First Step in Indonesia: Jakarta

The date of July, twenty-two, 2018 finally arrived, one by one participants of Germany-Indonesia Exchange 2017/2018 stepped out of the arrival gate of Soekarno Hatta international airport, Tangerang, Banten. Nine students and two group leaders from ESG and Stube Germany came to Indonesia in return for Stube-HEMAT Indonesia's students who visited Germany in 2017 along with the 500th anniversary of church reformation. Stube-HEMAT Indonesia team and Rev. Tumpal Tobing, who brought the Stube program to Indonesia welcomed their arrival.

Tirtamarta-BPK Penabur School, GKI Pondok Indah and PP-GMKI,

Education services carried out by GKI Pondok Indah through Tirtamarta-BPK Penabur education foundation were the first destination in Jakarta. Here is the place where Rev. Tumpal serves as a school pastor. Participants got opportunity to have dialogue with students and teachers and interacted with the members of church assembly about the challenges of current education services in Indonesia. Character building is the main focus in this school to be implemented beside supporting facilities and extra curricular activities  to develop competitive human resources.

Dialogue with GMKI central board in Jakarta, Sahat MP Sinurat and Alan Christian Singkali, opened up opportunities to get to know each other of four organizations which concerned on youth movement to build the nation and open opportunities for cooperation in the future among ESG, Stube Germany and Stube-HEMAT Indonesia and GMKI.

Indonesia House of Representatives and the Old City area

Knowing Indonesia, democracy and the Indonesian political system became an interesting agenda. The national anthem ‘Indonesia Raya’ filled the air of Abdul Muis hall, part of Wisma Nusantara to preceed the meeting. Then, the participants listened the explanation about the steps of policy making, budget allocation, and other topics. In this place participants also visited House of Representative museum to get to know the history and democracy of Indonesia.

The Old City area in North Jakarta and its history were depicted by Pius Ledjap, a local tour guide. Beginning with the story of the existence of 'Engelse Burg', the oldest bridge in Indonesia which was built in 1628, participants began to explore the region. Bahari Museum with various types of traditional boats from Sabang to Merauke, shipping equipment, and various pictures relating to shipping; Syahbandar Tower, a tower to watch the vessels at Batavia port; the area of the old city and the Fatahillah square are  currently growing into a public space and be preserved by its environment and architecture of the building.

Betawinese Cultural Village and Ciliwung Merdeka group

The traffic jam in Jakarta became a real experience of the participants when visiting Setu Babakan, Betawinese Cultural Village in Srengseng Sawah, South Jakarta. "This area become the pioneer of the Betawinese Culture preservation center which include documentation of cultural literatures, tools relating to the tradition, typical building architecture, typical foods and flora commonly found here", said Kang Indra, a local facilitator, originated to Betawinese ethnic. Participants also made happily their own egg crust, one of the typical Betawinese ethnic foods, called ‘kerak telor’.

The visit and dialogue at Ciliwung Merdeka group and the opportunity to visit Grand Indonesia Mall, showed the Jakarta's life comprehensively. Ignatius Sandyawan Sumardi, the leader of Ciliwung Merdeka, continued to take side and pay attention consistently to the marginalized people living on Ciliwung riverbaks. The existence of people on the riverbanks is often assumed as city rubbish and they disturb the scenery of the city. Ciliwung Merdeka encourages them to dare to fight for life through togetherness and diversity, strengthens economic independence and channel their expression in cultural arts. While on the other hand, Grand Indonesia Mall presents city sheen, glittering shops and modern lifestyles. These two conditions are integral life in Jakarta. (TRU).