Sasambo GFE Camp March 9th-12th, 2017

My name is Vinny Oxtafianica. You can call me Vinny or Vinox. I was born in 26^th October 1997. I am from Jambi, but now I am studying in second semester at  Public Administration, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Sriwijaya University, South Sumatera. My religion is Islam. I like learning about Islamic Religion and Al-Quran, entrepreneurship, world facts, England culture and its education, Korea culture and its modernism, social Issues, and politics. I also like making new friends, blogging, listening to music, watching film, playing volleyball and badminton, swimming and travelling.

            I found out about this program from an Instagram Account. It is Youth Excursion. After that, I decided to open Sasambo website at sasambo.org and try to register my name and waited to receive an e-mail from Sasambo. I didn’t hope to get through this event and visited the Lombok. I just think to follow this program and got an e-certificate.

So many obstacle have I got during this registration process. When I was paid the registration fee, I forgot to enter the special number in behind payment nominal. I was really afraid about my money useless. Then, I told the committee about my mistake. Alhamdulillah. The committee said that is no problem. I was very happy. Then I get prepared to do The General Aptitude Test and The General Knowledge Test.

The General Aptitude Test and The General Knowledge Test was so hard and the time was so fast. I can passed The General Aptitude Test, but can’t passed The General Knowledge Test. I was surprised when I found out that my name was on the top 200. Then, I get prepared myself to next round. The next round was making a 60 seconds video campaign about “What should I do as a friend of Earth”. I also got many problems in this round. I don’t have an application to editing video in my laptop. Because my laptop would be slow if I installed an application to editing video. So, I borrowed my friend’s laptop which compatible with the application. I did editing video about 7 hours from 9 p.m. until 4 a.m. in H-1 deadline because at before days I am so busy. I have many programs to do in my organization and much homework also to do in my academic study. My video was about global warming. Not only global warming, but there were many action what should we do as a friend of Earth.

After posting my video on youtube, I promoted my video to my colleagues and my other friends on my social media to get likes and comment as it was one of the assessments. On February 24^th, the committee would announce the top 50 chosen delegates of GFE Camp 2017. I have waited since morning until midnight, but the announce nothing. Then I go to sleep and pray to God. I hope, I got happy news when I woke up tomorrow morning. Alhamdulillah, my dreams came true. My name was on the list. I was very happy and excited because I had never been to Lombok before.

I got next problem. I didn’t have much money to buy the ticket to Lombok. My mother said that I must tell my faculty to get some money. But when I told my seniors, they said about if we wanted to request some funding to our official, we should told them from one month before. So, I can’t request some funding to my official faculty. I told my mother again and my mother told me to tell my father. I was afraid to tell my father, because I knew he would angry with me. But in the fact after I told my father, he didn’t angry with me. He wanted to give me some money to buy the ticket to Lombok. I be grateful to Allah. I was very happy.

On March 8^th, I went to Jakarta by plane. Tomorrow morning, I went to Lombok from Jakarta with my new friends who I met in Soekarno Hatta International Airport. 

My new friends were the other delegates who were on the same plane as I was. In Lombok International Airport, we were picked up by the committees and went to Klui Beach. The view of the nature during my trip to Klui Beach was beautiful. We had lunch as soon as we arrived at the campsite and after that I walked to see beach near the camp. The beach was beautiful and the sounds of waves were very soothing. I took many photos near the beach. 

At night, we had this welcoming night session where we dressed up in traditional costumes and shared our traditional foods to each other. There were also making groups for each participant. I joined with group one who name was Coconut Crab. Our guide was sister Pici from Mataram University. In my group, there were 8 person from Palembang, Jakarta, Bekasi, Surabaya, Lombok and Makassar. My friend who name was Ijong has Go Pro. He always said to his Go Pro when he want to take a photo “Go Pro, take a photo”. It was so funny and other participants also called our group with name “Go Pro, take a photo”.

At the second day, we were stretching before we take a bath and got breakfast from committees. First, we went to Banyumulek Village at West Lombok by bus. Banyumulek Village was the center of Lombok’s pottery handicraft. In there, we learned about how to making an earthenware vessels, and after that we can brought our creation to home. 

After that, we had lunch and praying break. Second, we went to the Mangrove Forest. The Mangrove Forest was not very famous. Because of the place was hidden, and the government was new opened this area as a tourism area. We planted some mangrove trees and took lots of photos because the scenery was so picturesque. 

Third, we went to Sasaku to buy some foods and things traditional Lombok. I think, every thing in Sasaku was very expensive. Then, we went back to the campsite.

After dinner, we had some nature discussions. The first speaker was Mr. Syawaluddin, the owner of Bank Sampah with his wife. He explained about how from collecting trashes, you could get money. He has gone around the world to explain his project about Bank Sampah. The second speaker was Mr. Theo, the owner of The Griya Lombok, a paper trash art gallery. He believed that we could reduce deforestation by making furniture from secondhand paper wastes. I was very excited with two speakers who I met this night. I think, they were very cool, and did as they can did as a friend of Earth. Then, we had a group project which was to think and gave a presentation about our plan to a conservation project. My group decided to talk about clove conservation in Gowa, South Sulawesi, as it would be beneficial for locals and improve the economy.

On the third day, we went to Gili Trawangan island, a beautiful island in Lombok. We went there with a boat. I was so excited when I arrived in Gili Trawangan. The sand was very white and the water of sea was very pure. In there, I also saw very much tourist from other country. We were also given a task to make a video about our conservation project. After we finished filming the video, we had lunch. Every foods in Gili Trawangan was very expensive. 

So, we decided to buy food from five leg seller (pedagang kaki lima). We take a lunch on sand of beach. I think it is very fun to do. Then, we had snorkeling challenge. I honestly couldn’t swim at all, so I decided to rent a float. I was very happy when I had snorkeling. It was once in a lifetime experience for me. I can saw many ridge of rock which started be a stone. I was very sad, because I can’t saw beautiful ridge of rock. I just saw many white stone :( I hoped nothing ridge of rock which transformed as a white stone again. Aamiin.

After that, I decided to go to the Sunset Beach which was viral in social media. I wanted to take the mandatory photo at the swing. In my dreams, there was just one swing. But in the fact, there was many swing in every resort and café. I was so excited when I saw the beach and the scenery behind the swings. I took a lot of photo in there. At around 5 p.m., we went back to campsite. At night, we had our closing ceremony which featured awards. Then, we got certificates and took some photo and boomerang together. In the end, the committees gave us fireworks party and campfire. It is very cool and I was excited. I don’t want to leave this place. L

I went back to Palembang on March 12^th. This event was very amazing for me. I got a lot of experiences and friends from all around Indonesia. Thanks for 44 delegates Sasambo GFE 2017 and all of committees. I was really happy to meet all of them, as A friend of Earth. Compared to others, I might be just a granule of dust :D  I don’t do lots of special something, but I want everyone understand that what we do is what we get as a long as we do the best for the earth through ourself and our lifestyle all the time, then we are already becoming “Friends of Earth”. I have believed, from small thing that we can do for helping the Earth, can make a change for this Earth