How I Spent 2019 Holiday

Holidays are meant to be enjoyed. Those are the days that students look forward every six months of perpetual studying sessions. I personally look forward to these days, too. At the end of the year, I usually spend it with my friends and family. We came from Bandung, so basically there is nowhere we can go for a hometown visit.

The end of 2019 is different, though. A lot of things changed so much this year. Well, the major milestone that I hit this year is altering my identity from a Middle School student to a Senior High School student, which is pretty great remembering I got into a school that I've always dreamed about. In Senior High School, I tried various interests that I've never tried before. One of the highlights is joining an organization called Jamadagni.

PPA Jamadagni is an organization that center in nature exploration. Ranging from mountaineering to rafting. Signing myself up was hesitating. First, I've never actually explored the wilds in my entire life. How come this freshman want to dive her feet into strange and extreme territory of her life? Second, my mental might not be capable of completing Pendidikan Dasar (Pendas). Pendas is notorious for its cruelty. The members of this organization would do anything to shape the students become a better person in order to join the organization.

Pendas is held every year and it is the obligation that needs to be completed if you want to be a member of this organization. In 2019, Pendas was held from December 26, 2019 to January 2, 2020. This journey is not a short time. I always remind myself before Pendas came that I chose this path and this what I want and what it seems that I love. It had been 3 months since our first physical training. Those hardcore training and exercises are not to be missed. It would be funny if I gave up in Pendas after all I did in those few months.

When the day had come, all the fears haunted me and all the stories I heard daunted me. People say Pendas might me one of the hardest moment in your life. You're put into the worst case scenario when exploring the wilds for 8 days. On the first day, we gathered in SMAN 3 Bandung and did the opening ceremony of Pendas. After that, we started our journey from Bandung to Ciater. Hours were spent that day. Common peeps are stuck in the traffic jam because they're going to the recreational area that is located in Lembang. Watching them made me wonder how soothing it is for that time to take the time off and enjoy the actual vacation. Sadly, the thought came to me when I was on my way to Pendas.

As soon as we arrived in Ciater, we got off the truck and started the long march. Long march is an activity in which you're perpetually singing and walking in long distance. We did the long march from Ciater to Panaruban, Subang. We started at roughly 11 A.M. or so. At 1 P.M., we got to eat our lunch and did a prayer and we continued the journey. We arrived in our first sheltering area at about 4 P.M. The shelter that we stayed in for this day and the following three days was bivouac made by raincoat. We built the shelter for about 2 hours in total. After that, we did the night routine which is a series of activities from dinner, night ceremony, evaluation, and sleep.

The second day was started by the morning routine. Every morning, we change our clothes, do morning exercises, and cook breakfast. This day we started the series of theory that had already been taught before Pendas. The first theory was practices on the second day which was Open Navigation. We were divided into groups. Each group was given a map. The instruction was to identify the environment and do the resection to obtain the point where we were at the map. After that we were given a coordinate that we need to draw the plotting line to the destination. At the end of the day, we arrived at the destination that apparently our sheltering area. This sheltering area was different that the previous day. On the first day, we were divided into four groups so each bivouac was fitted for 3 to 4 people. However on the second day, each bivouac was only for 2 people. The shelter was also getting smaller due to the amount of raincoat available were not as many as the previous day. After that, we did the night routine and rest.

On the third day, we did the basically the same thing as the second day, except we did the Close Navigation. The practice of the theory was getting harder as the day went on. On that day, we were divided into groups that consisted of three people and we did a simulation of "Kunci Kompas" which is basically going to a direction straightly to reach the destination on the map. We did the Close Navigation until about 4 P.M. and we did the regular night routine and sleep.

On the fourth day, we practiced SAR & PPGD. In SAR practice, we did something similar with "Kunci Kompas" but SAR was more serious because we tried to save a life that known to be missed somewhere in forest. After that, we practiced PPGD. From my personal experience, PPGD is one of the most difficult part of Pendas. Because not only you were tested knowledge-wise, you were also tested physically. The nightmare was when we evacuated the victim. Evacuating the victim was not that easy. In the long distance, you need to focus while all of the muscles in your body burned out. After we did the rough evacuation of PPDG, we got to rest and prepare for the next day.

The fifth day was special. This day is the beginning of our survival. A survival condition is a situation in which we don't have any food left. What we did that day was hunting for food. We took down many banana trees and fern trees. For carbohydrate, we ate fern's stem. We could also eat the inside of Banana's trees. There are also a lot of various kinds of plants that I've never known that they could be eaten. After some of the foods were gathered, we ate them. The taste were not that bad. But, the worst thing was worm. I didn't like to see it or even eat it. But, I gotta eat it for the sake of my personal nutrition. For this day's sheltering was also not the same as the previous days. On the fifth day, we built the natural bivouac, which was made of sticks, tendrils, banana's leafs, and fern's leafs. Each bivouac could be filled by 3 people. We rested there calmly to restore our energy.

The sixth day was the day that I became the leader of out batch. I think it was the most challenging day for me personally. You need to be able to both focus on your work and coordinate your surroundings. On that day, we learned and practiced about trap. It was said that the traps that we made would be useful for us nutritious needs. However, we didn’t get anything from them. Someone said we got a lizard, though it was hard to be produced. The trap-making activity was done until 4 P.M. After that we did everything the same way as the day before. That day, we also made natural bivouac but it was only for a person.

The seventh and eighth day were kinda bundled. We spent these two days for long march. We started at 10 A.M. and finished at 4 A.M the next day. The last day was super hard for us. Long short story, we crawled through the mud and got ourselves dipped into it. But happily, after that we were surprised that the ceremony had already been assembled. We bacame a part of Jamadagni that day and I wouldn’t forget the most exhilarating eight days of my life.