Always The Real Thing: Coca-Cola Supports the Rainbow Reading Gardens!

Coca-Cola is now running a campaign, titled "Happiness Goes Around". This campaign relates to the "Expedition 206", in which three bloggers (Tono, Kelly and Tony) will travel to 206 countries in the world in 365 days! The good news is... they will also visit Indonesia on May 4th, 2010!

Coca-Cola wants their visit to Indonesia to be meaningful and help spread happiness to others.


And, for Indonesia, the campaign "Happiness Goes Around" will be dedicated to our Rainbow Reading Gardens (Taman Bacaan Pelangi)! Yayyy!! How does it work? Coca-Cola asks everyone to share their happiness others by:

1) Submitting your happy faces pictures (you can submit more than one picture) through Facebook on their facebook wall here
2) Or submit the pictures through twitter and add hashtag #jktx206 or through Tumblr at
http://jktx206.tumblr.com/submit

For 206 pictures that Coca-Cola received, they will donate 100 books for Rainbow Reading Gardens (Taman Bacaan Pelangi) in Flores. Yiippeeeee!!!

So, let's contribute to this campaign and help us bring more books for children in Flores!
Deadline for submission is Monday, May 3rd, 2010.

As "Buka Semangat Baru" wrote on their facebook page: by contributing to this campaign and share your happy faces, your happiness will also be happiness of the kids in Flores! Your smile will be theirs soon! Yayyy!!!

Rainbow Reading Gardens (Taman Bacaan Pelangi) thanked Coca-Cola and everyone who has participated and will participate on this campaign for the support and good will to help our little brothers and sisters who live in remote areas in Flores, Indonesia. Big thanks and let's spread our happiness around!

Rainbow Reading Gardens is on TV!

The Autralia Network (or known as the ABC News) runs a story on Rainbow Reading Gardens (Taman Bacaan Pelangi) and the news airs today ;).

Kerri Ritchie, the journalist who works for the media, interviewed me on April 23rd, 2010 at Pasar Festival. We decided to meet there at a book fair, a perfect set for running a news about books and education.

I also gave her some video footage and photos that I took of Rainbow Reading Gardens in Flores, Indonesia. Apparently, she used some of them! Omigod... the kids would be so happy if they saw their happy faces on TV! I also got a lot of responses from my friends around the globe, such as in Singapore, Australia, also Indonesia, who happened to be in front of TV and watched the Australia Network channel when the story was on. They said they felt touched to see the kids' faces and thought that this Rainbow Reading Gardens project was a great idea.

Curious to see the news? Click here or check out the news at http://australianetworknews.com/stories/201004/2882687.htm :)

Rainbow Reading Gardens Now Open in Rinca Village and Papagarang Village, Flores (Part 2)

- The Opening of Rainbow Reading Gardens in Papagarang Village (Papagarang Island - Komodo National Park) -

We continued our journey from Rinca Island to Papagarang Island, both located in Komodo National Park, Indonesia. It took us around 45 minutes to 1 hour on a slow boat. It was an enjoyable journey because the wind breeze made the temperature cooler a bit and the beautiful scenery of the National Park all around have successfully spoiled our eyes :).

Papagarang Island looked very dry compared to Rinca Island. The village itself (Papagarang Village) has a big problem in getting fresh water. The people have to buy water from Labuan Bajo every day. Even for taking a shower, they usually just dip themselves in the sea! Some of them rinse themselves with fresh water afterwards, but most of them don't. Life is a bit tough when you don't have access to clean water, isn't it?

Same as the location in Komodo Village and Rinca Village, Rainbow Reading Gardens (Taman Bacaan Pelangi)'s location in Papagarang Village is also located under a local's traditional wooden house. Bapak Is has voluntarily giving a space under his house for Rainbow Reading Garden. Bapak Is is a member of a community group called "Pencinta Lingkungan Hidup" (PLH), in which, the group has agreed to manage the reading garden considering that I don't live on the island myself. Again, this reading garden has to be sustainable, thus, we have to engage with the local communities in managing the books and the system.

