Author: Andri
Baling Karang is the second deployment for Guru Impian. Baling Karang is a village located at the end of Aceh Tamiang which borders East Aceh. Baling Karang can be reached for approximately 2 hours drive from the city center of Aceh Tamiang, namely Kuala Simpang. in this placement, the volunteers had to work extra because they did not only focus on the process of facilitating the classes, but also on the preparation of the Exhibition.
The Art Exhibition, which will be held on February 27, 2021, is an event that shows the work of the Baling Karang’s student’s from the learning process at the Dream Village Library. This event has often been carried out by the volunteers of Rumah Relawan Remaja. The purpose of this exhibition is to raise the enthusiasm of the students in learning and crafting. By seeing their work in the exhibition, they will have a sense of pride in what they have created.
The works on the display include pictures, lettering, poetry, pictures and so on. In addition, there are also several handicrafts and performances of traditional arts such as Bines and Likok Pulo dances as well as rhymes, poetry and creative dances.
Various preparations have been made by the volunteers since their arrival in this village. Little by little, so they would feel that the work does not pile up. In addition, crafting work by using materials from nature such as coconut leaves as equipment for the exhibition. Other exhibition ingredient such as used wood, bamboo remnants, sand and other natural materials shows that the exhibition can be arranged with an environmentally friendly concept.
For the performance, I got a role to train the children from the Basic Reading Class to sing a song called “Guruku Tersayang” and two children from the Writing Class to perform a poem entitled “Father and Mother”. There were concerns in the early stages of preparation, but because at the end of the last week of the placement, we only focused on preparing for the exhibition, so I was able to focus more on preparing them. we exercise from 5 to 6 times in each day. There are those who complain of being tired, there are also some typical childish behavior that really tests my patience.
The day before the exhibition, we held the rehearsal so so that during the exhibition, they would know what to do. There was a slight problem with reading poetry at that time because someone changed the text of the poem without my knowledge. Although in the end after being asked, she wanted to change back the poem to be displayed.
Exhibition Day
On the peak day of the exhibition, everything seemed ready. everyone take their part. The exhibiton can be observed since the afternoon.
After finishing the Isha prayer, I walked to the venue and found many local people arriving. It is a picture of the enthusiasm of the community to see the exhibition of their children’s works and performances
After being invited by 2 MCs who are also the local kids who are actively participating in learning at the Dream Village Library, performances are presented one by one. The people who watched seemed to really enjoy it with loud applauses, shouts of encouragement until there were tears of emotion when the children perform the poetry. I also saw that the performers, including the children I coached, were very satisfied because their performances were better than when they were preparing.
The last performances are still being watched, namely videos of volunteer activities in the library which last more than 20 minutes, and the Bines dance which perform by the mothers of Baling Karang. After that, they ended with a group photo and the people went home one by one. When the exhibition was over, I felt so satisfied. It paid off. I am very grateful to the people of Baling Karang for giving such a warm experience and it is hard to forget.