CAS is the program that we have to complete over the course of a semester. CAS stands for Creativity, Action, and Service. All high school students are required to complete 40 hours of community work; 10 hours of a creative activity, 10 hours of an action activity, 10 hours of a service program and then another 10 hours of your choice.
This blog is about my experience of CAS and the activities I did over the course of 2 months. Enjoy!
CREATIVITY:
For my creativity part of this program, I struggled to come up with an interesting idea so then I thought 'Why not just make a video to showcase what I did?'. I have to have evidence of everything I do anyway, so making a video will eliminate my 10 hours of creativity while showing everyone what I did at the same time. 2 for the price of 1. I worked on my CAS video every week, once we collected our footage from our visit to the orphanage. Each session I worked on it, I spent about 2 hours editing footage. In total I worked on the video for about 10 hours.
If you want to watch the video I made about my CAS experience, here is the link:
ACTION:
From the moment I found out about the program I always had one idea in my mind for the action. 'Conquer Mount Agung'. I had always wanted to climb to the top of that beast but I was always to young and not physically capable of it. So then this was the perfect chance to have a go at it, because I was both old enough now and physically capable of it (or at least I though so).
So I arranged that on the 15th of October at 12 pm/midnight we would get picked up from my house to be taken to the base of the mountain. Also, my dad, my friend and her brother came with us on the experience. My dad had already done it once before 5 years ago and he said that it wasn't that hard at all so I though 'why not, how hard could it be?'. It was easier said than done.
Little side note too, thinking back on my decision while writing this now I think I was semi crazy while I made the decision.
At 5 pm on the Wednesday I photographed the beast I thought I could easily reach the top of, while it looked majestic among the ray of orange light that was scattered across the horizon by the descending ball of light. I was relieved because it seemed to not be cloudy which was a good sign when it comes to rain. But of course that could change any hour.
At
midnight we got picked up by the driver who was going to take us to the
destination. From where we were staying in Amed, it was about a half an hour
drive.
We could notice as soon as we got out of the car that there was a drastic
temperature change.
The
start of the trek was at the bottom of a set of stairs that I couldn't see the
top of because it was absolute pitch black. The only supply of light we had
were the head lights given to us. It looked like one of those typical scary
movie scenes were the all you could see was the circle of light supplied by the
torches. By the time we got to the top of the stairs (which seemed to take
really long because we couldn't see how much further we had to go) we were all
huffing and puffing, which only added to my denial. On the inside I was like
‘well if I'm already half dying now, imagine how hard its going to be getting
up’, however I managed to keep a cool exterior and not let that show.
We gradually started making our way up while occasionally I stopped to pull out
my camera to video our surroundings. Every step we took translated into my
calves. I noticed we were walking on quite an angle even though because of the
dark that was hard to notice. I must admit though, we made a few stops because
it was very physically draining and exhausting. My calves were absolutely
burning and felt as if they were about to explode.
I
think somewhere around here there were multiple times where I had thoughts like
‘I'm not going to make’, ‘you can’t do this Ana’ or ‘there is no use in continuing’.
But ofcourse I kept pushing on despite all the negativity I was spreading. I
didn't show any of it, but on the inside the only thing I was thinking about
was how I didn't think I could pull this off. I'm honestly not really sure how
my tiny bit of motivation overpowered all this other unmotivational negativity.
After
the first part of the ascension the more higher we walked the more the amount
of vegetation started to decrease. Eventually I realised I had taken the trees
a bit too much for granted because there was hardly anything to hold on to
anymore. The trees were like your tiny millisecond where you could hold on so
that not all of your body weight was on your legs. Eventually there was no
vegetation left. At all. Not. Even. One. Tree.
At that point we were so high up that if you turned your light off and looked
around you, you could see the lights of the villages below. It was quite a
breathtaking view and at the same time we realised we were quite high up. The
transition from grass and trees around you to nothing but rocks was quite
sudden. It was also so much on an angle we all ended up looking like Spiderman
because we were down on all fours making our way up the rocks, one step at a
time. It was quite scary actually. There were moments when I almost tumbled
down, and one wrong step could be deadly. The wind at this stage was also very
disturbing. Reason being, was when you went to stand up the wind was so strong
it pushed you backwards so you had to be careful not to fall over.
it was pretty much all Spiderman tactics from then on; we all stayed low and
using our hands to help us navigate and fight a sturdy rock to grasp on to. As
crazy as it sounds, I actually really enjoyed that part. I was doing something
I would probably never have done and challenging myself at the same time. I
think I sort of discovered another layer of myself.
Also,
I probably haven’t mentioned this, but it is really worth mentioning. It was
extremely COLD. I had on 3 layers of warm clothes because the wind practically
made its way through any piece of clothing. It was especially cold when we
stopped moving, while we were climbing it was still bearable. That’s why when
to the corner of my right eye I started noticing a slight glimpse of an orange
line starting to spread across the horizon. It was so rewarding and uplifting
because it meant the sun was coming up. Which actually meant two things: we
were going to be less cold but most importantly we were actually going to be
able to see something.
