My August 17 Vibes
That morning the sky painted in gradient blue with some white cloud hovering overhead. For several days the sun shone a little harsh in Cambodian sky. Even at seven hundred a.m., it was almost 32 degrees Celsius—more than enough to make people sneeze or hardly open their eyes when the look up at the sky.
I bet no one in 59 Guest House, Krakor village Cambodia, waking up excitingly that day but seven people whose passports written ‘Indonesian’ as their nationalities. That day was August 17, 2015. It was Indonesian’s Independence Day, our independence day.
Not sure if it is a sudden momentary feeling of nationalism or that I have been accustomed to the August 17 vibe, I felt occupied by pride of being Indonesian. That was what triggered me and my Indonesian colleagues to do flag ceremony.
Since there was no flag pole in that Guest House, we took a bamboo stick that we sometimes used to hang our clothes to dry. We put a piece of red and white flag on one of its edge. Then we started to sing our national anthem. We did also sing some national songs; mengheningkan cipta, 17 Agustus, and tanah air. Then we ended the flag ceremony that morning by taking a jump-to-the-air photo in hope it could capture our happiness for ‘freedom’ feeling.
On the next day, we decided to make the Independence celebration merrier by conducting some games for our fellows eco-leaders from nine countries of ASEAN. We made them to have balloon dance with ‘sakitnya tuh di sini’ song. And it quite surprised me when the Bruneian fellows could sing that song.
Later on, we made them to have evening workout as we introduced them to a jumping sack race.
But most of our fellows eco-leaders said that the game they like more is ‘placing a pen into a bottle’. They said it was funny to see someone squatting with a serious full-of-struggle looking face.
I could still recall vividly how home sick I was at that moment. But seeing my fellows having such great time and big smile made me forget that I was a thousand miles away from Indonesia.
Credit photos: Akara Yoth.
