CAS 2015

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:

 My CAS experience video

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.

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 23^rd 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 26^th 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 4^th 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 11^th 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 13^th 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 18^th 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 25^th 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 2^nd 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