Sunday, March 30, 2014

Global Youth Activation Summit 2013

Stories from GYAS 2013
Jan 27-Feb 6 2013


27th of January, 2013
We arrived safely at Incheon Int’l Airport in 7am. After immigration checked and baggage claim. We got a little bit confused about where should we go and where was the other GYAS team. Then, we were looking for one of GOC that facilitated GYAS, and then we met Jayoo and we go to the GYAS meeting point. At the meeting point, we met the other team from Macau, Argentina, Venezuela, and Paraguay. Then, we took a bus to Kensington Flora in 11am. It took 3.5 hours, and we were very tired. So, We slept on the bus.

Then, we arrived at Kensington Flora in 2.30pm. We met Ron and the GYAS Facilitator. After we got the goodie bag and the jacket, we went to the store and ate some meals for lunch. We were very tired after 6,5 hours flight and 3,5 hours buses, so after we went to our room, and then, we slept there. We didn’t remember that we had to come to informal dinner in 6pm. We woke up at 6pm and we rushed to come to Informal Dinner. We were late for Informal Dinner. That’s how tired were we.

            28th of January, 2013
In the next day, we woke up earlier to prevent come late again. In the Odaesan Hall, we met Bahamas Team and Philippines Team. We sat together with those team. In the first session, we had to show the stereotypes from each countries or region. We prepared for our culture and tradition. After we looked the other team, they showed one of their culture in a skit. I think Indonesia had to show a skit too. I asked Kemal and Ono to did one of our culture in Idul Fitri named “Sungkem”. All team showed their culture, and all of the culture was awesome. The meaning of that activity is by the different location and different culture, we went in the same place and looked that difference by the similar side. Because by our difference, we had one mission, to change the world.

In the second session, we drawed the meaning of inclusive and what Special Olympics mean to you. We did it well. Kemal drawed the meaning of Inclusive for himself in Indonesian. Unfortunately, we didn’t take any picture of that. After that, we made something like mailbox. It’s for send e-mail to someone in GYAS. And we wrote down our expectations for next 10 days.

After lunch, we practiced our Gangnam Style Dance for Global Youth Rally. For your info, Kemal loved Gangnam Style very much. Kemal and I were very excited for that. The practice was interesting, we practice Gangnam Style and we did some Friendly activities that we had to go anywhere and when we met somebody we had to say hello and say your name. Sometimes, said hello and clap, said hello and hug,. That was awesome. All participant were very happy, but the Chaperone didn’t happy because they had a Chaperone Meeting. After that, we went to the outside and of course we played snow. For other team, playes with snow is normal, but for us, that’s amazing beacuse that was the first time for us to see the snow. Awesome.....

We went to our room and took some rests, after that we had a dinner with special guests, such as Mrs. Park VP UNICEF Korea and SOI Board Member Ray Lane and Stephanie Lane. Their speeches was awesome, very motivated. Love it.....

            29th of January, 2013
In this day, we got Session 3, 4, 5 and 6. In Sessions 3 and 4, the facilitators and co-leaders showed the presentation about Social Network and how to share about Special Olympics on the Social Network. In session 5, we answered some questions, such as what was going well, how to make it better, but we answered it from one table to the other table, different table could be different friends. That’s cool.

After that, in Session 6 we had a special guest, that was Mrs. Park and Mr. Wilfried Lemke. I remember his saying "When someone is excluded, take them into the group" and "When someone is suffering, or having a problem, say 'I want to help you -- Partnership "

After that, we went to Alpensia Concert Hall and watched Opening Ceremony whoaaaa..... That was amazing.

            30th of January, 2013
In this day, we weren’t GYS Participant. We were Special Olympics Reporter. That’s cool, wasn’t it? We interviewed 2 athletes from Speed Skating. They were Stephanie Cook from Canada and Dominique from Netherland. They said that they were very proud because they can took part in 2013 World Winter Games. They also were very happy beacause they could see the amazing opening ceremony lively. They were very happy.

At the night, we had fun together. Cultural Sharing... whoaaa.... That’s awesome..... We showed one of our traditional dance named Poco-Poco. You can see that in the video GYAS Cultural Sharing. Love It...   

            31st of January, 2013
In this day, we had the session that we discussed about what does Project UNIFY and Social Inclusion look like? We had a discussion with Romania Team and Bahamas Team. We shared our experience about Project UNIFY in each country. After that, the facilitator gave us a blank chart with 3 categories, such as Social Inclusion, Physical Inclusion and Exclusion. With 20 options, we chose which category it belonged to. That’s exciting, because we did something, we would get boring if we just hear and didn’t do anything.

After that, we went to Alpensia and we went to Festival Village and saw the alpine skiing, then we played the snow, throwed snowball to other person. That’s cool. And then, we went to Music Tent for preparation of Global Youth Rally. Global Youth Rally was absolutely awesome. Kemal, Stanley and I were at the front of the stage when the Korean Band were singing. We just jumped together and had fun together even we didn’t know what was the song and what was the meaning. Over all, Global Youth Rally was very amazing.

