Couple days ago my aunt invited me to join her guiding her foster children from Ship for South East Asia Youth Program. I was so excited. It's been a year since my last trip with Czech people around Jakarta. So this is a new experience for me personally being a guide for youngsters. As my previous experience I was handling more adult tourist.
The Ship for South East Asia Youth Program is a youth exchange program that was pioneered by the ASEAN countries and Japan in 1974. As the number of members in ASEAN grew, in 1997 all members in ASEAN have been finally participating in this program. This program is handled by the participating countries with Japan as the main sponsor.
In Indonesia, this program is conducted under the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Generally, this program’s main purpose is to strengthen the network and mutual understanding in culture among countries in South East Asia and Japan. In addition, SSEAYP itself is based on the intention to motivate the youth in improving international cooperation through implementation of different activities during the program.
My aunt and my cousin's family was selected as two families among 150 foster parents in Indonesia for this program. There are two foster daughters in my aunt's home. And two foster sons for my cousin's home.
Too bad I was unable to catch up with the hand over ceremony to foster parents family on the first day all those participants arrived in Jakarta. There are Rabi'atul Adawiyah Abdullah and Nami Hasegawa who stayed at my aunt's family. And there are Quy Ho Sy and Shiro who stayed with my cousin's. The first day my family took their foster children to National Monument and Falatehan at Kota Tua.
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| At Sumatera Barat area in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah |
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| At Bali area in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah |
My duty was accompanying my family taking the foster children to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah on the second day. TMII is a theme park that represent the miniature of Indonesian provinces and group of ethnics. We took them to visit the Sumatera Barat and Bali areas in TMII. After the cultural session, we went for shopping in Pasar Tanah Abang, the biggest wholesale market in South East Asia. And then to Thamrin City, the centre of Batik, the traditional fabric of Indonesia.
In the late nite we all went to Cilandak Town Square, and back to National Monument, Monas. Ended up having coffee and celebrating Quy's birthday at Starbuck's Djakarta Theatre.
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| Taking lunch in a foodcourt at Menteng |
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| After lunch |
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| Taking Bajaj from Pasar Tanah Abang to Thamrin City |
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| Kebaya shopping at Pasar Tanah Abang |
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| At Monas, the courtyard of National Monument |
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Celebrating Quy's birthday with a slice of birthday cheesecake
at Starbucks Djakarta Theatre |
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| Nami |
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| Shiro |
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| Rabi |
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| Respresentatives of contingent of Vietnam and Japan |
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| Mailboards of each country participants |
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| At the deck |
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| Performance of Lao's contingent |
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| Good bye from Nami |
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| Foster Parents |
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| Foster Parents |
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| Quy |
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| Shiro, Nami and Rabi |
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| Shiro, Nami and Rabi |
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| Foster Parents' Family |
Even only spending 3 days in a row together with Quy, Shiro, Nami and Rabi, I feel we already had attached with the warm memories we've made. It's hard to say good bye, it's hard to hold our tears from falling. Considered that we don't know when we will meet again. Hopefully through online social media, this relationship as family will grow between each of us and countries.
