Secondary Department – Field Trip Report
Cipanas Trip in Collaboration with Yayasan Usaha Mulia (YUM)
On October 3 2017, the Grade 11 students participated in a field trip to Cipanas in collaboration with Yayasan Usaha Mulia (YUM). There they took part in various activities, from organic farming to teaching local children. The trip went on for four days, from October 3 to October 6. In the first day, we partook in teaching elementary students arts and crafts and English. On the second day, we participated in teaching sports, learning about organic farming and the Indonesian traditional musical instrument, Angklung. During the organic farming we were taught on how to make compose fertilizers out of manure and vegetable waste, how to plant saplings, how to cultivate saplings and how to make natural pesticide. The third day, we taught elementary children English, we showed the wonder of Science experiments and we also taught preschoolers. The final day we learned how to make the traditional food, klepon.
Grade 11 IB DP students learn the value of hard work through organic farming.
The activities we have done all have different impacts both on us and the people around us; from the teaching to the learning sessions we had. The teaching session is surely to make an impact for us and the people in the area. We learned the joy and pain of teaching, how to handle children and how to become more adaptable to many situations. Furthermore, through teaching we could help the locals to be more knowledgeable, spark interest and encourage them to explore more about the things we have taught. Through the learning of organic farming, we were able to identify how organic farming is a more plausible and sustainable way of farming. We learned some useful knowledge about making compose, planting and cultivation which can be useful for us in the event that we want to make our own organic garden or it could also be a start-up to spark our interest in organic farming.
Figure 1, Learning how to make klepon
Based on our visit, there were some notable issues and there are also some notable praises. First of all, the rooms in the area are decently clean and neat; same thing goes to the bathroom. The food served there were also nice – additionally, they were also organic and all are produced from the farm in the area. The atmosphere and location of the place were also cold and nice. It was separated from the main town, so there were less noise pollution and less light pollution as well; a definite change from the hot and dry air and the noisy sounds of the city. On the contrary, the issue we had was the rather lack of communication between the organization in one of the activities we had. They were not verbal about the planning, which resulted in us having to plan everything on the spot. Despite all the positive aspects of the organization and their service, we are hoping that they are also aware of their weaknesses and reflect on such. Therefore, they could improve in the future.
“Our trip in Cipanas has been life-changing and eye-opening, it was an amazing experience.”
- Leo Harnadi
Returning back, we have learned a lot in the past four days that we had there. We learned how to cook, teach, farm, play Angklung and also get to bond more with the times we spent together. The experience was fun no matter what. It was something that we could never forget and will always try to cherish. YUM has also been very supportive and eager to help us whenever we need their assistance and that help is always appreciated. We hope that our opportunities to do such activities do not only end here and that there will be more in the near future.
Figure 2, Teaching elementary students English
Figure 3, Teaching pre-schoolers
In essence, the trip was a very interesting experience for us to go through. Learning organic farming was something very exciting to do, learning how sustainable farming works and what sort of precautions they take to maintain an environmentally friendly farm. Furthermore, the opportunity that we had to teach the local children there was definitely an experience that is worth millions. We get to experience the fun and tears of teaching as well as making new friends with the children there. We really enjoyed our trip there, not only it taught us about teaching and farming, it also gave us the opportunity to enhance our bonds between each other. Truly, we are hoping that we could once again experience another trip similar to this next time around.