Cast Away (Part IV): Highway to Hell

Finally, the day that everyone in the KKN is waiting for...the day of observation!

A lot of rumors flying around concerning how are the condition of each unit's village, and today is the time to see the truth. My unit is assigned in the Dusun Ngaglik, KelurahanPagerharjo, Kecamatan Samigaluh, Kulonprogo. As I have mentioned in my previous notes, it is located in a mountanious area. As a usual KKN Reguler destination, the place is also located so far away from Yogyakarta. Although this note is titled "Highway to Hell" I refer the "Hell" part not as the village, but as whole shitload of work that I'm gonna do in the village:D

So, in order to get there, we are guided by this DPL (Dosen Pembimbing Lapangan) Assistant, Mr. Jeffry. Mr. Jeffry will lead our unit as well as several other who is also located in Pagerharjo...there were about 6 units if I'm not mistaken. Our rendezvous point is in some bridge at Godean. It's an easy task to find the bridge. It's quite big, and you only have to go west from Tugu 'till you find it. If I say "easy", it doesn't mean "not far". To get to the meeting point,the road is smooth and pretty wide for two bigass truck side by side, but it is far enough to melt your butt in the motorbike's seat. But in the end, we, and the other unit manage to get there.

After the meeting point, we continue our journey to the place so far away. I figure out later that the meeting point was not even half of the trip. But the road are still fine in my opinions. There were some up and downs, straight road, everything we usually found in Jogja. However, it were all change when we took the first turn to the left. The road is not so friendly anymore....well..there were still ups and downs, only far more extreme. I've been warned that there are a lot of 45 degrees road, and I think it was all a joke to scare us...and It turns out that to mention it 45 degrees is only to ease our mind. Not only extreme ups and downs, the road also twist around like burritos! It was a roller coaster ride I tell ya! The mountainous area has indeed provide some difficult geographical challenge for the untrained drivers as well as for automatic and two strokes motorcycle! Good thing I've borrowed my friend's motorbike.... Now, If I say "extreme", it doesn't mean not far! Those extreme road last long enough to make you bored to death. The worst part is, just right about when you wanna kill yourself, when you think that maybe jumping off the cliff isn't a bad idea after all, you reach your destination--"

Before we goes to the village, we stop by at the Lurah's Office to get some briefing. The briefing was short, mainly emphasizing on the need for us to adjust with the society's culture and value. After that, the Head of Dukuh (hereinafter Pak Dukuh) pick us up to show the way to the Dusun Ngaglik.

Now lets talk 'bout the village. The weather was cool....the water runs well and clean...the existence of electricity....cell phone friendly.....the view was quite amazing....but wait...where are the people?? where are the...houses?? It turns out that right now is harvesting time for clove plants. So everyone is too busy harvesting. For an area with such economic depression like Samigaluh, I bet the folks wouldn't just sit around smokin' when they know that they could generate some cash. So our observation (that is mainly going to be carried out in interview method) wasn't so sucessful at day one. We only have a session with Pak Dukuh today. Well, he explained a lot of things anyway...such as the structural organization of the village, the important person living there (such as pak ustadz and such), population, and the current problem that the people are dealing with. The main occupation of Dusun Ngagglik are farmers. And they have a problem at farming --". One important thing about KKN is that you have to pay attention on what the society needs instead of what the society demands. We see that the whole problem in Samigaluh is on the marketing of their product. This is the problem that we should fix, but this needs to go through acknowledgement by the DPL and also discussion with the people (which currently unavailable due to harvest time).

Now what about the houses? as far as I see, there are only three houses and a mosque on sight. It is just about then when we find a map of Dusun Ngaglik. The Dusun was H.U.G.E. Now imagine a mountainous area with cliffs all over the place, logically, people would build their houses in an area where the land are relatively flat. Now keep imagining because that is not how these people in Dusun Ngaglik thinks. They actualy build their houses in the cliffs! So no wonder there are only three houses on my sight, the other are below me or located behind the jungle --". I find more houses and meet some of the people on my way around the Dusun.

It's a good thing that this is Friday so there is Jum'atan. A time when people gather in one place. That moment of course, becomes the time of meet and greet with the gentlemen in Ngaglik. After the interview failure in day one, we planned to have a meeting with Ngaglik people tomorrow night. Which is also a routined schedule of society's meeting. The people in Ngaglik have a lot of these schedule, it would be best for us to adjust with those schedule so it is not giving too much burden for the people:D

My first overall impression of the village was : Except for the stupid distance and terrain, it was all okay:D
I can't manage to take any pictures of Ngaglik, but I have a few shots of Samigaluh:
Samigaluh is located somewhere on that mountain
Some view from Samigaluh...nice!You don't see this kind of road very often in Samigaluh...

