Oleh-oleh dari Prambanan (1)

ANNUAL GATHERING 
 
Hi!
Been wondering where I've been for the past 2 weeks? Hm, busy, busy, busy! First, I got my thesis to work on. Next, I had to prepare myself for several activities held by Sampoerna Foundation (SF), one of which was the 3rd Sampoerna Foundation Annual Gathering 2004.
 
Each year, SF invites its scholars and alumni from all over Indonesia and abroad to a special gathering. It's special, because it's no easy job contacting almost 200 persons and gathering them in one place. On the part of the scholars and alumni, the event is a special one because it's the only time that we can really get to know scholars/alumni from other regions (to meet them in person, more precisely). Moreover, it's time for fun (I hate to mention that it is also time for lectures of social responsibility, team and leadership, blabla), because we chance to play team games during the three-day event. Winning is not important since it is the togetherness, the laughter and all the fun we can find that matter most.
 
This year, the Annual Gathering was held in Prambanan camping complex, on 23-25 July. Yup, it's the Prambanan temple I'm talking about. One thing for sure, this year's Annual Gathering is a whole lot different from last years' because this year we slept in a ... tent. Well, not exactly a tent. It was a complex of small houses made of bamboo, which were called 'omah'. We cannot exactly call them 'houses' because I could barely stand straight in that 'omah'. Plus, we used sleeping bags in exchange for beds. I don't mean to complain or anything, but for a person who has been to the previous annual gatherings, in which we stayed in cottages (Anyer, 2002) and hotel rooms (Lido Lakes, 2003), I might as well call the Annual Gathering 2004 'modest'.
 
The good thing was that food and beverages were lavish. Imagine, two coffee breaks a day, plus one more during the night, and of course, breakfast-lunch-dinner were served. We ate not one kind of lauk, but three! Another good thing was I had a good time laughing almost to tears there. My fellow scholars and alumni were extremely, hilariously funny. Well, I think we were all ready to have a good time that nobody put on groovy face and everyone was ever ready to please others. A pal who is known as a complaint maker seemed to enjoy the time spent there (I could judge by the zero complaint the person made, as far as I knew, and the happy face that lingered on the person's face up to the last day of the event). Here's a scholar's testimonial of the event, as a prove: 

Wuaahhhhh...... akhirnya sampe lagi Jakarta..... tp tau ngak seh..(baca: gaya ABG..hehe..) pas masuk kamar kost2-an perasaan kayanya ada yang ilang... rame2... ngumpul bareng temen2 baru... omah... sleeping bag... makanan yg siap sedia.. plus Enuaaakkk banget.... makan tinggal makan... minum tinggal minum.... semuanya itu udah ngak ada lagi..... yang ada VCD warna merah.. langsung aja di puter.. dan hey.... perasaan itu baru aja.. emang bener itu baru aja terjadi..... hebatttt.... ngak nyangka dapet pelayanan yg gitu profesional banget dari SF ama Rakata, DSA.... secara pribadi saya merasa bangga dan seneng banget bisa kumpul di AG kemarin.... semuanya saya alamin bener2 asik.... workshopnya bagus buat ngasah "kapak" saya biar bisa nebang pohon lebih banyak lagi.....

One thing that got in my way during the three-day fun: My sore cough that hasn't ended although it's been two weeks already...