As soon as we stepped our feet in the village, the kids came to us with curiosity, especially seeing us carrying big and heavy boxes.

"Apa itu isinya?" ("What's in there?"), asked a young boy, bravely.
I replied, "Buku cerita" ("Story books")
He screamed happilly, "Hurraaaayyy!!!", then ran right away announcing the good news to his friends.

Soon after, we're already surrounded by many many kids! They followed us all the way to the location of the reading garden :). Soooo nice!!! Most of them walked barefooted, made me wonder whether they felt the heat on their small feet or not. Or maybe they got so used to it, so they didn't feel it anymore.

We also invited the school's headmaster to join the fun. He gave a speech which basically told the kids to take a good care of the books. And my "speech" was more of telling them the good news that now they have a small library where they can read good story children books and hope that they would enjoy the books :). Also a short message on the excitement of reading and how important it is.

After telling them the good news, now the fun part. Giving out prizes to whoever brave enough to perform songs, poems, dances, etc. And oh my God, you wouldn't believe how excited they were!!! All of them were so enthusiastic wanting to sing and deliver poems! Brave kids, they are!
The girls were a bit shy, but some of them really enjoyed singing and performing in public. Perhaps they would be a bunch of rock stars in the future! ;)

It was very nice to be among such brave and energetic kids. They also got excited over small presents that they got after performing. I wished I had presents for everyone! Ah well... maybe next time!

The kids couldn't wait to read the books and when we left, they kept asking, "Can we read the books now? Can we? Please.. please.." Oh.. such a sweetheart!

Rainbow Reading Gardens (Taman Bacaan Pelangi) would like to thank everyone for all the supports and contribution given to this good cause. Without you, Rainbow Reading Gardens would not grow this fast. We now have six reading gardens in six different villages in West Flores, Indonesia! Three of them are located in the mountains area and the other three are located in the sea (islands of Komodo National Park). Thank you, lovely people!!!

Let's greet the kids in Flores with good story books and make them smile and smart!

Rainbow Reading Gardens Now Open in Rinca Village and Papagarang Village, Flores (Part 1)

- The Opening of Rainbow Reading Gardens in Rinca Village (Rinca Island - Komodo National Park) -

After opening 4 reading gardens in 4 different villages (Roe, Melo, Nampar Macing and Komodo) in West Manggarai, West Flores, we decided to open more reading gardens in other remote areas of West Flores, Indonesia.

This time, we decided to open reading gardens in Rinca Village (on Rinca Island) and Papagarang Village (on Papagarang Island). Both of these villages are located in Komodo National Park.

So, now, all the kids who live in the villages in Komodo National Park (Komodo Village, Rinca Village and Papagarang Village) can enjoy reading good children story books at Rainbow Reading Gardens (Taman Bacaan Pelangi). Yipppeeee!!!

Today, me, Katherine Demopolous - my friend who works as a journalist in Jakarta, Junaidi - my best friend in Flores, William, Wawan - an English teacher who volunteering in another area of Flores, and a group of band members (Hendry, Berto, Oday) went on a small boat to go to Rinca and Papagarang Islands. We're on a mission: opening 2 reading gardens on these islands!
We filled the boat with big boxes of books for kids who live on these islands. We're all so excited!

Our first destination was to Rinca Village on Rinca Island. Do you know that you can see the famous komodo dragons on Rinca Island? There's a tourism concession area called "Loh Buaya", in which, tourists can go for trekking to see the komodo dragons, accompanied by a ranger/naturalist guide. Rinca Village itself is located not far from the tourism concession area and as you may guess, sometimes, the komodo dragons also go to this village for a walk.