So that is it folks, I'm gonna sleep over at Ngaglik tomorrow so there aren't gonna be any update on the cast away....See ya!

Cast Away (Part III): The Guilty Parties

Today in the Cast Away....to put it all simple, today is about getting to know each and every person in my unit!

In the KKN Reguler, we are basically choked by deadlines. The short given time is the main cause of such thing. As a unit, we've met each other at 3rd of July, and we are going to get down to business in the 14th of July. The timeframe between these dates are used for observations, making work programs, and in my opinion, the most important thing, is team bonding. Why do I think its important? When we are already deployed in the village for real (at 14th July) it would be all about executing the program. Which means that the unit should already perform as a team. It need a relax environment to actually knows 8 people that you would work together in 1,5 months. And where we going, the atmosphere would get a little bit more tense. To know them in such condition is a bad idea.

Therefore, me, as a person who really like to skip a meeting :lol: decided that this morning's meeting with the unit is somehow important. Not to talk about the whole KKN thing but to get to know them better.

The first time a meet those eight people, my first opinion is "this group is not so much fun....they we're all...quite". We are not spending a little time that day, we were together for like more than 5 hours, yet, they're still quite. This is not fun. However, today it was all changed. My previous opinion is a true example of a short and untested thoughts that's just flying over in my head. My unit turns out to be just fine (at least up until today that is:D). The Unit consist of 9 people coming from different majors. We have one from Medics, one from psycology, one from pharmacy, one from economy, an IT student, another one from Industrial Engineering, one from Civil Engineering (I don't know if that is the correct English for "Teknik Sipil") and two from Law. That is almost the whole neighborhood of UII. The idea of that is for the unit to e able to help the society in every aspect that there is. The meeting was filled with jokes, non-sense, and stupidity. It's is all I need to see that I'm going to have a great time :lol:

So ladies and gentlemen, here are some short introduction of the guilty parties (based on my memory order):

Ardi (a guy, he study drugs and stuffs). If I describe a person who never wear jeans, having a long beard, always rush his way first to do a prayer, you probably could already see the image. Yup, he's that kinda guy:D But to label him based on his looks is just unfair, because he turns out to have a very nice sense of humor. And the fact that he is an assistant for some lecturer in Pharmacy means that this is a pretty smart dude. This is a good news because drugs is probably something that is important when shit happens. And it is not some field where you can make up a solvency based on abstract thoughts. You gotta have the basic and you need to know just what to do. I really hope this guy could put his knowledge to the test when the time comes

Ika (a girl, if she graduated, she would be a doctor). To imagine her as a doctor based on how se act today, I see a crazy woman treating patients. One of the loudest girl on the group. She actualy take some quiz in facebook and conclude that she would find one of the villagers as her true love --". But in the field of medics, she already shows her ability to know what indication is what desease....cool.

Disa (a girl, study psychology...and I think she needs a psychologist). Another loud one. Don't they have a self curing method in one of their subjects? because seriously, she needs one! I can't say much about her academic ability yet. It hasn't been shown (but she proposes to bring onions to resist vampires --"). Doesn't really matter though, because attitude is all that matter in the end. And I think she has that.

Adi (a guy, a student in the regular program that deals with money) He is an example of a quite guy, didn't talk that much, but when he does, it is nothing but stupidity. I like that! He study economics but knows well about computers and technology. He has some working experience so I think he used to work in a team. He is the treasurer of the unit. Not because he wants to. But it is all a mere consequences of his own choosing to study economy.

Trias (a girl, my former classmate) As a law student, is nice to have one of your own kind to get confused together...now she insist that her nickname is fifi and tell everybody to call her by that name, but I think it's all bullshit. So I still call her Trias or Tri for short. She is the secretary of the unit, and one of her role is accepting sms from our chief and dispatch it to everyone in the group. My biggest concern is that there is a possibility of us having the same idea of a program....hope it won't happen.

Yeta (a girl, she build buildings) . Finally we have someone quite.....she probably carry the biggest burden in my unit. Unlike the others, she is being requested to build a bridge (or at least design it) by the villagers. But burden or no burden she still manage to give interesting idea at the meeting. Nice one!

Terti (usually mistaken as a girl due to his name, the computer geek) He is the Chief of the Unit. Why? it's because he speaks fluent javanese, he talk too much in the first meeting, and he initiate the voting of the leader. For a person that carries a lot of responsibility, he seems pretty relaxed and not forgetting to discuss all of the crucial things. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm sure hoping that he will lead us good.

