The Lost Treasure

This is my story, and my friends, which contains of so many interesting and valuable things for you all to learn. So, you who have spent your time to read this are the lucky one.

Let me begin with a question. What is the first thing comes to your mind when we talk about "TREASURE"? Could it be diamonds? Or it is gold? Pearls? If those are the things come to your mind, then I should tell you to think more, out of the box.

I will tell you something that you might never realize. Pirates are always looking for the lost treasure. They face the storm, strong wave and so on, and when they get the treasure, they felt the joy, the happiness. They are so proud with their struggle. I and my friends, in a group, have also ever felt that kind of happiness. Can you imagined what is it feels like? We found the treasure, we feel the happiness. We are also proud of our persistence. But the things that we found was not diamonds, gold, pearls, or any material things else. Now let me start the story.

It was on Saturday, July 31, 2010. Around 300 youths gathered in Penjaringan, North Jakarta. It was not for concert, not for demonstration also, and totally it was so hot. We go there, with our pure heart, for having service project, big service project.

Penjaringan, North Jakarta, is not a luxurious area. There are a lot of lower class people. Youths from different age, different nationality, different religion, and so many diversities else came and cooperate to do our mission, "SERVICE FOR OTHERS". We were all divided into 25 groups. It consisted of 4 groups for painting, 2 groups for children interaction, 16 groups for general cleaning, 2 groups for surrounding cleaning and 1 group for cooking. I was in group 9 and we were the general cleaning team. What an experience, I was the leader of the group. We were group 9 and consist of nine superior people. They were Yogi and Dian from Bung Karno University, my two friends from State Islamic University Jakarta, Umi and Erna, Windy from Christian University of Indonesia, Mike Ge Yixuan and Nishaa Bhojwani from Singapore International School, Anuraag Sreenivasan from Gandhi Memoriam International School, and of course me.

You can see, there was a lot of diversity here, but we came with one same purpose, one vision. We met each others, got closer then worked together, cooperated. You know what? That was so amazing! Every people is unique, makes us feel very pleased.

Around ten, we started the project. Nadya, a person from Global Peace Festival Foundation led us to our section, Gang V. When we arrived, we saw that the surrounding was messy enough. Then we do what we can do. Sweeping, putting the garbage away, and the most challenging thing was cleaning up the drain. Honestly, the drain was really dirty, the color is black, the smell is horrible and the water is clogged because of the garbage. Truly, that was kind of FEAR FACTOR session.

I commanded the boys to clean up the drain. Yogi, Mike, and Anuraag cooperated to do this "scary-but-challenging job". But they did it as well. They made it, the water is now flowing.

Some funny things also happened. The kids there tried to get closer. They loved to take some pictures, especially with Mike and Anuraag, because they are the handsome one. We had also chit-chat with local people. We got sweaty, we felt so thirsty, but we just ignore it. It is because we saw the smile of the kids, we saw the local people paid us their attention. That was the "REAL TREASURE", the lost treasure we finally found.

Since my group’s section has already been cleaned up, we then help the other group, the painting group, to paint the kindergarten. Maybe it was simple, but can you imagine that the next day when the kids enter the class, they will feel so happy to find their class became colorful again. The sun getting sting, but we kept spirit until finally the cooking group was done with their job. The lunch time came and we gathered again together with the other groups.

We gathered at the main section, talked about what we have done, and then shared it to others. After that, for keeping our spirit, we did the "xi sua sua" dance. Jim Lee, a person from Global Peace Festival Foundation, led us to do the dance.

We also met the ambassador of Malaysian Global Peace Foundation, dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Sukhor who is an astronaut, and the ambassador of Indonesian Global Peace Foundation, Mike Mohede from Indonesian Idol.

So, I suggest you to stop to feel that you have to do a big thing to make a big change in the world. That is a big mistake to think that way. We can start from the smallest one, the simplest thing to create a big change. Maybe you will say "What can I do, then?" It is easy. Just take a good look at your surrounding, there must be something you can repair. There must be someone you can help, or at least you can hear their stories. Who knows it will be your start line to create a big change to the world.

So, gain your awareness, find your treasure, and feel the joy!