When we got to the village, we're greeted by the kids and without knowing, we're already surrounded by tens of them! Some of them said hello, some of them said, "Halo turis!" (hello, tourist!), "Halo Miss!", etc. I replied, "Halooo juga... tapi saya bukan turis" (hello to you, too... but I'm not a tourist) :D

We walked to the location of the reading garden. For your info, the locals live in traditional houses made of wood. We call it as "rumah panggung" (stage house), with the below part of the house is used for "bale-bale" (wooden bench) to relax during the hot and steamy day, or for a little snooze. Rainbow Reading Gardens (Taman Bacaan Pelangi) uses this space to put a bookshelf and books in, also for the kids to read the books. We asked a community group called "Kelompok Pencinta Lingkungan Hidup" (KPLH) to manage the reading garden, because it has to be sustainable and the local communities should be involved in managing the books.

The Rainbow Reading Gardens in Rinca Village is located at Bapak Mohamad's house. He lives in a strategic location, right at the heart of the village and far away from the bushes where the komodo dragons often be seen. So, the kids will be save from the risk of getting visitors in the form of giant lizzard while they're enjoying themselves reading books!
Pak Baco, the leader of KPLH, has prepared a beautiful bookshelf in blue color. It looks so cute and neat! As soon as we got into the location, we opened the boxes and put the books into the shelf right away. Done!
The kids who have been waiting unpatiently got even more excited after seeing the books displayed. They tried to grab the books, but was told to be patient and listened to the briefing first. I smiled when seeing the excitement and feeling their happiness :).

We invited the school's principal to the opening. We told him about our objective in opening the reading garden outside school area, trying to make him understand that the children can learn not only in the school, but also outside. And that having a small library outside school area can provide the kids with an alternative place to learn and a more comfortable place to read the books. Hopefully, by providing a comfortable place and good story books, the kids' interest in reading would grow. The school's principal nodded. I only had one wish: hope he understood the whole point, because I found it a bit difficult to introduce a new concept to areas who are still very conservative in terms of education system.

Anyway, it was so great to tell the kids about this good news. They were all looking at the bookshelf with shining eyes. I was so thrilled.

After telling them the good news about "Taman Bacaan Pelangi", we took a group photo together. Then, in the crowd, my friend whispered to me, "Nila... someone wants to talk to you, but he's a bit shy".

Apparently, this guy was a school principal in a small village next to Rinca. It's called Kerora Village.
With shy, he said, "Ibu Nila... I'm just wondering, could you also please open a reading garden in my village?"
Aawwww... how cute!
I asked him, "Sure. Would love to, if that's possible. How many students you have in your school?"
He replied, "Only 45 kids, we only have 1st-3rd grade, then jump to 6th grade".

Wow! How come? Where are the kids at the age of 4th-5th grade? A generation gap or what? Only Heaven knows.

I told him that I'll try to arrange something for his village. The types of the books would be different, considering the kids are mostly on the 1st - 3rd grade. At the same time, I felt flattered and happy, because apparently, people started to think the importance of having libraries and providing reading books in their village. Good!

The sun was getting high and it was time to go. We said goodbye to everyone and they greeted our hands one by one. So cute! We walked back to the jetty to continue our trip to the other island. Half way, we noticed, it sounded so quiet. Where are the kids? Then we realized that the kids couldn't be bothered to walk us back to the jetty because they're all already busy flipping through the books! :D

Our boat left Rinca Island when the sun was shining right above us. It was mid day and burning hot. We felt like jumping to the clear water, but had to remind ourselves that we're still on a mission: go to Papagarang Island to open Rainbow Reading Gardens for the kids there!

check out our story in Papagarang Village in the next post :)

Launch Event of Rainbow Reading Gardens for Kids in Flores

Saturday, 13 March 2010
It was a beautiful morning in Melo Village, Flores, Indonesia. Kids had gathered in a nice garden overlooking the hills and the view of Komodo National Park, some guests had arrived on time and mingled with each other, the morning breeze comforted everyone and whispered them to enjoy the happy moment. It was a special day. What's going on?

It was the day when the Rainbow Reading Gardens ("Taman Bacaan Pelangi") was officially launched!