Ana (a girl, a rare kind in industrial engineering) the most quite person in the team. So there is not much to say about her. But she did laugh at all the jokes that was flying around....well I guess if you can't make jokes then to laugh along with it is something cool! Btw, a person that study biogas a.k.a shitgas and live to tell the story must have something to be proud of :lol:

And the last one is me.....

So that is my Unit, a group of people that I asked and I will give a full cooperation with. My view about them might change in the upcoming days, but I hope that it change to a degree that I respect them more. Because in time of crisis, a true character would reveal itself. Such moment is possible to appear and I can't wait to see how we're gonna handle it:D

If I could choose, I wanna Yoda (coz he's green), Darth Vader (so he could play with Yoda), Optimus Prime (not because he's a robot, it's because he is a talking truck! cool), Homer Simpson (my role model), and Yuki Nagato (alien, powerfull, beautifull:D). But everything is not always go as we want it, so I'll acept the team given to me...i hope they do to.

So how about your team? or what kind of a team do you prefer?

Cast Away (Part II): UII (hopefully) Goes Green

Another day on the Cast Away! Pake bahasa indonesia aja ah :P



Sebenarnya belum secara resmi di "Cast Away" sih, cuma keseluruhan prosesinya sudah cukup membuat diriku terisolasi dari dunia luar, dan kegiatan-kegiatan sudah mulai tidak rutin.

Judul kali ini berkaitan dengan Tema KKN Reguler UII, yaitu "Kesehatan Masyarakat dan Lingkungan" dan juga aktifitas berupa pembekalan dalam bidang penghijauan. Lalu kata "hopefully" itu menunjukkan bahwa kesuksesan program ini masih berupa harapan semata. Pembekalan dalam KKN kali ini ada empat bidang plus pembekalan Dakwah Islamiyah (biar keliatan UIInya...). Empat bidang itu adalah Tata Ruang, UMKM, Biogas (also known as ShitGas:D), dan Penghijauan. Tiap unit wajib ngirim perwakilan satu orang untuk mengikuti satu bidang pembekalan (kecuali dakwah islamiyah yang harus ada 1 laki 1 perempuan). Saya sih milih penghijauan aja...soalnya tata ruang dah disikat anak teknik sipil di unitku, biogas jatahnya anak Teknik Industri, UMKM buat yang berpusing-pusing di Ekonomi, Dakwah Islamiyah buat siapa aja asal bukan aku...dengan berbagai pertimbangan yang matang (dibumbui dengan sedikit kejadian saling tunjuk antara fraksi Fakultas Hukum di Unitku) diriku terpilih untuk menjadi wakil lingkungan bagi Dusun Ngaglik, Desa Pager Harjo, Samigaluh, Kulon Progo (makin kesini lokasinya makin spesifik:D).

Mari memulai dongeng ini dengan menceritakan sedikit kronologis peristiwa hari ini dan juga hikmah-hikmah yang saya ambil dari tiap-tiap peristiwa tersebut...

Pertama, sebagai warga Indonesia yang setia menganut nilai-nilai kebudayaan dan kebiasaan masyarakat Indonesia, pelajaran yang saya petik hari ini adalah: Pikir dua kali kalo mau datang on-time...ato mungkin malah gak usah datang on-time. Berangkat dari rumah jam 10 pagi, pergi ke rumah pacar (namanya vicky) dulu (dia mau nemenin...lebih tepatnya dipaksa nemenin:D) bagi yang tau jarak dari rumahku ke rumahnya vicky, silahkan prihatin. Terus berangkat jam 11.30 ke UII Jakal....sekarang semua yang tau letak UII jakal silahkan prihatin... karena estimasi perjalanan sekitar 45 menit + God Knows What dan nyampe tepat jam 12.30 (jam dimulainya pembekalan sesuai jadwal resmi dari universitas). Sampe disitu...gak ada orang...

Mungkin disini saya yang bodoh karena melupakan bahwa orang Indonesia sering memasukkan faktor "ngaret" ke dalam jadwal acara (ini gak berlaku buat nonton di Bioskop). Kalo acara jam 2 ya jadwalnya jam 1...dengan begitu orang-orang akan datang jam 3....and guess what, panitia emang baru siap untuk mulai jam 3--" Tepat seperti yang terjadi tadi, jam 12.30 gak ada orang, jam 1 baru pada datang, sekitar jam setengah 2 baru mulai. Tapi gak papa lah...berdasarkan prinsip demokrasi yang dianut Negeri ini (yaitu sering melalui voting) maka yang banyak adalah yang benar, karena saya dan hanya segelintir orang yang on-time, maka saya salah.

