Days during the CSR Trip

A View from Pasir Nini (re: Grandma Hill)

Hello, hail to the newest year of 2017. Didn't I tell you that I am now on my 6th semester of my PR studies at the university? Well, let me tell you a few things about public universities in Indonesia. In a very, practical, and short explanation, public universities in Indonesia receive discounts from the government so the fees won't be that expensive. This term "discount" refers to a subsidy that was brought here by the tax that the people paid. So in order to thank the government and the people for their generosity, we, university students are obliged to create a CSR program. The people give us their money for education subsidy, so we have to give back the people, not their money, but the output of their money that we made during our education process at the uni, that is what we call our knowledge and skills. So with all this knowledge and skill, we have to help the people develop together with us through this CSR program, or in a colloquial occasion, we call it as KKN (Kuliah Kerja Nyata)

The students were placed in random faraway villages where they must hold their program to develop those villages. So I went to Majalengka Region, West Java, where I was placed in this small village, named Kondangmekar for one month (precisely 32 days).

Boy, that was surely once in a lifetime experience that I might not want to do ever again.

I lived in a house where there was a beehive, a fucking beehive inside the bathroom. So I had to walk like 100 meters everyday to shower, poo, and pee. The house was decent, the people were decent, but I had to feel like I was in an ANTM drama house for one month.

Tapioca Conventional Industry in Kondangmekar

God, it was frustrating.

But anyways, thanks to this horrible CSR program, I found a way to befriend with literature again as I was such a great literature teacher. Well I taught the elementary kids to read poems properly with feelings and the solemn appreciation for literature, they should call me Shakespeare. This post sucks. But really, I really cherish the experience of teaching literature, and telling the kids about my literature experience, 

I even cried once because I was visiting this kindergarten, and they were painting with a comb.. It's inexplicable, but they were painting, using a toothbrush and a comb. The paint was all over the floor, and after that, the teacher had to clean it. It suddenly reminded me of my sweet kindergarten teachers. So I helped her. And I kind of cried. I think.

Another thing I love about KKN is that, I met an old lady, who was as caring as my great grandma, She would call me "geulis", which is a sundanese word that means "beautiful", and her smile was the most, sincere smile ever. I like to spend my time at the mosque. Not that I am that religious, but I love the mosque as it's super comfortable. It's the most comfortable place in that village. I liked spending my time there. Though I don't wear hijab and I don't act as religious as she is, she would still smile at me and care for me.

The River that I explored on my 3rd day during this CSR Program

I also loved the idea of exploring the village. The village a beautiful scenery, and a peaceful aura. All the idleness, the stagnation, the dull mood, and the friendliness. On my 3rd day, I went to this river and I found this mini waterfall with the local kids. And 3 weeks later, I visited Pasir Nini. Oh, sometimes I would feel so detach from my own culture, like I would feel so strange as people would talk Sundanese, pure Sundanese, and I was the only one who was born in Jakarta. It's like I was living in another country where I didn't speak the language. Anyways, Pasir, in bahasa Indonesia, it means Sand. So I thought Pasir Nini would be a place where a wide desert lays. But in Sundanese, Pasir actually means "Hill". So it's a hill, where there was a grave of the ancestors, where their great great grandma (Nini means grandma) rest in peace.

My dear friend, bunny from the faculty of Management Studies, it's Linci!

Well I think that's it. I don't want to tell you guys about the programs we held. You can check it on our website, simply click here. Anyways, I am really glad, super glad that it's over. Things are really, really coming so fast. Now I am just writing in order to procrastinate my pre-thesis writing haha. Have a great life, everyone.