I've been writing about the Rainbow Reading Gardens in my previous posts. So, please read them first to get a better idea of this project. Click here.

I must say, the launch event of the Rainbow Reading Gardens ("Taman Bacaan Pelangi") held in "Panorama", Compang To'e cultural group's center, was a big success! A number of guests, starting from the local governments, head of villages, school headmasters and teachers, local communities and NGOs, and also.. students from the villages.. attended the event.

Students from SDK Roe performed some traditional dances, such as "Tek Tek Alu". They also performed poetries and made my tears dropped at some point :P. Not only that, students from SDK Melo also performed traditional dances and some songs. Omigod.. .they're sooo cute!!! I didn't expect they would perform such things! I felt so touched.

The best was a "Caci" dance performance by SDK Roe. "Caci" is a whip fight between two rivals. Usually, it's performed by a group of adults. So, it was very interesting to see a "Caci" performance carried by kids!!! And they're so good, too! Everyone loved their performance!!!

The Deputy Head of the Parliament said that he supported the presence of "Taman Bacaan Pelangi" in West Manggarai District, Flores. He hoped that "Taman Bacaan Pelangi" could also open in more villages in West Manggarai district, Flores, so that there would be more kids have the access to good books!

Wow. Thank you for such a good support. Everyone who came to the event also expressed their supports to "Taman Bacaan Pelangi". I felt so happy and excited!!!

At the end of the event, we saw another "Caci" performance, but this time was performed by "Compang To'e" cultural group.

Since that day, the "Rainbow Reading Gardens" was officially running in four villages in West Flores, which were at Roe Village, Melo Village, Komodo Village and Nampar Macing Village.

We thanked everyone who has been supporting "Taman Bacaan Pelangi", for all the donations and moral supports given, too. These reading gardens wouldn't establish without your supports. Personally, I thanked everyone from the deepest of my heart.

March 14th

March 14th.

This date has a special meaning for me. This date reminds me of two of my loved ones who were no longer with me, but still close to my heart.

March 14th, 2010.

17 years ago, my Dad passed away. I was almost 17 years old by then. Wish I could be with him longer. Wish he could see me growing up. Wish I could make him happy and take him around the world. Wish we could spend more time to chat about life

March 14th, 2010 is Morgan’s 40th birthday. He could have been 40 if he’s still around today. Wish I could celebrate his birthday together and see him smiling happily. But I’m sure he’s smiling happily… from up there, above the sky… above all the stars and clouds… As he told me once in my dream, he said he really loved it there, in his new place. I could see his face shining vibrantly. “He’s happy”, I said to myself. He said that he loved the surf there. And I’m sure it must be nice to surf in heaven. Surfing the sky… in between the clouds...

March 14th, 2010. I picked up some flowers from the neighborhood where I stayed in Labuan Bajo, Flores, as there’s no florist around. It was actually much nicer this way. I never picked up flowers for someone or any occasion myself as usually there were always some florist shops around. Anyway, it felt really nice to be able to pick some flowers in the garden. Especially when we knew that those flowers were for our loved ones :)

After having enough colorful flowers in my bag, I walked down to the beach to scatter them. It was sunset. The sky was pretty. And there I was… praying for my Dad and sending a birthday prayer for Morgan. I prayed for them a peaceful life in heaven. I prayed to God that He would take care of them and let them have a good time in his Kingdom. I prayed for their happiness in heaven… and said that I missed them so much.

March 14th, 2010. I was having brunch at my terrace overlooking the sea when there were two white butterflies flying circling my body. It reminded me of what my Mom said when we cremated my Dad. There was a white butterfly flying around her when she was praying at the crematorium. The white butterfly flying & circling her body until it laid on her hand. When she finished her prayer, the butterfly flew away…

It also reminded me of what happened on...