Mulailah pembekalan penghijauan. Di kelas ditemukan beberapa penghuni fakultas hukum, beberapa teman dari fakultas lain, dan teman-teman yang baru kenalan on the spot. Lalu datanglah seorang bapak, trus dia mulai ceramah. Inti dari yang diomongkan adalah: Mahasiswa bakal dapat dua bibit pohon untuk ditanam, kalau tanamannya ancur, nilai KKNnya juga ancur. Aturan yang sederhana dan bodoh! Jadi universitas akan secara sepihak menyalahkan mahasiswa KKN apabila ada tanaman yang mati. Padahal tanaman, layaknya makhluk hidup lainnya, bisa mati gara- gara mereka kurang beruntung alias takdirnya aja. Banyak faktor yang bisa mempengaruhi kelangsungan hidup tanaman. Bisa saja karena faktor bibit itu sendiri yang memang lemah (atau kebetulan lemah...kalo ini mahasiswanya yang gak beruntung). Ato mungkin karena faktor-faktor eksternal seperti: Tanah jelek, Air susah, Air mudah (tapi beracun), pupuk jelek, Ternak bego, dan lain-lain. Walaupun nantinya kegagalan akan lebih disebabkan oleh mahasiswa bego dan ngasal, Universitas seharusnya tidak membuat aturan yang sangat berkesan menuduh seperti itu.

Beberapa hal lain yang disampaikan menurut saya hanya berupa pengalaman-pengalaman terdahulu dan pentingnya pemberdayaan masyarakat saat KKN, jadi agar mahasiwa memberikan pemahaman yang diperlukan oleh masyarakat supaya nantinya masyarakat yang kerja sendiri (dengan sedikit bantuan fisik dari mahasiswa). Berdasarkan cerita-cerita orang sih prakteknya gak pernah seperti ini....satu hal yang terpikirkan oleh saya adalah suatu solusi yang praktis, efisien, dan hemat biaya bagi masyarakat...hanya terlintas lho...jadi gak sempat diproses oleh otak kesayanganku (keep the brain clean :P)

Lalu...trus mana Penghijauannya?? kan sudah berselang sekitar 1 jam saat bapak itu tadi bicara....ternyata....Bapak itu tadi hanya memberikan pegantar....WTF!?

Munculah seorang bapak lagi...yang ternyata dari Dinas Kehutanan, meminta maaf karena keteledorannya mengiyakan janji mengisi pembekalan penghijauan padahal pada jam yang sama dia ada kondangan --". Alangkah malangnya nasib bapak kedua ini karena bapak yang pertama telah sukses menjemukan penonton. Bapak kedua menampilkan slide-slide powerpoint yang menurut saya gak penting. Secara keseluruhan, yang dibahas adalah masalah persentase jumlah hutan yang ideal suatu wilayah (yaitu 30% dari luas wilayah, dalam bentuk hutan negara), Definisi Hutan dan Pohon (menurut saya gak penting karena pohon itu ya yang seperti gambar diatas itu, dan kalo banyak pohonnya baru jadi hutan), ciri-ciri hutan (ya banyak pohonnya itu tadi), asal-usul hutan, dan hutan lindung. Baru sampai beberapa slide terakhir dimana orang-orang sudah mencapai titik puncak kebosanan fisik dan mental, beliau menampilkan tata cara menanam pohon dan kondisi-kondisi yang memungkinkan untuk penghijauan....ternyata tidak semua tempat bisa jadi paru-paru dunia...penghijauan sebaiknya dilakukan waktu musim hujan, bukan saat matahari lagi lucu-lucunya kaya' akhir-akhir ini. Juga ad apertimbangan luas lahan terbuka, ketersediaan bibit, dan tenaga kerja.

Sesungguhnya sangat sedikit yang bisa saya dapatkan hari ini, mungkin agak berbeda buat teman-teman yang nantinya ditempatkan di daerah Panggang. Bapak kedua tadi dengan antusias memberikan wejangan tentang keadaan di Panggang. Eksotisme wilayah pedesaan dengan segala mimpi buruknya...sebuah daerah yang penghijauannya harus dimulai dengan niat yang kuat, karena mungkin emang pol-polannya cuma bisa sampe niat doang :P.....

