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lambangseptiawn · 5 years ago

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A Bunch of Stories in PK-159

Have you ever been staying in a certain place for a while and breaking your own length of stay record? Actually, I just did it 3 weeks ago in Jakarta. I went to Jakarta for attending the Pre-Departure Briefing (Persiapan Keberangkatan/PK. Further, I will use the term “PK”) from LPDP. The event just took 5 days for sure, but I stayed in Jakarta for almost 12 days (even it was not consecutively) due to several prior preparations before the main event. Twelve days were such a new record because I had never been staying in Jakarta for more than 3 days. Further, I will tell you about my detailed story. Hopefully, you will enjoy it!

Before starting, I would like to give an overview of PK. PK is a compulsory event to be attended for LPDP awardee candidates. It is such an upgrading quarantine that has an aim to strengthen the relationship amongst the awardee candidates. Fortunately, I gathered together in PK-159 which has 197 members. I said lucky because PK-159 had a privilege to be held at the beginning of 2020. Our PK was held on 2nd – 6th March 2020 at Mercure Convention Center, North Jakarta.

Even though it took a date at the beginning of March, I went to Jakarta on 24th February 2020 and arrived on the following day. Perhaps, you have a question, “Why are you so diligent?”. No, definitely I am not diligent at all. The reason why was because our team has to prepare the social project and I just wanted to help them. Besides PK as the main event, we had also to create a social project that can give an impact on society. And you can guest, our social project was held 2 days before the main event. Consequently, we had to prepare all of the stuff in late February.

Social Project: A Challenge For Sustainability

We started the social project preparation on Wednesday, 25th February. Our social project took place in Situ (Lake) Babakan, South Jakarta, with Sustainable Tourism as the main theme. Our preparation was about fixing the venue and following up on the stakeholders to be involved in the event. On that day, I just saw a few people who put together in the preparation section. Most of them were the PK leaders who live in Jabodetabek. Moreover, several group members (including me) also, attend the meeting to help to prepare the event. However, almost all of the people had a prominent role in the team, for instance as the field executor or coordinator in certain sub-event. It is different with me. Frankly, I was just a follower and did not have an important role in the social project event hahaha.

Unfortunately, I could not stay any longer in the social project preparation day. It was because the PK invitation letter from LPDP had just released on Wednesday morning. Consequently, I had to return to Jogja for preparing my belongings and then came back again to Jakarta on Saturday to attend the social project and the following PK day. Before I left, my friends (called Ade and Iqbal) and I ate together in a small restaurant nearby The Situ Babakan. At the moment, we got presents from the owners because Iqbal asked them why was it so many Husni Kamil Malik’s (The Former Leader of Indonesian Election Commission/KPU) photos at the restaurant. Surprisingly, the restaurant was built underneath The Husni Kamil Malik’s Foundation. Then, the owners gave us books for remembering him and we were so pleased. “You know, Bro? We just already brought books and got a free meal here” Iqbal said to me.

The social project day came! On that day, I just arrived in Jakarta on Saturday morning. And as you know, I did not have time to take a bath and without any consideration promptly went to Situ Babakan by bus (the committee provided us chartered buses). It was at 8 am when the buses just touched down in Situ Babakan. There were so many people out there. All of them wore a black outfit which has a big logo of Gardhika Khatulistiwa, our group name. Therefore, I changed my shirt and bounded with the crowd.

We had several sub-events that day, started from opening ceremony with the stakeholders, (garbage) clean up movement around the lake, solar panel and signage installation, waste recycling and composting education, and also made wall mural figure in several sites. Definitely, I did not put together in all of those, but I got more portion in making wall mural figure. My job was simple; just painted the wall with a certain color. Sounds ridiculous ya hahaha. After that, the mural artists would make several figures which portrayed the Betawi Culture.

I think the event was succeeded because It got lots of appreciation from many authorities. However, I have been thinking about what’s next? Sometimes I am afraid when this project is not sustainable. Do you know why? Every year, LPDP accommodates approximately 20 PK groups. It means there will be 20 social projects as well. In this case, every group has its own authorities to choose where and what will they do with the social project. The prominent problem is when the groups did not pay attention to the previous events. Eventually, it could cause a missing link amongst the previous social projects that can make them become unsustainable. In my opinion, it would be better if several groups could continue the previous one and make it perfectly better. It is quite similar to The Student Comunity Empowerment Program (KKN) concept which has at least 5 consecutive periods of contract (annually one period). This concept is reliable particularly to pursue program sustainability.

