Life Changing Events

Trash: What events changed the three boys forever...

To be honest with you, the audience, the whole book was an experience for them I mean do I really have to mention it, but some were bigger than, here is a Top 5 list of my own opinion of the most life-changing event that build upon their character.

5. A day turned far from ordinary

Yes, as you can see by the title I am only referring to one possible location the first Chapter of the book, Trash. Although their is not much character change it is the foundation of all future events. It was the day Raphael found the bag, and discovering the money found in it. In here we can see that Raphael was pressured by the decision of giving it away or to keep it and to make cautious decisions.

4. Railroad to Trust

This is the scene were they open the locker of Jose Angelico. In this scene all the characters Raph, Gardo and Rat gained a new found trust. Raph and Gardo were able to believe Rat and his knowledge about the key, and Rat was able to built one of his only relationships.

3. Captured & Tortured

Here is the scene were Raphael was caught by the police and was almost beaten to death. Although it might not be the most positive scene it gave key development not only to Raph but Gardo and Rat as well. In here Raph gained respect for Jose Angelico and a determination to solve the mystery. As he returned back to Behala, Rat and Gardo also gained a much stronger ambition to solve this mystery, as it was worth risking their lives.

2. A stash load of cash

Almost to the end of the countdown and the book,  here is the scene when Raph, Rat, Gardo and Pia was faced with a decision that would ultimately change the ending of their story. Faced with the decision to give away the money or to keep it all, I can agree that they made the right decision, they gave 5 million dollars of the cash to the Mission School and all around Behala. I believe that relief had spread over them as the mystery has finally been solved.

1: New Friends and New Beginnings

Last but not least the gang has to say goodbye to their homes, friends, family and everything they once knew. As being around the same age as them I can't imagine leaving my life and jumping straight into a new one. I believe especially for Raph and Gardo the pain was hard to bear. After all they had a new life in Sampalo and this would be a beginning of a new story.


Although there is definitely more situations that were life-changing these are my Top 5, the whole book has been a crazy roller coaster of ups and downs that lead into anew, wonderful life for them. Throughout the book I can see many developments and emotions arise, anger, frustration, friendship, freedom are just some that cover it. I hope you enjoy this new post and please remember to comment!

Fast Action Paragraph: Slum Dog Millionaire

I was interrogated, in a dim concrete room. The policeman lost patience with me so he slapped me hard. I was scared all over, I kept telling the truth, but all I saw was the man staring at me, I kept thinking why doesn't he believe me? I shouted, "I'm telling the truth!" Over and over again. He gave me a nasty look, then he lunged at me, and knocked my head to the ground.

Drama Play: Trash

Trash Play

For English, our teacher decided for us to act out a part from the novel Trash by Andy Mulligan. Here's just my opinion and thoughts about the play.

Preparation:

Firstly, we got into groups to correspond which part we wanted to act out, I really enjoyed Part 4 Chapter 2, I enjoyed this part a lot I felt that there was enough action and dialogue to make it enjoyable, as we were performing in front of the other year 7 class. I teamed up with Aqil, Danis and Pierce, I felt that the play would be a very enjoyable experience.

Our first obstacle was to create our script, at first we were thinking of how we can all write onto the script. Another group created a Google document where they could all access the script. We thought this was an amazing idea but when we started writing, we couldn't. It seems that using Google Doc was harder than it looks and none of us has much experience with it, we weren't able to type onto the document. We decided we will just have one person write one a Word Doc while the rest of us told what lines should be written done.

The Big Day:

The day had come, performance day, after days of practicing our lines I felt really confident that our group will do well, although I was a bit worried about if our actions would display well towards the audience. We got into costume, I was Gardo, I got into a pair of jeans,a simple white shirt and a cap. At the start I felt my heart raced a bit but after a while it felt very natural and I felt we performed outstandingly.

Votes:

Sorry I didn't mention this before, but we actually had judges voting on which performance was the best. Mr. Akmad, Ms. Tari and Rebecca were our head judges and they will ultimately decide who won. As I was sitting in my chair I was astounded to hear that my group won, although I knew my team had done a great job I felt that another group was more deserving as they put more effort than us, as they played music and used a powerpoint for their backdrop.

Thoughts & Feelings:

I felt this activity was awesome a little bit of fun before the end of the school year, it gave us a better level of understanding of the hardship the boys in Trash had to endure. Although it was great I felt the roles in my group were not very even, as the part we were performing had a very strong lead character, that shadowed the rest, but in the end of the day my thoughts remained positive.

LAST SALE!!!

