Memorable Elementary School Reunion in Kediri

Last 18th Dec 2010, I joined my elementary school reunion. It's a result from a persistent effort from one of our friend who could find the address and contact of our classmates. It's been 30 years since we graduated, most of us never met each other. One of the most helpful tool was facebook :-) From around 150 classmates, she could manage to encourage around 50 friends to join the reunion.


To make it more memorable, we decided to stay over one night, so there's more time to chit chat after a long time no see each other. Also not allowed to bring family, to make all of us comfortable to share the memory and not busy taking care of each family. Wisma Yohannes was our selection, it's very close to Pohsarang, the pilgrime place for Catholic in Kediri (such as Lourdes).


It took around 30 minutes from Kediri city by car, the road was quite narrow and rather step, it's higher than Kediri, so the weather's colder and fresher. Arriving there around 16:30 with our teachers who taught us 30 years ago. Some of them were looking the same young as they taught us in elementary school, as if time stopped. Some bedrooms in bungalow were prepared for them to rest before the ceremony would be started. They're rather dissapointed not informed that they could stay, they didn't prepare any clothes to change, so they had to go home at midnight after the ceremony.


Wisma Yohannes was beautiful and peaceful, it's quite huge. A beautiful garden welcome us, and a small beautiful chapel was at the side of the garden. You need to follow the path to reach the bungalow contains of 2-6 rooms at the left and right side of the path. The biggest bungalow was right after the chapel at the right side, it's arranged for the ladies of our group. The man would get bungalow near to the teachers's bungalow.


We took some group pictures on the gate with one of our energic teacher, currently he's still active as teacher in our school. After taking pictures and chit chat in the garden, suddenly it's raining hard, so we had to run and stop in the dining room to continue the conversation. Most of our friends had been changed, taller, older and of course most of us were fatter than before. It's fun sharing our story, some of our friend were very funny that made the environment cheerful.


The committe provided traditional sweet snacks, while waiting for the ceremony. It took place in the hall, then continuing with speech from some representatives (teacher and ex students from each class. Before having dinner, we prayed together, tumpeng (rice such as piramid), meat balls and satay were the main menu. It's ended by giving doorprize to the participant, and souvenirs to teachers. To record the memory, we took group pictures accompanying by live band till midnight. Some warm dessert were provided, unfortunately we're too full to eat the ronde (glutionous rice with ginger soup) and grill corn.


In the morning we had 'nasi pecel/tumpang' (vegetables with peanut sauce and rice), the favourite traditional food in Kediri. Some of us were taking more than 1 portion, it's very delicious to eat in front of the bungalow looking at the big swimming pool with beautiful mountain as the background. With different bright color T-shirt for each class, we took some group pictures with beautiful scenery around the hotel. It's a memorable event for me, thanks to the committee who worked hard to make it happened.


If you want to stay in Wisma Yohannes, please reserve in advance. People often use it for retreat. The price is quite competitive, because they also do it for charity, it's often fully booked. There's a beeline to go to Pohsarang, if you want to go to church or Maria cave for praying.

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