Mengenai tempat saya nanti, saya juga sedikit khawatir. Tema Lingkungan kali ini akan sangat cocok untuk ditemani dengan program penyuluhan tentang hukum lingkungan. Hukum yang beberapa pasalnya menyatakan kalo nebang pohon sembarangan itu bisa dipenjara. Padahal, di Samigaluh, mayoritas penduduknya berprofesi sebagai penebang kayu.....keliatannya bakal konyol nih....

Dan ternyata pembekalan tidak harus sesuai dengan prodi masing-msing mahasiswa..karena setelah bercerita dengan teman-teman yang lain, pembahasan di bidang lain banyak juga yang akhirnya off the topic....Demikianlah pembekalan hari ini berakhir, setelah memastikan diri bahwa nama sudah tercantum di absen, saya buru-buru meninggalkan lokasi karena sang penunggu tercinta juga sudah hampir mati kebosanan.

To be continued....tapi bukan besok soalnhya besok gak ngapa-ngapain^^ hooray^^

Cast Away (Part I): The Beginning

Hi Folks!

As you all know, I'm a college student. And as a college student, I do everything that i have to do in order to get me out of college (by means of graduation of course). For Universitas Islam Indonesia student, it happens that there is this activity called KKN (Kuliah Kerja Nyata) in which student are obliged to take if they want to graduate.

The definiton of KKN itself, varies. If you asked The Old Dudes in the university ,which is the organizer of the whole program, they would say that KKN is a program in which UII Student would have to serve their community. Since in KKN student are being diseminated in villages or any remote areas, this definition is somehow...sad but true. However, the people in the village would see it differently. They would see KKN as a big help (in anyway they see what "help" is) or they would see it as something annoying. As for the UII Student, I believe that they still cannot exactly make a proper definition of what KKN is. Is KKN an obstacle or a challenge? is it something worth your 1 months or is it a waste of time? is it something fun or stupid? Confussion is normal since they're not there yet (at least I'm not there yet). Like it or not, this is something we have to do.

Now why the hell am I writing all this? It all started this morning. Today is the day when everything starts. We are not sent to the village yet, but some meetings were arranged so that we kinda get the idea of what's ahead of us. To make it simple, the village where I'm going to conduct the KKN is in Samigaluh, Kulonprogo, a mountainous area, 2 hours drive with motorcycle from jogja, people work as logger (based on the reports), lots of financial debt, thank God there's water and electricity, and the whole nine yards. That is my condition. KKN are divided in a lot of units (mine is 8), some enjoys better condition than me, and so unfortunate for those who will experienced worst condition. The whole point is that I will experienced something different for the next (averagely) 45 days. Meeting new friends, new society, in a new environment. It would be such a waste to let it all dissapeared when this program is over. I'm thinking that I would write down everything that I experienced everyday, writing down about everything that I see and my opinions for that particular moments. Will my KKN be fun? don't really especting that...but If KKN should be taken seriously and fun at the same time, then writing is the best way to do it.

I'll try to write this story everyday. Due to the lack of internet connection in the place where I'm heading, I will not be able to update the article everyday. I'll write it down in papers first (I hope that writing in papers is not considered as a sin by the local behaviour), and give updates as soon as I get my hands on internet connection. Depending on my mood,I'll write it down in English or Bahasa Indonesia. I will not write it in Hyrogliph because I don't have the font. The stamina of my eyes and fingers would also be a consideration on how much article that I'll post later on.

Will it be usefull? I believe so.

It would be a kind of Journal for me. It will help me track recording my activities there. FYI, KKN students are obliged to make reports in the end, this story will help me remember lots of things. I see some movie where the story reolving around someone's note, so if shit happens to me, this note could be turned into a movie :lol: .And to imagine if I manage to write one article everyday, it would be a 45 new articles on my blog^^

As for those who hasn't take the KKN, this story would serve as an image of what you will experienced. There is Regular and Extension type of KKN. I'm taking the Regular one. Lots of people see that this is the worst type that you can drag yourself into (damn, what am I thinking). It's faster than the extension type, but it is so much farther and you have to stay there for about 30 days. So the things that i write might be the worst case scenario which is perfect for the future preparation (I mean, if everything is perfect, how prepared it is that you need to be?) I really hope that my story be useful to such people.

For those comrades of mine, who is also taking the KKN now, you could compare my story and yours. Let's see who has better program (and luck). If it turns out that you are more lucky than me, feel free to pity me and laugh. But if it's the other way around, go laugh at yourself...KKN should be done in a fun way anyway^^

for the others...well, let's just see this as a story of mine:D