The Main Event: New Experiences, New Stories

The important day came. At that time, 197 awardee candidates from PK-159 would gather together at least for 5 days ahead. As I said before, we came from various backgrounds. The most interesting fact is that our PK has the biggest number of doctoral candidates amongst the others. Surprisingly, some of them are still young ages. I met with a young man under 30 years old who just finished his master's degree in Sydney. Now, he prepares for his doctoral degree in the same university. Besides, I also met with 2 visually impaired disabled young girls who have remarkable talent. One of them is a writer who just published several books. The rest one is a teacher and also a founder of the education house for visual impairment disabled children in Sumatera.

Besides from the awardee candidates, I also got many lessons particularly from the public figures who came to be the main speakers. In 5 days, I met with well known and sophisticated figures, for instance, Ganjar Pranowo (The Governor of Central Java Province), Ahmad Fuadi (The writer of Negeri 5 Menara), Edwin Manangsang (The Former Personel of Trio Libels and Bureaucrat in The Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs), Amalia Maulana (Founder and Manager of Etnomark Consulting), Adnan Pandu Praja (The Former Leader of Indonesian Corruption Eradication (KPK) RI), Prof. Terry Mart (Scientist from Universitas Indonesia), Brigjen Hamli (National Agency for Combating Terrorism), and Andreas Sanjaya (CEO iGrow). They spoke in the different themes which were correlating with their expertise, for instance about integrity, academic writing, personal branding, social and environmental awareness, and also professionalism.

I had a profound impression with all of the speakers because I got a myriad of new knowledge. Nevertheless, I have one favorite section when Ahmad Fuadi came and gave us a lesson about how to change the world with our writings. I never thought that I would meet with one of the best writers in Indonesia like Ahmad Fuadi. That was absolutely interesting when he gave a quiz to make a simple paragraph by using a scrambled world. All of the awardee candidates were excited I think. Suddenly, Ahmad Fuadi asked some of us to read loudly our paragraph. He was surprised and told us that we had a good talent to be a writer. “You can arrange your own book. Just, at least, one book in your entire life” he said.

Every day, we had to wake up before the sunrise because the first class would be held at 5 am. Further, we should also manage our sleep time because the last class used to be ended at 11 pm or even midnight. Even though, on the 4th days (Thursday), we got an outdoor activity. It was quite different from the previous classes where we just had to sit down and paid attention to the speakers. In the outdoor activity, we would be taken to a certain place outside Jakarta to refresh our minds. But, the problem was on Wednesday, the last class was ended almost half past midnight while we had to prepare ourselves before 4 am. If one of us was late, it was absolutely terrible because he or she will fail and has to attend the next PK. Fortunately, I woke up 30 minutes before the deadline even I fell asleep before. I was dreaming for almost 1 hour until I heard my alarm rang. How lucky I am.

Our outdoor activity took place in Sukabumi, West Java. It was raining when we arrived at the outdoor location. So, after did the fajr worship, we prepared our stuff because we would go down to the river to do rafting sport. We prepared our stuff for almost 2 hours because the coaches needed to explain some rules before we took action. Every group (contains about 5-6 people) will be accompanied by a coach as the leader. Our job was simple; just follow the leader’s instructions and do not be panic amid the journey.

Clik this link to see the video: https://lambangseptiawn.tumblr.com/post/613581138367250432/in-case-you-want-to-see-how-my-friends-and-i-rowed

Frankly, it was my first time rafting and I was pleased. Sometimes, I have been thinking why did not I try to take adventurish or specific interest sports like this to be my refreshment activity rather than futsal or jogging. It was appealing to see beautiful river sceneries from the boat even I had to drink river water for many times when our boat hit the river stream. But, I think the route we took was quite short even the coach told us we just rowed for 7 km far. He also told us that there is a farther route which has 12 km length. It is the most challenging one he said because it contains various swifts and streams. Someday if there is an occasion, it is surely interesting to come back and push my adrenaline with this route hehe.

The PK event must be done on Friday afternoon. It was exhausting 5 days but I was glad to be there. The main event was ended with a farewell iconic song from Endank Soekamti; Sampai Jumpa. We were holding on to each other while saying goodbye. Some of us were crying and taking a photo together before went to our own motherland.

I do believe that someday, the members of PK-159 would be able to give more tangible contributions to this country. I also believe that several of the members would be the speakers for the next PK, maybe about 10-20 years later. While waiting for that moment come true, let’s evolve together, mate! I know our next way, especially for me, might be hard. Just hoping that our study will be smooth and we can cope with all the circumstances that might hinder our future journey.

Thank you very much PK-159 Gardhika Khatulistiwa!

Bunch of thanks and deep appreciation for LPDP!

And Indonesia, aku pasti mengabdi!

Yogyakarta, 25th March 2020

(This writing is composed in my 10th self-quarantine days to fight against COVID-19)

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