Second-Hand Stall: Bargain Day

This Wednesday 20th November, my Second-Hand stall made its final sale. It was the greatest outcome by far compared to the first day when our in-experience got the better of us, and the poor sales we had on further sales. I guess it was probably because we lowered our prices as this would be the last day of our stall, never less we sold most of our items, I have to admit I bought some books from the stall as well.

I had a great time working at the Second-hand sale and the benefit of our donations to the community, I hope i can do something like this in the future, and it might not be a second-hand stall, I could be selling cakes or drinks later on.

Typhoon Haiyan Strikes Philippines

Typhoon Haiyan Strikes Philippines 

Even thought the main focus of my blog is to talk about the major poverty issues in 

How did it happen?Indonesia, I can't stress the major crisis that befell Philippines in the weekends. 

It is said that even before Typhoon Haiyan hit Philippines on Friday, forecasters already warn that it could be the strongest recorded storm in history, 3.5 times stronger than hurricane Katrina. 

The worse part was even with over 700,000 people evacuated to Red Cross shelters, the shelters did not survive the typhoon and were destroyed shortly after the first hit.

First Hit

The deafening storm is said to hit at 5.am in the morning, with winds escalating to 380 kph.

Afterwards deadly debris such as smashed houses and mirrors crashing against the the rushing water killing many victims.

Death Toll

With countless of bodies being washed up Red Cross recorded as many as 2500 people died during the storm

Dozens of Bodies are rested infront of Tacloban City Hall

Many dead bodies being buried in a mass grave

My Thoughts and Feelings

My thoughts about the situation is I can't imagine what are they're feeling about, suddenly their lives have been turned upside down, there homes, family and friends will not be the same. I bet they have loss so much their homes, friends and family I think it is our duty to help and support them from the disaster.

Many dM

Second Day of Sales

Today on Thursday, we had our sales again, and I felt more professional, I felt the stall was more organised, but there was one problem, it was the House Challenge. When I mean House Challenge it is a challenge put up by a house team, it could be a sport event such as soccer or basketball, or even a food eating contest.

So today, we didn't sold very much, we made around 50000 rupiah, I guess I can blame me or my friends, I mean who is going to by a book or some such outside on a hot day.

Summary

So I guess the only thing to do is hope for better sales tomorrow  I will be blogging about our progress on Friday very soon.

THE BIG DAY: My Second-Hand Store

Well today was Wednesday and it was time to start selling! We set up our stall around 12'o clock noon, displaying our items getting change, and suddenly a huge wave of people started to swarm all around, students, teachers, staff they all went to see our stall. I have to admit at first it was very confusing people here and there wanting to buy our items, there was a lot of bargaining but at the end of the day it was a success!

Summary

Afterwards we counted our cash, we raised around 300000 rupiah, but even thought it was quiet a lot of money I was a bit disappointed,  I originally thought we had more money but there wasn't so it was quiet troublesome, but our teacher said that there's no worth in worrying about it. Then I thought to myself I'll do better tomorrow.

Overall, I was happy with our stall opening and I feel proud that I raised this money for charity, but this just keeps me more motivated for tomorrow.

Future Resolution

We all decided that we had to improve in our money management, so we decided one person to take in the money, also we needed to display our items neater, so it will be more appealing.

Fundraising: Second-Hand Store

In school we started a project to sell things at a stall to raise money for charity. They're were many stalls such as drinks and cake, but the idea that popped out of my head was 'Second-Hand Store!' I thought it was a great idea and also my friends, I love selling old stuff such as books and games so it was like a match made in heaven

Preparation

Now it was time to turn my dream into a reality. First off we decided what to sell and when, me and my friends decided to start selling on Wednesday 13th of November. We also started to make posters and a price list. So there was only one thing left to do, THE PRODUCT. We all got our stuff from what we had from home, my mum was very supportive and told me to sell all these sort of furniture and baby clothes, while my friends brought books, games and clothes.

After all these preparation I was excited for Wednesday!

Multiple Perspectives:

Throughout the novel, Raphael, Gardo and Rat take turns recounting their story. How does hearing the multiple perspectives of this story benefit you?

With multiple perspectives you get a more complete story. Sometimes with a story with only one person recounting you only can see the story through his eyes, if there are more than one person you can have different emotions of the same story. The story becomes more three dimensional. An example of the advantage of having multiple perspective is that if one character is in one place and another character in some place different, if you have multiple perspective you get to see where everybody is in detail. If there was only one person telling the story it might not have been in much detail.

Another advantage of having multiple perspectives is that you get to know the characters more, if there was only one character telling the story you might not know what other characters are truly feeling.