Then, something that I had been absolutely craving to hear:
we only had 20 minutes to go. That was the time when it really struck me. I was
actually going to make it. Something I thought would never come.
Surprisingly we made it to the top while still being on time
to witness the sunset. It was absolutely breathtaking and it had been a while
since I had seen a sunrise. The colors emerged from the darkness brightening up
the sky instantly. Then a guy shouted ‘SUNRISE!!!!’ which made us all turn our
heads to the colors patch in the sky. Then I saw it, a red ball slowly rising
up behind the silhouette of Mount Rinjani. It was so beautiful. It made me
forget how cold I really was. Everyone hurriedly scrambled over to be able to
take a picture, before it disappeared. I was surprised we made it on time
because I thought because of all the stops we took we would have been too late.
Then I realised that it took us less than 4 hours to get to the top, which was
actually quite quick.
After watching and walking around for about 20 minutes we
decided to start the descent.
it was still quite cold but it gradually got more bearable. It was still very windy and going down was actually the most dangerous part. It was very steep so I decided to go down on my bum. I went step by step because I didn't want to fall to my death, literally. After getting used to going down I wasn’t quite scared anymore. All my nervousness went away and I was just focused on getting to the bottom. Then finally it started going from bare grey rocks to little shrubs and plants appearing. And before I knew it there was lots of vegetation and trees to actually hold on to. It was actually quite tiring going down, we were walking down on a slope so we had to put all our strength into our legs so the momentum of the descent wouldn’t push us to keep walking down too fast and tumble over. Eventually after what seemed like we walked for days we made it to the temple where our journey had started. I don't think I had ever been that happy to see our car.
it was still quite cold but it gradually got more bearable. It was still very windy and going down was actually the most dangerous part. It was very steep so I decided to go down on my bum. I went step by step because I didn't want to fall to my death, literally. After getting used to going down I wasn’t quite scared anymore. All my nervousness went away and I was just focused on getting to the bottom. Then finally it started going from bare grey rocks to little shrubs and plants appearing. And before I knew it there was lots of vegetation and trees to actually hold on to. It was actually quite tiring going down, we were walking down on a slope so we had to put all our strength into our legs so the momentum of the descent wouldn’t push us to keep walking down too fast and tumble over. Eventually after what seemed like we walked for days we made it to the temple where our journey had started. I don't think I had ever been that happy to see our car.
At the end of the day, I was actually quite proud of myself
which I don't admit or think quite often. I actually achieved something that I
thought I wouldn’t be able to do. I pushed through all the pain and struggling
so that I could complete what I set out to do. That gives me a good feeling.
*I also made a separate video all about this experience so if you want to see that click here: Climbing Mt Agung
12 midnight – 11:30 am
SERVICE:
For my 10 hours of a service program I wanted to do
something with someone else, so along with two of my friends we came up with
the idea of volunteering at an orphanage. But we had to think of something to actually
do with the kids. Then I thought it would be cool if we could show them some
art techniques and teach them painting as we were all pretty good with paint.
So we came up with the idea of showing the kids some things paint related.
Seemed like a great idea! But ofcourse we couldn’t buy all the supplies with
our own money so we decided on doing a mufti day fundraiser at school, where
the benefits would go to the orphanage. I created a poster to help advertise
for this:
Friday 23rd October
Today we went to the art store on jalan Iman Bonjol
near our developing new school campus. I went with Meg and Ashleigh because we
three are all doing the same thing for our service. We went to the art shop to
buy art supplies to bring to the orphanage. We ended up buying 5 bottles of
paint, a big A3 card paper sketch book and 4 paint trays. We wanted to buy some
other stationary things however they were quite expensive there so we decided
to go to Gramedia at Galeria. It was cheaper there so we bought heaps of pencils,
erasers and sharpeners.
3 pm - 6 pm
Monday 26th October
On Monday we organised a meeting at the orphanage with
a lady working there so we could tell her about our program and just see what
the orphanage looked like. Meg, Ashleigh and I drove there after school and
arrived there around 3 pm. The lady there showed us around and explained a bit
about the schedule of the kids at the orphanage. We then were showed the baby
room where we were instantly charmed by the glistering eyes and ear to ear
smiles of the babies. I think we spent a good 20 minutes in there just being
charmed by those little fella’s. Absolutely adorable! Meg and I also ended up
playing soccer with a few boys. After about 1 ½ hour there we decided to head
back home and we made arrangements that we would come every Wednesday starting
from the next week.
3 pm – 4:30 pm
Wednesday 4th November
Today was our first day volunteering at the orphanage.
It was only Ashleigh and I because Meg was sick. We arrived there around 3:30
pm and we were instantly greeted by the children. They got excited and starting
running in front of us to show us the way to the art room. It was a small but
appropriate space for what we needed to do. At the start there were only a few
kids so we all gave them paper and a pencil to start drawing. Eventually more
and more kids started coming in to join this art lesson. There was some really
talented kids there who had a good skills for drawing.
