Day 5: A Long Way from Where We Began
- moovement.aia
- Dec 5, 2018
- 4 min read
This morning, we headed off to the Affandi art museum near our hotel. Affandi was an acclaimed Indonesian artist whose paintings shaped the local culture of Indonesia. Despite coming from a humble background, he persevered and became a popular painter beloved by the locals. However, despite his fame, Affandi never forgot his roots. He dreamed that he would someday have his own gallery with roofs shaped like banana leaves, inspired by his own memory of being caught in the rain with nothing but a banana leaf to shield him from the downpour. Indeed, Affandi evidently accomplished his dream, since the first thing our team noticed from the bus were the broad roofs shaped like banana leaves.
Inside the gallery hung Affandi’s lifework, with unique paintings arranged in chronological order. As our museum guide helpfully pointed out, Affandi’s art style shifted and progressed from highly realistic to impressionistic and then to expressionistic. He also painted what he witnessed through his life, from an imprisoned Japanese spy to his mother’s grief. By documenting his life in his paintings, Affandi captured a representative snapshot of life in Indonesia, perhaps one of the reasons that endeared him to the locals. Through examining Affandi’s work, our team gained a better appreciation of art as well as of the local culture.
After the museum, we returned to the orphanage for the last time. There, we completed our final duty, which was cleaning the basketball court and the church that were located next to the orphanage. In the same four teams that we had split ourselves into while cleaning the orphanage, we cleaned the court and different parts of the church. We picked litter, swept floors, dusted pews and scrubbed tall windows, which all chalked up to be difficult work. However, that made it all the more meaningful as we meticulously cleaned, giving our all for the last act of service we would give to our Indonesian friends.
We had our final lunch in Bina Putra Orphanage and then sat amongst our Indonesian friends, well aware that this would be the final time we would gather together. Our friends sang a goodbye song for us to bid us farewell. After which, our tour guide announced that it was time to leave the orphanage for good. Our team began to say our goodbyes to our friends but that soon stirred into an emotional and tearful farewell.
Games Committee member and constant source of entertainment Kothandam Ashwin was especially moved by his friend Paul’s gesture. Ashwin and Paul had bonded over the few days our team had spent at the orphanage, and on the last day, Paul gave Ashwin one of his belongings to say goodbye.
“I was saying to goodbye to my friends, then everyone began to cry. Immediately after I said goodbye to Paul, he ran back to his dorm and brought one of his belongings. It was a bag from Papua [New Guinea] because he was from Papua, and he wanted me to have it. I was very moved by Paul’s gift. Then I remembered that I always had this metal plate in my wallet with a Bible verse and my initials on it. I gave it to him to thank him and say goodbye, and then we hugged for a while.”
Saying goodbye to our friends in Yogyakarta was much harder than we anticipated, and there were tears shed on both sides. We exchanged contact details on social media and promises to keep in touch, but eventually had to tear ourselves away from the orphanage. From the bus, we waved a final goodbye to our dear friends, but as the bus turned away and the orphanage drew out of view, a heavy atmosphere settled over our team. The reality that our time spent with our friends in the orphanage had come to an end, and we all came away from that experience immensely grateful for the opportunity to spend time in Bina Putra.
After leaving the orphanage, we travelled to Borobudur temple, a UNESCO heritage site and popular tourist attraction. It was built around the 8th century, but was abandoned until the British rediscovered it. From afar, the temple stood tall under the glinting sunlight, but up close, the intricacies of the temple’s architecture became apparent. Crafted from stone, the temple was designed with elaborate statues and intentional curves, clearly from the mind and hands of talented artists. The design, as our tour guide at pointed out, could only be truly appreciated when the most microscopic detail was examined. Walking through the temple, we noticed the walls of the temple were adorned with ornate carvings and statues describing various stories, from the birth of Buddha to folk tales that taught important morals such as sacrifice and kindness. The stories of the temple almost came to life, and the temple itself became a walking storybook.
We climbed to the top of the temple, where a grand sight greeted us. There were three rings of stupas, which were large bell-shaped structures that each concealed a Buddha statue. These structures were not intended to be bells, but upturned begging bowls attached to a stick. Here, we took several pictures and admired the spectacular view of the mountains from the peak of the temple. From our tour guide’s explanations, we gained a better appreciation for the brilliant work of architecture that was the temple and its significance in the local culture.
Upon returning to the hotel, our team had a long discussion and reflected on what had transpired over the course of this AIA. We shared about what we had experienced, felt and thought in Yogyakarta so we could process and consolidate everything that had happened. We all shared on our different opinions on our experiences, but overall, came away grateful for the AIA and the opportunity to serve a group of people that would soon become dear friends. We had all been pushed by encountering obstacles on the trip, and as a result, we had all grown in one aspect or another.
After reflections, we returned to our rooms to pack our bags and catch some sleep before leaving Yogyakarta in the morning the next day.
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