Overall, having multiple perspectives gives a story more deep and detail, with having more point of views.

Panti Sosial Asuhan Anak: Wijaya Kusuma

Earlier today I went to an orphanage in Puncak, its called Wijaya Kusuma. I have been donating food and money here as long as I can remember and has been a daily task in our agenda every time were in Puncak. It was all a coincidence my mum wanted to contribute to poverty since I was 2, and she asked around Puncak too see if their was an orphanage, and there it was. I call it a coincidence but my mum thinks its fate.

 Here's the front of the orphanage.

What's the Story?

The Orphanage was founded by Mrs. Lenny Tania in 15 April 1988, and has been up and running for more than 20 years. These days the orphanage is run by her daughter, but I find here such an inspiration. She made a difference in people's lives and without the orphanage many children would have nowhere to go.

Facts

There are 40 kids living in the orphanage with 50 only coming in to pray and go to school in the orphanage. Most of the kids when they finish Junior or Senior Highschool will leave the orphanage to work.

A Change of Heart.

Starting this blog, I had second thoughts for poor people. At first, I did not feel very sympathetic towards them and I didn't support them enough.

But after experiencing many charity events and having an insight on the hardship of people in poverty, I think I have a change of heart. Now, I feel a little disgusted in myself that I did not do my role to make a better future for these people.

A quote you can live by...

Here's a quote I made that could be something you can live by.

When your feeling down and rotten about your life, feeling sour, always remember there's someone having it worse than you.

Andy Mulligan: Trash

Trash Review

Here are some of my thoughts of this wonderful book, Trash by Andy Mulligan. Its a story of three dump boys, Raphael, Gardo and Rat. Living and working on mountains of trash,a lifetime of picking through trash. One day, they found something amazing, a deadly secret. From that moment they're lives were in danger.

With danger behind them,the boys run from the city's dirty dumps to its wealthy, rich avenues. They need a miracle.

I think it was an outstanding book, with a lot of suspense making you read more.

Also it gives you insight to the live these dump boys has to endure everyday. Collecting rubbish trying to live off any trash they can turn into cash.

For more information check out this website:
http://www.andymulliganbooks.com/trash/

Its a Tough Place to be a BINMAN: Indonesia

Here's a little review of a wonderful documentary i viewed today. This documentary accurately stresses the growing problems of poverty happening in our community.

Its a Tough Place to be a BINMAN, is a documentary about a London binman Wilbur Ramirez  who switches to the streets of London to Jakarta to do the same job. Wilbur Ramirez is a father of four and he went to Jakarta to work side by side with Imam Syaffi, a Jakarta binman who lives just metres away from a rubbish dump.

This documentary shows the terrible working and living conditions a Jakarta binmen lives with. Not only collecting rubbish, they also sweep the front of houses and clear the storm drains, all in bare feet and hands. The worse part is the wage of a binman does not provide enough for his family, so he works many late hours in the night sorting out recyclables  like plastic bottles and tin cans from his garbage tip. 

When I watched this documentary i felt very sad, the awful living conditions and the fact that the wages are only around 15 British pounds every week. This documentary hit me very hard and showed me the hardship of these people.

                        Left-Right: Wilbur Ramirez, Imam Syaffi and Windi Syaffi

Here's the link to the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH1F_tz4oT0

Here's a reference for the website

http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/Directory/News/Binman_sets_up_charity.asp

Please comment your thoughts about the documentary.

A Feeling of Guilt....

A Feeling of Guilt....

I was born in Indonesia, and in my eyes poverty is a growing problem everyday and today it has hit me very hard. I live in Jakarta and poverty is everywhere. It seems that the city has a shade of darkness within, seeing everyone man or child fighting to live another day. Doing anything to get a meal, so I feel grateful that my life is full of opportunities and hope to share the wealth to the community.

Here's a little collage I made it, to look upon the growing issues developing in our country.

How To Help???

Every year, my school AIS Indonesia host a charity walkathon to raise money for charity. Its has been going on for 5 years and it has been a huge success!

If you want to find out more and see how you can contribute check out these sites.

http://ais-indonesia.com/walkathon/home.html

http://ais-indonesia.com/walkathon/history.html

Poverty in Indonesia: A Growing Problem

In my opinion poverty in Indonesia is a widespread issue, poverty is terrible and effects the community. Everyday many people and children are forced to search trash to sell anything if possible. Poor people have to live in trash, they don't have the basic needs like us. Food, water and shelter is a daily problem for these people. I feel very grateful for the life I have and that we should help these people have what they need. What ever it is, if its a donation or helping the community every act of kindness is never wasted.