudur, sepeda motor atau jadah tempe. Namun, mereka masih kesulitan menyusunnya bahkan untuk memahami kata tersebut masuk dalam kategori apa. Senang akhirnya ada anak-anak yang membuat kisah dari tentang Monas, Borobudur dan bahkan bisa memikirkan ada kejadian menarik (konflik), siapa saja yang memerankan dalam cerita (aktor) sampai menentukan tema (genre) dari cerita yang mereka buat itu apa. Rasanya ada kesenangan sendiri saat mereka tertawa geli akan cerita yang dikarang sendiri atau terperangah dengan gaya kawannya berlakon layaknya aktor jenaka.

Semoga akan ada kesempatan buat bertemu lagi dengan mereka, semoga ada kesempatan untuk mereka bertemu hal-hal asing yang menggugah pikiran mereka, semoga ada kesempatan bertemu dan berbagi dengan teman-teman lain di tempat berbeda, ide-ide yang berbeda.