AdminAIESEC exchange project in China story by Cindy Sanjaya (student of Undergraduate Marketing Program Prasetiya Mulya School of Business batch 2013)
When I arrived at Baiyun Airport with my parents and Jacqueline, I felt so excited and nervous at the same time because it’s the first time that I joined volunteer project in another country. After we took all of our luggages we got out and found Lucy and also Ridhwan. But at that day I think I made a lot of difficult things on Lucy because we have so many luggages and didn’t take metro to go to the hostel but by taxi and the taxi fee was so expensive.
Moreover, we had put our luggages in the taxi but I and Jacqueline had sat at the taxi with very small space. Finally arrived in Youth International Riverside Hostel and met for the others EPs (Jacqueline, Ditta, Milya), OCs (Shay, Moon, Joyce, Ridhwan), and talked with each others.
Second Day we went to the Yuxiue Park and Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall and also went to Youth Palace where is the place for our workplace in 1st week and met others Eps, Ocs, and EP Buddys to get know each others well. We went to Yoshinoya for dinner and bought some fruits in supermarket.
That day for me was the first time i had seen Onion, and Vesna. Third day I went out to our workplace with our luggages and separated from the others group, because on that day we had to seen our EP Buddys and host family as well. At first, it’s a little bit hard for me took all my luggages by myself every week because our workplace always change every week. Ex: 1st week I was in Guangzhou, 2nd week was in Foshan, and the other group were in different city of us. Only during holiday, and the last 2 events that we had met all of the EPs, Ocs, and EP Buddys in the same city and played together.
I want to tell you what is Stand Out Project that I had done for 5 weeks in Guangzhou and Foshan. Actually Stand Out Project aims are to inspire children’s confidence by giving them art class and cross culture activities. This project has divided to 3 parts : Art classes, Sosial Activities, and also Cross Culture Activities.
In the first week, our project name called “Hello World” and I worked in Children Palace for range of 6-12 years old. I had done so many things to do, like made paper lamps; made some clothes for fashion show and opera (story of opera related to Bawang Putih dan Bawang Merah); taught them to sing a simple english song (Bingo Song); made chocholate cookies; dance roll call dance; played some games together. In my opinion it’s a little bit hard to control children for this age and have to be patience all the time. But a little bit different that I had done in second week because I taught for teenagers now and the range of 12-16 years old. The name of this project called “Colour Our World”.
In this camp, I learnt how to be attractive when I told some story, taught photography, learnt how to use sewing machine because we had to sell our handmade stuffs or handcraft in flower market before Spring Festival Eve, so we joined in some bazaar. In this project, i learnt that communication is the most important thing because sometimes we misunderstood the meaning or details about this activity and also to be well-organized is really important because i think we should really know what we have to do for each activity, and make some back up plans.
During holiday, we had moved to OCP’s old house but in another district in Foshan, but we had carried our luggage to 7th floor without elevator. I won’t forget this moment because all of us had carried all the luggages and we survived. But during holiday, I and Jacqueline had got off from China because we have double visa, so we went to Hong Kong and come back to Guangzhou and continue our journey to Foshan by metro.
After we arrived at metro station, we took wrong direction and we lost at the bus station. So we called our OCP and she picked us up by car to go to her old house, beacuse on that day almost midnight and during Spring Festival only a few of taxi but no more bus. A little bit scary because the bus station that we waited for so long time it was a little bit far from our house and so dark outside.
After reached home, the following day, I and Marsha went to Yangshuo but we got out at roadside and took motorbike to reach our hostel. Next day, we went to Guilin by bus, because we didn’t know which place that we have to wait for this bus and we asked some of the people there, and there was a bus competitor that went to Guilin as well but higher 8 yuan. So we decided to wait for our bus that late for more than 1 hours.
Arrived at Guilin, we went to bus station to booked for return trip to go back to Guangzhou. In Guilin we had entered one park that free after 5:30 pm but we didn’t know that free on that time, so we had bought that ticket around 5 pm and we angry because 2 temples that we should go it has been locked because the manager wanted to go back earlier that day. The day when we went back to Guangzhou, a lot of traffic jam, and 10 hours on the bus. We had stopped at rest area twice but the rest area really smell bad and arived very late in Guangzhou around 11 pm.
So we decided to searched cheap hostel nearby bus station. On our way to searched some hostel, a man offered us to stay at Min An Business Hotel for 168 yuan for double bed but I taught that we missunderstood that price only for single bed and we didn’t want to pay double price for it and 2 of my friends had taken bath. Finally they angry to us and old man run want to catched us on the street.
Really scary and we went to McD asked some people there where was the cheap hostel nearby, we found another cheap hostel , and took a rest.
Following day that we should go to Foshan for Global Village preparation and met EP Buddys and also host family. This event was very fun because we had a lot of free time to go somewhere before did some preparation. A little afraid because we had dance performance on the stage but it’s quite run well and we got first place because we earned 1,764.2 yuan. So proud of myself. I was very happy that day. For the last event was Mosaic Wall Painting in Guangzhou, so we had moved out our luggages again. But on that day, I was very late and ruined the schedule, and missed to enter the subway because so many people inside metro and i had carried 2 luggages by myself. But it’s ok for me that I missed the train. The last event didn’t run well good on the first day because we haven’t any concept yet how did we stick the mosaic on the wall and the weather not so good too (rain always). So I got a little bit fever on the second day of this camp.
After all the project has ended, we did some farewell party with all OCs, Eps, and EP Buddys who wanted to joined us for the last time. It was so fun but some of us had drunken because too much drink alcohol. Then farewell parrty ended, we separated after our last lunch. My heart broke because i felt so sad to be separated. We had known each other very well during this 5 weeks. I cried so bad for the last 2 days that I spent in Guangzhou.
For me. This project was meaningful for me because I had improved my bad habits a little bit, and more improve day by day. They inspires me to be better and better everyday. Thank you for your care, relationship that we built for 5 weeks, and our togetherness through up and downs. I will miss all of you who participated in this project and always keep in touch.
Witha Shofani
Sally
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