You don’t always have to study in class. When I first explored the world of campus, this sentence was the most confusing sentence every time I heard it from several speeches and orations from seniors who invited them to organize and be active in social activities. So far, this sentence continues to answer her meaning as I step forward and try various things. I also got one of the answers when I joined 3R (Peace Volunteer Centre) Aceh.
When I wrote my story, I recently joined as part of the Librarian of Peace Volunteer Centre (3R). With various shortcomings, I tried to give a little good impact on the children in Klieng Cot Aron Library in Kajhu, Aceh Besar, especially the children who lived around the 3R library. It is very sad to see children with a burning enthusiasm for learning not given good facilities by a country whose country is said to be a land of heaven. Isn’t heaven a place that has a high value of beauty and is safe to live in and a place where all desires are fulfilled? Then why is this inversely proportional. Ahh, I’m confused too.
Library of Klieng Cot Aron is geographically not a remote area, let alone remote area. In my opinion, this area is still very close to the provincial capital of Aceh. The estimated distance is approximately 10 km from the center of the capital. This fact is very incompatible with the fact that the children there who actually love knowledge and knowledge because their curiosity is still quite high. However, I hate studying and reading books because I am not used to it. The first time I came to this library, not many children dared to answer loudly when asked simple things such as names, nicknames, and so on. I wondered if they were embarrassed or not. Several times the meeting passed, I can conclude that they actually still do not believe when speaking even when I asked to read it did not dare to speak out loud. After a month had passed, the children had the courage to convey that they were afraid to say wrong, afraid to explain wrongly, and afraid to make mistakes when asking questions. In my opinion, maybe this happened because they have been belittled for their questions, have been reprimanded for their mistakes in the wrong way, and maybe many other things. My current attempt is to convince them that no matter how simple their question is, it’s still a good one, and to familiarize them with an upbeat voice when they want to tell a story or express their opinion.
A few weeks ago, I invited children to draw and color flags from several countries. We drew the flags of Indonesia, Malaysia, Palestine, America and several others. They were very enthusiastic when they saw how beautiful the countries they were drawing and colored their flags through the pictures I showed on the smartphone screen whose pictures I took from the internet. In my heart I pray and hope that one day I and them can explore this earth of Allah to seek His knowledge and spread goodness as widely as possible. At the end of our meeting that day, I also said that if you want to visit these beautiful countries, we must slowly learn English. Actually I just said about this English, I don’t mean to order them to learn the language. It turned out that at the next meeting, Arif, one of the children who came to the library the most and caught every discussion the fastest, asked me, “Sis, when will we learn the language?” I was confused. “Hehe, in English, sis,” he continued. I laughed and was happy with the spirit. That day we immediately started learning simple pronunciation practices in English little by little. Please pray that one day we will be able to communicate fluently in English.