AlimMustofa.com - Malang City is the destination of my global volunteer trip in Indonesia this summer. The project I applied is ‘’Discover Malang’’, that is the reason why I hadn’t learned anything about Malang before I came here. I tried to keep an empty mind in order to make my discovery trip as exciting as possible. As a result, I am really surprised since I put my feet to Indonesia.
The first feeling about Indonesia is a little disappointed because there was nothing impressed me, many things in Surabaya look like Vietnam’s. The weather here was really hot as same as what I have to suffer every day in Vietnam. The traffic was terrible. It took me 5 hours on a car for only 70 kilometers from Surabaya to Malang. What an experience I have never had before. Honestly, at that time I had some bad first impressions about Indonesia.
But everything was totally changed when I arrived in Malang City. The weather is cool and very comfortable. That weather here is exact what I and every people living in a country with hot weather all year desire. During the time doing volunteer in Malang I live with my host family, parents and 3 children (two girls and a boy). My host family are very nice and the children are funny. The two smallest children just can speak English a little but they always try to learn new English words in order to talk with me and teach me Indonesian. They taught me many Bahasa words and I usually pretended that I understood but actually I cannot remember them all, they are so difficult.
My father in host family (I call him papa) works at the election body of Malang city. Papa is very busy but he always spends time with family when being free. My host family always takes me together when hang out. I also like to follow them to everywhere because I feel like hanging out with my real family.
My mama stays home but she is also busy like papa. Mama takes care of the children and also me. She cooks the meals for family, takes children to school and picks them up. I am a big fan of mama’s foods. Her foods are not spicy as I thought, and she usually cooks new foods. I have tried the foods outside many times but I am sure that I like mama’s foods the most. (Ngu Van)
Author: Peter Ngu Van (Viet Nam National University Student In Hochiminh)
Editor: A-Liem Tan
Publiser: AanNh7