            1st of February, 2013
At Session 9, we did The Wagon Wheel Protocol. That was where chairs are lined up in a circle facing outward. Another line of chairs face those preexisting chairs, so that, each chair has another across from it.When a question posed, the pair does quick introductions and discussed the question. When switch, people in one row, would move to either left or right and sitting with a new person. We discussed the question and sharing what one learned from the previous person. That’s exciting, wasn’t it?

After that, we had a webinar.... Even we got the connections problem between us, we still can shared our experiences at Korea with my schoolmates in Jakarta. That’s pretty good.

 In the schedule, we should go to Alpensia. But, I don’t know why we just stayed in Kensington and saw the drama from Oregon, California, Romania, and Italy. The drama is funny and very entertained us. Then, we discuss about Co-Chairs Nominations from each regions. We didn’t make any decision yet. Then, we saw the video from team that went to Young Athletes Program. In the night, we had a talent show that all participant had fun and happy there. We danced together, sang together, whoow that’s awesome....

            2nd of February, 2013
At this day, we had travel to Gangneung Community. First, we went to “Charmsory Gramophone Museum”. Kemal took a lot of pictures there. We were very excited about Gramophone Museum and also we went to Edison Science Museum. That’s interesting...

After that, we had lunch at Traditional Korean Restaurant.... I miss Bulgogi..... Then, we went to the Traditional Cultural Korean House. The house was very unique, because man and woman live separately. Then, we went to the market and Ono bought Taekwondo uniform for his son. We also tried some Korean market foods....

In the night, we went to the waterpark. Before we went swim, we had dinner there. Unfortunately, they just had pork menu for dinner. After discussed with another Moslem team, we decided to just ate French Fries..... Then, we went swim. The waterpark is indoor and the water is warm.... In the first, Kemal afraid to tried the river. After I encouraged him, finally he tried the river two rounds.... Kemal also tried the wave pool. While Kemal enjoyed the wavepool, I tried the slide and I met Tim Shriver... They just have three slides opened in Winter. I have tried all. That’s pretty awesome...

            3rd of February, 2013
We went to Gangneung and we saw Floor Hockey, after we saw our friend that played in Unified Floor Hockey. After we saw Unified Floor Hockey, we went to Healthy Athlete Screening. Kemal got his new eyeglasses. I got new sunglasses and skipper. And also we met the Indonesian Athlete in Healthy Athlete Screening. Lilyanto very happy because in the previous day he got a gold medal from Snowshoeing. He called me and he said that he got gold and I congratulated him and the other athlete. They all were very happy.

In the night, we had dinner and Gift Exchange with Native Attire. Ono worn beskap the traditional clothes from Java, Kemal worn the traditional clothes from Padang, West Sumatra, and I worn the traditional clothes from Bali, also with rice on my forehead. South Africa team just worn short. Kenya team worn their traditional clothes that doesn’t suitable for winter. Serbia team worn their unique clothes, with also unique socks and shoes. All teams worn their traditional and unique clothes. That’s cool. After that, we show Ron video for him, because that GYAS was the last for Ron. So, we gave him the video of “Thank You Ron” from our native languages... That’s amazing...

            4th of February, 2013
At this day, we had 4 sessions and we took the leadership at 2 sessions. First, we had the presentation for Sessions 11 about EKS Day. And in Sessions 14, we presented about partnership between Mattel and SOIna.

In the night, we went to Bowling Center and we had fun there. Kemal also played game there. We all had fun there....

            5th of February, 2013
This is the last day we had time in Korea for GYAS. First, we elected the new Co-Chairs that come from Asia-Pacific, that’s Philippines. We congratulated them, and Raine make a video to congratulated the new Co-Chairs. After the election, we had a Trade Fair. We create our plan and wrote it down on the paper. We were the second group, the first group sell their idea, and the second group ask them some questions. After 20 minutes, switched and we sell our idea.. We had a lot of fun there.

After that, we did some evaluation for last 10 days GYAS. And we discussed how is it going well, and how was our expectations. Then, we went to Closing Ceremony and had a lot of fun there. We saw an incredible moment there. That was absolutely amazing.

            6th of February, 2013
We were going to go home at this day. We had to take the bus at 6 am. So, we woke up earlier at the morning. We were at the airport at 10 am, even our flight was in 3 pm. We used our time in airport to bought souvenirs in airport duty free. Finally, we arrived at Soekarno Hatta Int’l Airport, and met Mrs. Pudji who wait for us.

After that absolutely wonderful things we did there. We have learnt a lot of things, we knew that we went there to make a dignity revolution, we have learnt, that we as youth have more time to make the revolution, we as leader have to make things happen. We are the youth leader....We learnt that the difference barriers between us is not a barriers actually. That is a bridge for us to make the similarity.
After we did a lot of amazing thing in 12 days, After we made the friendship between the other team, After we learnt so many things there, we conclude that our GYAS in Korea is the most amazing experience ever for us...
Indonesia GYAS Team : Kemal-Farhan-Sri

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