ONCE UPON A TIME..
Temasek Foundation Scale II, commonly abbreviated as TFscale II(2nd iteration), led me into a new experience, into an inland area called Malang, and made me feel so different, in a foreign soil. The pictures will explain my experience I’ve experienced here in Malang. I apologise, as I am supposed to do 2 RJs, but I shall compile these 2 RJs into 1 long one here, yet comprehensive one. It summarises the entire story I had experienced in Malang.
The flight was initially scheduled at 12pm, but it was delayed for 5 hours, however. Thus, we went to the transit area, had, a complimentary meal from Jetstar, and had window shopping & sightseeing at the transit area, including the butterfly gardens.
At 5 plus, we flew to Indonesia, Juanda International Airport. There, the Indonesians warmly greeted us at the arrival area.
The teachers in-charge, Mr Jason , and Mr Andy, also received a token of appreciation at the state polytechnic of Malang
For the next few days, we had many outings, and we went to many different places, such as the tourist-attraction of Mount Bromo, and water rafting at Probolinggo.
Fun? I’m sure it is. It’s a unique experience that I personally experienced, as I do not have much exposure to all these activities, which is an eye-opener for me. For the hiking up to Mr Bromo, we went there early in the morning to catch the sunrise. Admittedly, it may not be as spectacular as the Aurora Borealis in Iceland, but the crystal clear night sky, paired with the sunrise, is still wonderful, no matter.
If there weren’t the file size limit of 2MB per file, I would’ve uploaded the time lapse video of the entire sunrise here. But I hope the pictures will suffice. Many of our friends are delighted by the natural beauty of the landscape. For the next few days, we went to the State Polytechnic of Malang to do our objective – program a Raspberry Pi to solve/alleviate some of Indonesia’s inherent problems.
I’ve to be honest here, the state of their Polytechnic is nothing compared to ours, Republic Polytechnic. Their WIFI is s**t. Really. Its not even possible to even load Google Drive even to have collaborative e-learning. Plus, their infrastructure there is abysmal, Roofs unpatched. Wall paint peeling, whereas Republic Polytechnic have high standards,(Okay, maybe RP@Wireless is not so bad after all), but hey, I guess we pay about $7000 worth of school fees I suppose its worth?
Anyway, we worked on these, for a period of 3 days. Our team did the project on hydroponics. It was okay, but I think due to the lack of time, we barely managed to do the construction for the hydroponics.
We also visited many other areas in the vicinity of Malang, to do activities such as Orange picking and visiting the cheese factory. Interesting activities, and especially the Oranges. They’re unusually green in colour, and despite that, the flesh inside is Orange in colour, however.
Peculiar right? They have 2 different strains too, one is the sweet variant, and the other, is the sour variant. Surprisingly, Many people also liked the sour variant, probably due to the taste.
We also visited the Monkey (farm?) in Malang too. We also had some small paddle boat in the waters.
On one of the days, we visited the orphanage, in Malang, and we packed goodie bags, and we visited them, in a remote part of Malang, which is a rural area.
I felt sad for them. Some of them may not even know the whereabouts of their parents, on where they’ve been, or what even happened to them. Many people felt happy, but for me, I felt very sad. Some of them may not even know how their mum or dad looked like. Depressing. I really hope some celestial beings can help them in their later stages in life, and give them the strength to carry on.
For the last few days, we had a closing ceremony at the State Polytechnic of Malang. Honestly, we had many (unplanned) changes, and we did many various attempts to have an engaging feel with our Indonesian counterparts. Despite the conflicts in the RP students wanting a skit or a song, we had 2 songs, and used National Day Songs instead.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. And so did we. We went to back to Surabaya and have a last minute shopping at one of the shopping malls, and we returned for a flight back to Singapore from Juanda International Airport. And we lived happily ever after.
THE END