ASEAN Fest

A couple of weeks ago, my school held the”ASEAN Goes to Schools” program,which is a collaborative effort between the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines and the Royal Embassy of Cambodia, who are bringing the rich tapestry of ASEAN nations to 14 Jakarta schools, including my school Mentari Grand Surya. Two of the students participated in a speech competition related to the “ASEAN Goes to Schools” program and are moving to the final rounds. The final rounds of the speech competition are at ASEAN fest which is held in Jakarta Convention Center on 22 August. Me and my classmates were lucky to be chosen as supporters for the students who were competing for the competition, and also with other students from grade 12 and other grade 11 students. 

On the day before we went to the venue, we were rushing to finish our ANBK dummy test and got ready to go on the bus. When we got to the bus, the bus was still hot so we waited outside until the bus cooled down. In the bus we were immediately given a box of bread with water for our lunch, and we were going on our way. When we got to the venue we were told to wait in the bus until further notice from our teacher. The teacher gave us small flags with a whistle on the end, and we were also given a food voucher with an ASEAN passport which is used to get stamps with also a free coffee voucher too. Then, we were set to go inside of the venue. 

When we walked in the lobby looked like an antique cinema theme and they also sold popcorn too, when we walked into the first room it was breathtaking, the room has small sections and each section are themed as a ASEAN country the first one was Indonesia, where we got our first stamp of the day, the booth was pretty with a small Candi Borobudur look alike , and a person looking after the booth who were wearing traditional Indonesian clothing to fit the vibe of the booth. The next booth was Brunei Darussalam, they had a small temple of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin for decoration and also displayed their traditional snacks and decorations, with a person wearing their traditional clothing looking after the stand. 

The next section was Laos, they also had something similar like a small temple display with traditional decor and the person looking after the stand also wore a traditional Laos attire, the booth sold samples of Laos food, called mung bean soup. It tasted good with coconut inside of it. The next section was Malaysia , they had a small display of the Petronas Tower with the Malaysian traditional clothing and also a small stand that sells Malaysian products. Next section is the Philippines. They have a small display of the Rizal Park with their traditional clothing and so on. Next was Singapore, then Thailand, and then the final booth was Timor Leste. 

After that we went to get our free coffee near the Timor leste booth. After we got our coffee I saw a food discount voucher on the ground, I took it just in case that someone might have lost it, then a couple of minutes later I saw a girl looking for her voucher, I asked her if she lost it near the area and gave the voucher to her, she said her thanks and went back to her group.

The competition was about to start, I went to get some food using the voucher that was given to me, until I saw someone had trouble with their payment so I helped them. Then went back to get food. After I ate my food it was just in time for the speech from my school. When his name was called out to go on stage, our group cheered for him happily and excitedly, just with the other students from my school. After all the speeches were done there was a surprise traditional dance , and the dancers were wearing traditional clothes from all of the different ASEAN countries. 

After that, we went to the second room of the venue and it was an ASEAN conference room and everyone from my class immediately took pictures of each other. After that we went back to the first room because they were going to announce the winner of the supporters. Sadly we didn’t win but I was happy for the experience me and my classmates have from participating in the event. After that, we went back to the bus and went back to school .