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Bakti desa

Bakti desa is an annual activity of SMAN 3 Bandung designed for the second graders. This activity includes a visit to a certain village, there the students will have a host family and they have to help their host parents doing their everyday duties. It’s held on 23-25 of October 2014.

Bakti Desa Day 1.

It’s 23rd of November. We gathered at our school on 6 a.m. with hands full of packages. We left from school by angkot on 6.30 a.m. the traffic wasn’t really good nor bad. It was just normal and skipped at some point.

It took about 4 hours to get to the village. When we arrived we were welcomed by the villagers at the village hall. After a long talk with the village head and headmaster, we were pleased by the villagers. They provided delicious foods for us.

After a really great lunch, we were accompanied to our neighborhood . So every class is located in different neighborhoods in the same village. My class is located in an area called kiara janggot. The road wasn’t really good, fortunately the school driver drove the car well.

When we got at Kiara Janggot, we waited for a couple minutes until our host parents took us. My group was the first to be picked up. My group stayed at Nyai Jaja’s house. She was a nice woman. When we arrived at her house, she provided us some snacks which were hard to find in Bandung but delicious.

snacks from Nyai Jaja

That day, we didn’t have much work to do. We were told to have some rest at the house. On 5 p.m. we were told to gather at one of the house to collect some of the foods that we had brought. After that we went back to our house and had dinner.

our evening walk with Nyai Jaja's grand daughter

view of the village

That night, my host family asked me and my friends  to watch the TV with them. And we had some snacks too. My host family’s relative also came to visit and join us. It was a cold night but the snacks and everything made it better. After that we slept. It was really simple, we slept on a carpet with two blankets and it was extremely warm.

Bakti Desa Day 2

We woke up at 6 a.m. instead of 5 a.m. we were late. Our host mom gave us breakfast. It was coffee and fried potatoes with freshly picked vegetables. After that we changed our clothes and went to our host fam’s garden.

some men we met on our way

a small slippery bamboo bridge

 The route was quite far, slippery, and we were so tired. But it was paid by the great view we could see. We helped our host mom with some gardening works. It was fun even though dirty. We were so excited because we knew how it feels to be in a view that we usually only can see from far distance. The climate was good too. The wind and the nature sounds relaxed us.

We stop working at 11 a.m.  we had dinner at the garden. The menu was simple as usual J rice, vegetable, fish, potatoes. It was the first time I had lunch outdoor and it felt awesome. After eating, we went back to our host fam house.

our outdoor lunch menu

I found my host mom's hut

me as the one-day-farmer

a selfie at the hut. idk why but i love this one

a selfie with my friends the the host mom

When we arrived at the host fam house, we were couldn’t open the door. It was unusual because our host parents usually left the door without locking it. So we decided to wait outside. Then our host mom arrived (she went to her neighbor for a while) and helped us with the door.

After a couple minutes of waiting, we decided to go to river. The route to the river was a bit dangerous. It was slippery and full of rocks. Such a challenge right? I enjoyed climbing down from rock to rock. When we arrived at the river, we simply put our feet into the river and I kept on climbing from rock to rock with one of my friend.

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the rocky route to the river

an awesome feeling after climbing the rocks :))

After that we went back and rested at the house. In the evening we were told to gather. Some of my muslim friends were told to join a community at one of the mosque there. I some girls and the boys had to wait. It was  boring because there was nothing to do. Finally we decided to visit a garden around there, played kites and took photos.

pretty lady bugs I found at the garden.

That night we gathered again to distribute some gifts for the villagers. As we wait for our turn, we watched a traditional show named Singa Depo. 

traditional show

Bakti Desa Day 3

It’s our last day here. We woke up on 6.30 a.m. after bathing and having our last breakfast there, we gave our host mom some gifts. After that we put our packages into the car. Before we left, our host mom had made us some snacks so we had to take it. As we got back, the cars were about to go that we had to run.

a before-leavinglselfie

class photos (female's edition)

The car took us to the village hall. There was a show from the villagers. It was so hot there. As we went back home the traffic was good enough but the drivers stopped at some points which made it longer to arrive.