Independence Day in Perth

Monday, August 17 2009, we went to the Indonesian Consulate for the Indepence Day of Indonesia. We joined the Flag Raising Ceremony in the consulate. Many of Indonesian people that live in Perth joined the ceremony too. We can see a lot of students from many school in Perth that studied Indonesia. The teacher told us to talk with the students to practice their Indonesian language. In the consulate we saw a lot of culture performance from Indonesia and we sing "Laskar Pelangi" too there. Actually there are no different between ceremony in consulate in Perth with ceremony in Indonesia but, I want to give short comment about the ceremony.

First, I thought that in the ceremony there are no flagforce team so, just like a party. In fact there was a flagforce team in the consulate but, Sevian and Robi commented them because, Sevian and Robi usually can do the better movement than the flagforce team in the consulate. Secondly, I taught that the consulate will give us lunch meal but, they just gave us snack we must bring our own lunch meal. That was weird for Indonesian people because usually the host prepare the lunch but, in western culture usually each guest bring their own food. We must adapted with the environment here but, I like the ceremony at all.

Hopefully, through program or activity like this we can make a good connection between Indonesia and Australia , like our program objective that we must promote Surabaya and make a good connection between Surabaya and Perth.

Why not Surabaya ??

Why not Surabaya ??

The delagation had an excursion to the Indonesian Consulate with the students who learn Indonesian at Melville High School. We were very interested when we saw a video about Indonesian culture. There was a lot of culture shown on the video, but the Surabayan delegation felt disapointed because there was no part of the video about Surabaya. That was alright, because we were very satisfied when we played the gamelan and angklung. It was amazing to play the traditional music from Java with the students from Melville SHS .

We also had a good experience when we interviewed one of the students who learn Indonesian. We asked, " What do you know about Indonesia? and What Indonesian words can you say?". Then, he answered," I know that Indonesia has a lot of culture and it's very popular with its history. Now, I just can say Selamat pagi, Selamat siang, Selamat malam, Terima kasih and nama saya Zac." All of Indonesian people must be proud because Australian people know the history of Indonesia.Then, we asked him again," Why do you want to learn Indonesian?",He answered ," Because, it's a challenge for me to learn a cool country's language and it will help me when I grow up, because I want to stay in Indonesia someday." That was a cool and weird answer for us because actually most Indonesian people want to live in a better country than Indonesia. On the other hand, all of us felt very satisfied on this trip. We saw positive sides of Indonesia in this excursion to the consulate.