March 14th, 2007. Me and Mom went to the sea in the North of Jakarta to scatter some flowers for Dad & Morgan. I cried a lot. We sent our prayers for them. After that, our boat started to sail back to the shore and that's when I saw 2 butterflies flying… at the back of our boat… And those two butterflies followed us until we reached the shore.. as if they guided us til we arrived safely to the land… (read the full story here)

A few weeks later, I was in Sydney, Australia, sailing with Morgan's good friends. The sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly. At one point, I looked up to the sky and there I saw... a butterfly flying around the sail, in the middle of the sea! Wow. Was it a coincidence?

March 14th, 2010. Would these white butterflies be my Dad’s and Morgan’s spirits wanting to drop by & say hi to me? Maybe.

March 14th, 2010. I felt mellow and I thought of them a lot. I missed them dearly. And I wished them a peaceful life in heaven…

This was how the sky looked like on March 14th, 2010.


Simply beautiful :)

Celebrating New Year 2010 in Barcelona, Spain

Happy new year 2010, everyone!!!

I'm in Barcelona, Spain at the moment, welcoming 2010 surrounded by the Spaniards and the winter cold. Brrrr... With a little plan, I ended up celebrating New Years Eve in Plaza Catalunya, together with thousands of people who gathered there with a plastic glass of wine in one hand and a bag of 12 grapes on the other. That's how Spanish celebrate New Years. When the clock bells 12 times, counting down the new year, they eat the grapes one by one and drink the wine, while making wishes for the year ahead :)

It was pretty messy in Plaza Catalunya last night. So many people tried to get in to the center of the square, but there were some police lines, in which police checked everyone's bag and made sure that people only carry 1 cup of alcohol, not a whole bottle. However, I don't think it worked that well since I saw many people walking around with a bottle of wine in their hands and they seemed already drunk by midnight! :D

I think it might be the busiest night for the police officers in Barcelona, since so many people were hammered. They walked around happily with group of friends (sometimes running around, too!), singing some Spanish songs or just humming loudly (like in football matches). Restaurants and bars were full, yet, people were still queueing!
Las Ramblas, the most famous street in Barcelona, was jammed with thousands of people. You could barely walk. Wow. I felt like I was in a busy club! :P People were dressing up from head to toe, some of them with some party accessories, such as blinking sunglasses (yes, it was midnight), party hats, trumphets, etc. Chaotic, but fun.

At one point, me and Andy decided to walk back to Plaza Catalunya and choose to walk in a small street adjacent to Las Ramblas since it was impossible to walk in that busy street! It was getting colder and the wind got stronger. Brrrr...

At the end of the night, we ended up drinking a big glass of Sangria in Las Ramblas (yes, we made it!). It was the BIGGEST Sangria glass I've ever seen, easily filled with 1 littre of Sangria. The bar, which is part of Husa Oriente Hotel in La Ramblas, claimed that it's the best Sangria (in town? in the country? they didn't mention it). I'm not sure if it's true :p, but it was tasty :).

That was my new years experience in Barcelona. No big party in a club, but it was as busy and as cramped as being in a big club :p. No big fireworks as it's not a part of Spanish tradition.

I wish you a wonderful year ahead, full with new adventures, excitements and sweet surprises!

And I thanked God for all the blessings in 2009, for being so kind to me to give the time and opportunities to travel to beautiful places in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, made it back to Kuala Lumpur at one point, too, Singapore (of course - let's not count that since I lived there), Indonesia, England and Spain. Plus, diving in some of the world's best dive places: Komodo (Indonesia), Raja Ampat (Indonesia), Bunaken and Lembeh Strait in Sulawesi (Indonesia), encountering Mola-Mola in Bali (Indonesia), dive all over places in Thailand (including Similan Islands), etc etc. So many adventures, so many new experiences and so many beautiful things, all happened in 1 year! Wow. He's so generous, isn't He?

And I wish that He'll pour his blessings to my family, friends and loved ones. Also for the less fortunate people in this world... and hope the angels will guide us, whispers their wisdom words whenever we need them, and protect us in every single step we make each day, throughout 2010. Have a wonderful one, everyone!

With love,
Nila