Before we went to the project week, one of our goals is to be able to strengthen the relationship between the JSK GC/UWCSEA and XSProject and it seemed that we have achieved it. Through helping them in any way possible such as helping them build a cart, making a promotional video for their website, and also by planning to order more products from them has helped increase our understanding towards XSProject as well as our relationship.

The first three days of project week was spent on trying to learn more about Jakarta and the culture. We went on a food tour to the Food Gallery and tried different snacks there and we went to Taman Mini, a big cultural park to look at the museums where they showcased Indonesia’s different cultural clothing and how people lived in Indonesia in the past. We also saw replicas of the different cultural/tribal houses and for the fun of it, we also went to their bird park. Although I’ve visited Taman Mini quite frequently as a child, I’ve forgotten what it was like and as I grow older, I’m able to appreciate the culture of my tribe, Bataknese. I was in awe of the traditional houses and clothing that Batak has and a sense of pride grew in me.

Overall, although I’ve already visited Jakarta often, I found out that there’s so much more to Jakarta than I thought there was. I was able to not also be more dependent in regards to travelling but I was also able to learn more about my culture and appreciate more than I did before. As for the service, I was able to learn more about it and feel more connected with my service partner as I’ve seen them directly now. As for the near future, I’m planning to visit XSProject to help them with their products or promotions whenever I go back to Indonesia. I hope that from this project week, I was able to be beneficial to my service partner by helping them in any way possible.

Playing with the kids from the trash picker community