Then we decided it was time to start painting. It sort
of all went downhill from there (not literally ofcourse!) The kids all wanted
each colour of paint and were not big fans of sharing a paint tray, which
wasn’t what we expected.
The paint idea, we thought would be a great idea, turns
out was a really messy idea. Mostly because the kids had none or not much
experience with painting. So instead of painting the paper, some of the kids
decided it would be more interesting to paint the walls, floors, bugs and their
own clothes. Which ofcourse, turned into one big mess. It was fun however; as
some kids behaved and actually painted the paper they were given. Some kids
made some really nice things. Eventually we decided it would be time to go, so
we started cleaning the room, which ended up taking about 30 minutes. We were
very grateful because this girl called Gabby decided to bring a mop and help us
clean the floor. What a great girl!
3:30
pm – 5 pm
Wednesday 11th November
Because of last week’s situation we decided to scratch
the idea of painting, as it was costing too much, it was too messy and it took
too long to clean. Since Christmas was coming up we thought it would be nice to
start making Christmas cards with them. So we printed all different kinds of
coloring in Christmas cards for them. We arrived at the orphanage at exactly 3
o’clock. We entered the baby room first and started engaging with the cutest
little baby; Grace. She had to cutest little hands and feet and sparkling eyes.
Her smile was absolutely adorable. Then we went into the art room and took out
all the cards and pencils. Some kids (the older ones) took a lot of cards and
claim them as theirs, which wasn’t very nice because of that, there wasn’t
enough for all the other kids. Who needs 7 cards?? Anyway, all the kids sat
there and colored in their cards, occasionally asking what color it was
supposed to be. Some really nice cards were made by them and one lady working
there said that then when they have English class they can write in them, which
is nice. Eventually we lost track of time and realised it was already 5:30 pm
so we decided to head home. I really do enjoy volunteering at the orphanage and
it gives a good feeling that you are actually giving back and doing something
that matters and makes a difference.
3 pm - 5 pm
Friday 13th November
Today was the free dress Mufti Day that we had
organised. It was for both Highschool and primary school, and each person had
to give 10,000 Rp if they came in free dress. The reason we did this was
because we needed money so that at the end of our orphanage visit we would use
the money and buy all the kids something. We thought it would be a great way to
thank them and start that time of year. We walked around school and collected
the money from all the classrooms and we ended up raising about 1.1 million
rupiah, which is quite a lot. I think the kids would be very grateful and
appreciate the offer. We would like to give them some food as a sort of early
Christmas meal.
We planned this and it took me about 1 hour to make the
poster.
Wednesday 18th November
Today we printed out lots of Christmas cards and made
sets of 3 cards so that each child has the same amount of cards. We went to the
orphanage straight after school and arrived at 3. We got to work straight away
as there were a few girls who were really keen to start drawing. They all loved
the cards and got quite creative with coloring them in. in between our coloring
sessions, Ashleigh and I also visited the baby room because they were just so
adorable. Their smiles could brighten anyone’s day.
We ended up having a collecting of a lot of Christmas
cards because they all really enjoyed making them. The lady who worked there
and was mostly in charge really like what they had created and was happy we
brought them for the kids to color in.
3 pm - 6pm
Wednesday 25th November
We printed several pictures of common interests of
little children such as superman, batman, cats, dogs, Santa Claus and many
others for them to try and draw. They were all decently good at it and some
kids even asked Ashleigh and me to help them with drawing it. After a while of
drawing and noticing we had run out of paper we cleaned up the art room. We
then went to send some time with some of the other children. We played with
them and used the hula hoops they had. We also took care of the babies and one
baby was not letting me out of his sight. Every time someone picked him up he
would cry and reach his arms out pointing at me, signaling he wanted me to hold
him. I thought that was absolutely adorable.
At 5pm we made our way back home.
3 pm – 5 pm
Wednesday 2nd December
We arrived at the orphanage today with a secret. We were
bringing all the kids at the orphanage KFC but they didn't know it yet. We spent
some time playing with the kids until at 5 o’clock Ashleigh’s driver arrived
with the 125 boxes of KFC chicken. There were A LOT of boxes. All the kids
started running around us and screaming ‘KFC’, it was quite a funny sight
actually. Unfortunately the kids have a set eating time schedule so they weren't
allowed to eat it just yet. At 6 o’clock they finally got to eat their chicken.
They were all very polite and said thank you to us. They looked really happy
which made me feel really good. It’s so nice seeing that something as simple as
that can make someone’s day.
After everyone finished eating we made a few photos
with the kids and staff. Then also, ash and I thought it would be cool to get a
group photo, which we did.
Once it was dark we said our goodbyes and thanked
everyone for letting us come to their orphanage. Ash and I walked away knowing
we did something good.
3 pm - 7 pm
