Emily In Bandung: Week Without Walls

These past three days have been BAIS's annual Week Without Walls. It's a week where both students and staff are challenged to get beyond themselves and the confines of our campus to reach out to the larger community. This year's slogan is "Letting Others In; Getting Beyond Ourselves; Learning to Love Like Jesus." There were 11 different groups doing a wide variety of things: from planting trees and picking up trash to visiting a deaf school, community health outreach, and inviting neighborhood kids to our campus for a sports camp. The groups were mixed ages as well as the staff being mixed with different grades than they normally work with.

The group I was assigned to was "The Center." Eight students, grades 10 through 12, and three teachers joined up with a local ministry to college students. A few years ago a group of people started "The Center," a place where young people can come and practice their English and just hang out.

And that's just what we did for the last three days: hung out. We started the morning with some training, then in the late morning they hooked us up with a city guide to take us around the city. This turned into a time to just hang out with a local Indonesian, getting to know them, seeing the city of Bandung, having lunch, etc.

We traveled by Angkot, the public transportation, which are like vans that have routes all over the city. One day our guide took us to the center of Bandung to see some historical buildings. We saw some old churches and the cathedral. We saw the oldest bank in Bandung and walked around a park. Then we went to the Asia-Africa Museum. I had no idea that this conference had been held in Bandung. Actually, I'm not even sure I had ever heard of this before this week. We had a great time hanging out and getting to know our guide, a local Sundanese girl. She grew up in Bandung and graduated university with a degree in criminal law. She currently teaches classes in criminal law at the university and has been going to "The Center" since it started 5 years ago.

Another day she took us to an orphanage that she volunteers at twice a week teaching English to the kids. When we got there most of the kids were at school but we got to go and hold the babies. It was such an impactful and moving experience. There were probably 20 or so babies in the two rooms with only a few workers. I wanted to stay all day and hold them. I just kept thinking of how they say that babies who don't get a lot of touch are affected for years to come. But eventually we had to leave to head back.

Then in the afternoon we spent time at "The Center" for their daily hang out time. We sat around, talking and playing games with many different people, from all walks of life, but mostly college students. While the purpose of "The Center" is for people to come and practice their English with native speakers, it has turned into a place where people come because it's where their friends are and they feel at home. Some people come everyday, others come and stay all afternoon and evening.

It really has been an amazing past couple of days. It's given me a fresh perspective of Indonesia and the people who live here. I walked away with some new friends, many who are around my age. It was refreshing to see what others who are living here in Bandung are doing. And I'm left in awe of my Father for the things He is teaching me and for bringing me to this place.

A few highlights from the week are below. I've put all the pictures from the past few days up on a web album. Click here to view them: http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyinbandung/WWW