FINAL DRAFT CHAPTER 9 – NARRATIVE ESSAY
LINDA TANDJUNG
After a five hour journey from Jakarta to the country side, nearly 80 students finally arrived at the remote spot, full of towering and mysterious trees and without knowing what wildlife actually lived in there. All the students were still in-a-fog, recalibrating themselves from sleep on a long drive in the car and feeling surprised out how primitive the place was, where they would spend the next three nights. I was the chief of the Student Government for my major, Information Systems, called HIMSISFO. One of our program was an outdoor orientation for new students to learn how to survive in the wild by using only very basic tools without any electronics and also how to work in a group. They would learn lots of soft skills, like communication, leadership and other topics which varied every year these were performed by the alumni or the Information system’s dean. As city slickers, who are much more adapted to modern, appropriate and convenient amenities, like warm running shower water, clean restrooms stocked with toilet paper, or fluffy, comfortable feathered beds, we expected the new students to have a little taste of great outdoors with clean and fresh air and also got introduced to the beautiful painting of God.
We instructed the new students to unload their stuff from the gigantic truck we came with and to build the tents. We constructed several large tents, like the meeting place for the coordinators, the area that we called “restroom”, the activity room where the new students would get any indoor lessons or for outdoor activity preparation, and the rest were small and medium tents for us to sleep for the night, if we actually would have the time. For the kitchen, we just set up an outdoor area with the couple of portable gas stoves for each group to use.
By the time the sun dipped below the horizon, the darkness started to kick in and the cool night breeze poked through our thick jackets. We were ready for our first activity which was a scavenger hunt in the dark, scary forests, brightened up with only the blanket of stars. The new students, partnered in pairs, needed to follow certain complicated and confusing paths with only one torch, pencil and paper to write down the information they were going to collect from one post to another. Each post had different tasks they needed to complete, and if they passed, they received the clue for the next post. It was all fun and games until something really terrible happened at the end of the night, as we could not find a pair in the labyrinth of the forests and in the darkness of the night. After several hours of searching and panicking, we finally found them scared at the edge of waterfall. “We didn’t see the sign and decided to take another turn but after half way we realized we didn’t see any posts for quite some time anymore”, said the missing pair. After reuniting with the students, we finally came back to the tent area and everybody was fade off to sleep so quickly. It was my turn that night to stay up as the nightly guard and watch the surroundings. I used up three layers of clothes but the air was just too blistering cold, made me shivered in the quiet night.
I woke up with the fog still covering the sky and the sun didn’t show its face yet. We woke the new students up after a short sleep of only four hours to start our hike in total darkness. With only torches for every pair, we got through the piles of tress and hiked the hill up and down. As we tried to get through the trail, I, suddenly heard the thunder clapping and saw the lighting flashing in the sky, which felt really close to us. Not long after that, the rain came down in long knitting needles and showered the earth, soaking us in complete wetness. Fortunately, the dusk was coming up to brighten the earth and gave us the light on our way back to the campground.
After a tiring and long hike, we told them to change their clothes and to make a campfire in the ancient primitive way because we told them that we were out of propane gas, which was all part of the plan. However, the wet weather and moist air were not making the process any easier. “It’s really cold and I can´t even feel my hand at all”, said one of the new students. “I miss my home”, said another. Finally, one group after another had successfully lit the wood and made their breakfast.
The second day was full of the indoor orientations, started by Mr. Siswono, our major’s dean, who presented the “Leadership” topic, and “Team Work” by Meirita, the Vice president of HIMSISFO. I had to present one topic about “Motivation” that I designed based on an Indonesian movie called “Laskar Pelangi” which was about 10 poor kids that successfully overcome their obstacles to have better education and never stop trying to reach their big dream.
The night activity was similar to the night before, but with a longer path and harder clues. We also incorporated the clues with the lessons they had learned from earlier in the day. This time, everything was going smoothly and we finished in time without any trouble. We closed the night with a small gathering where we celebrated our success by leaving our comfort zone and tackling our obstacles. It was also the right time for us, the seniors and the new students to get to know each other.
Two tiring but exciting days had come to an end. Ultimately, all the new students had learned valuable lessons in those days, myself included. Even though I had to leave the comfort and convenience of life back in the city, I always like this kind of experiences to meet new folks and to venture to the great outdoors. It reminds me how great our Mother Nature is, and that we could survive living in the wild even without advanced technologies.