Diving into the Culture

By Amy Park

Waking up early in the morning and meeting with a group of people you don’t usually hang out with at 7:30 a.m. is quite unusual. But there I was, doing the “unusual” every Tuesday and Friday to prepare for the Impact trip, a service/mission trip outside Penang. 

This year, there were three options for the trip: Bandung, Johor Bahru, and Perak. I chose Bandung because flying overseas appealed to me. After weeks of preparation, my team could finally head out to Bandung, Indonesia, on Friday, the 6th of October, for the Impact trip. Despite waking up at 4 a.m. because of the early flight, everyone seemed excited about the upcoming service projects and activities we had planned for weeks.

However, two hours of flying and four hours of bus ride with cockroaches everywhere were enough to exhaust our tensions. 

Thankfully, though, we only had one activity on the first day, the prayer walk. During this time, we had the opportunity to walk around the neighborhood and literally pray while walking. The atmosphere was highly different from the Penang streets; the streets were very narrow and congested with motorbikes and houses (I couldn’t see any apartments or condos). Although it was only for a short time, walking around the neighborhood helped me understand the background of the people I would be meeting.  

From the second day on, we had several activities each day. We had something as simple and fun as talking with the English study group (NGOBAR), a talent show, archery, and watching cultural shows. But we also had intense activities like farming, playing futsal under the sun for four hours, going to the after school daycare, and so much more. My highlight out of all these events was talking with the people in NGOBAR. Talking with the NGOBAR people helped me to understand Indonesian culture and embrace them better. On top of that, people there were mostly around my age or a bit older so it was really interesting that we had similar interests, stuff related to college. Talking with the strangers from different culture, background, age, and religion was so much more meaningful than I thought, and interestingly, I was impacted and motivated through them. 

As Julia Jang (12), one of the seniors who also went to Bandung said, “Being different doesn’t mean you are wrong.” The Impact trip was a valuable lesson for each individual where it helped us to dive deeper into people’s culture and learn how to coexist within the different cultures. 

And as Jason Cho (12), another senior, who went to Johor Bahru said, “It was a significant and fun trip, and through this, I think all of our members got to see different cultures and backgrounds of the refugees and how blessed we are.” 

It was also an awakening experience for people to realize how privileged we are, and how we should find gratitude from the smallest things.