The second term is about to end. Tiresome and boredom in setting up lesson plans afflicted not only for teachers but also for teachers. Therefore, having an outing together with students is the best thing to do. Well, going for outing is not an overnight plan since we discussed it last class assignment. Even so, we solely had more or less two weeks to prepare things: arrange the committee, confirm the destination, have meetings, reserve transportation, order the food, etc. Well, we finally could overcome those things in a rush. The result was quite satisfactory, though.
We departed at 7.30. I can say that everyone looked excited and enthusiastic when the bus started to leave for Banaran coffee plantation. There were 32 students and 16 teachers, all wearing the same dress code, blue jeans and white T-shirt. Along the way to the destination, Rino, the attractive MC accompanied by Dutch-native girl, Hanneke gave quizzes. Serious yet funny questions were aksed during the trip. Questions like what size of Hanneke’s shoes, her favorite music and others made the audience were enthusiastic to answer. One thing that made more interesting was her question about some Indonesia or even Javanese words were derived from Dutch. Take an example: om (uncle), tante (aunt), tas (bag), brompit (motor cycle), pas persis (precise), pesneling, spoor (train), etc.
As we got to Banaran coffee plantation, we started the outing from having a walk to coffee plantation. It’s so soothing to breathe fresh air (except when some of participants started to smoke). Enjoying the greenery view, taking pictures of breathtaking Rawa Pening from distance, touching the coffee fruit were really great compared to getting stuck in class rooms during week days. It was really a high time to get to know each other, not only among students but also students-teachers.
After having a walk in coffee plantation, we soon had games. It’s a bit nutty game since all the participants of the game had to put bubble gum as much as possible in their partner’s mouth. The game did need gut for participants since they couldn’t chew nor swallow the gums, and the hosts asked them questions while their mouths were full of bubble gum! Some other non-participants of the game supported them by shouting them to put as much bubble gum as possible.
The game was followed by fillers by Ms. Ardi, the thrilling yet fun teacher. She guided all students to get closer and to know each other. The game of ‘the wind is blowing’, ‘the cat vs dog’, and ‘calculating’ were indeed made them much closer. The fillers brought us to lunch break.
While having lunch and doing shalat, some students took the chance of being in Banaran by playing flying fox, walking a further away to take pictures, enjoying the fresh coffee offered by local restaurant or having a rest.
The next game was Cassanova game. Since the number of female students joining the outing was more tham the male students, so, female students had to persuade/ flatter/ extend exciting invitation of doing an activity or going someplace to male students. This time, some male teachers participated in the game. Some female students were blushing to come to male students to extend invitation since they only knew them some hours ago. It was fun, though. The winners were those students whose invitation was accepted by more than one.
The day went by. It was getting cloudier, however, the students seemed not to lack of energy. The next game was a bit rough game. It’s called jelly fish game. The committee provided a ball made of sponge and two buckets full of water. It’s like a basket ball game. There are two teams with six students each. I know it’s going to be fun since the ball was soaked into water before the game started, it means that the white T-shirt they wore would be spotted with mud. What’s more, the two buckets full of water functioned as goal posts for tow teams. The object of the game is the teams have to make score by putting the ball into opponent’s goal post.
By the time the jury blew the whistle, all players ran here and there, trying to get the ball. Male and female players were eager to get the ball. They didn’t care about the wet-muddy ball. What they really cared was scoring as many as possible. Some players have experience in playing football, futsal, even basket ball. That’s why we could see jelly fish was played in basket ball or football way. It was indeed thrilling. The game ended with 5 to 4 for the score. All the players were all out of breath but satisfied.
The last agenda on the outing was Hanneke’s farewell party. It has been almost four months for being with her in LIA. It was a bit confusing to throw the farewell party for her since it’s held outdoor and not enough preparations. But the committee tried to make the farewell as impressive as possible, especially for her. All outing participants were handed in a piece of paper asking them to write down their impression and comments about Hanneke. At the back of the paper they had to write down whatever they wanted her to do.
As soon as they finished writing, we spread the paper on the ground. Hanneke was to select five to six of them, read it out loud and did what they asked her to do. I can say that she is an easy going type that it would be fun to see her dancing and singing by request. One fun thing was when one of the papers stated that she was to dance Balinese dance. Luckily, one of the students is from Art Institute so that she could teach her how to dance Balinese dance. She was awkward for sure, but it’s not bad, though.
Hanneke’s farewell party ended the whole programs in students’ outing that day. We all headed to the bus, feeling exhausted but contented. In the bus, what some of us did was dozing off, or having a chat. Well, finally we did one fun activity that we—teachers—had been dreaming for months. Looking forward to having another students’ outing on the other time.
Reported by Ms. Lala
Thanks for Rino, Deddy and Anindya Putri for sharing the pictures
