By Made Suarjana, EBPP education team coordinator
On 17th of August at 7am, all students excitedly gathered at our Daya centre. After a physical warm-up session and breakfast of bread and fruit, we held the Flag Raising Ceremony at 8am sharp, followed by brief motivational speeches by EBPP Founder, Chairman/Team Leader, and Education Team Coordinator
Our celebrations started with fun competitions between students from our six schools, comprising: Sarong Relay, Dancing & Drawing, Rice VS Mung Beans, English Club Games, 4-legged race (hilarious with 3 students…) and Rice Relay, loudly cheered on by the audience.
Next came the art and creativity performances, starting with the “Sekar Jagat” welcome dance, accompaniment by Balinese gamelan music followed by the highly entertaining drama “Aladin and the lamp,” performed by students from our six schools. Our Pengalusan students then entertained us with a brilliant Balinese language comedy, entitled “Share Loc Luh” which raises the issue of school dropouts and underage marriage.
Educational dramas followed, starting with Manikaji students’ Collaboration ‘Genjek’ Agriculture drama about dry land farming without using chemical fertilizers; followed by the Kecak Drama entitled “Forest Preservation” which depicts the king’s efforts to protect the forest from hunters.
After a lunch break, a Balinese “Merak Angelo Dance” performance and musical performances from six EBPP schools, the formal event ended with announcing the competition winners: Cegi School won first place, Bunga school took second place, and Darmaji school came third.
The closing event was ‘Panjat Pinang’ - Climbing the Greasy Bamboo Pole - which has various attractive prizes at the top: an amazing fun activity with EBPP students and the local community striving to reach the top first, followed by joint event area cleaning activities.
Our Indonesia’s 78th was livelier than last year and I hope that we’ll continue to enjoy the coming years’ celebrations with the same spirit. •
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