Beating the Summer Heat at Labersa Waterpark

It was summer in Indonesia and it was sizzling hot! Well, this is understood because this country touches the equator. Water entertainment facilities here seem to be a lucrative business. Despite the busy schedule for graduation preparation, my co-teachers still got the chance to go to Labersa Water Park – a famous water fun facility here in Pekanbaru, Sumatra Island.

There were seven of us and two are mothers who brought their kids. In spite of our dissimilar status, we believe that we can have fun together. I have been to a lot of water facilities but that was my first time to go to a public water facility here in Indonesia so I felt extremely excited to see the place. The climate also added to my eagerness to see it and the chance to temporarily escape from the year-round hectic schedule.

We arrived at the place as scheduled and yeah, it was really beautiful. It has many pool areas – for kids, teens, and adults. It has also four kinds of roller-coaster-style slides with varying degrees of slants and heights. I experienced riding all those slides and let me tell you how I felt. The first one is, I suppose the easiest but the scariest. The initial position here is for you to lie down straight and make your body flexible then the pool assistant will push you down so that you can accelerate smoothly downward. What scares me is, I cannot see the other part of the slide where I might fall, in front of me is empty void and I’m not certain where will I fall but I just went through it, asked the assistant to push me down and luckily I still found my bodily parts connected when I slide down.

For the second slide, the assistant told us to slide by partner and sit onto a rubber balloon which is shaped like number 8. When we were seated and ready, they pushed us and I saw our rubber slide down and encountered two humps along the way. The gravity pulled us two times down the slide. While we were sliding with my companion, I felt my stomach contracted and my mouth opened and shouted strangely that I did not decipher the meaning of sounds myself. Hahaha!

The third and the highest slide looked scary because it has many loops. I felt dizzy when I tried to look down the ground while waiting for my turn to slide. When it’s already my turn, I closed my eyes while the assistant pushed me. But I notice that I am just carried away like I am doing an ordinary swing ride. So I opened my eyes and saw images like I am inside a time warp. I felt dizzy with the circling motion of the rubber that I was seated on. But I finally got relief when I finally splashed onto the water and my landing gave a strong water splash against my face.

After the rides, I enjoyed chatting with colleagues while swimming in the adult, 1.5 meters deep, pool. We shared a lot of stories but there were some words I didn’t understand because of the language barrier. My fellow teachers could not speak straight English so I frequently asked them to speak slowly. I also tried to stitch my poor Indonesian vocabulary so I was able to make myself understood. Now, I have learned some Bahasa Indonesia words used in usual conversation but I know I still have many words to learn. One factor that hinders me to learn much Bahasa Indonesia words is the fact that I am teaching English and it is expected that I have to speak English all the time and everywhere.

It is here I realized that many people are really desirous of learning English. They want to learn English because it is the language of employment and business in many parts of the world. I realized then that it is not only in the Philippines that English is much needed. It came to my mind that the Philippines is very lucky to have so many opportunities to learn English for free – in school, in major newspapers, television, Internet, names of streets, government offices, etc. But there is one thing I envy with Indonesians – they have their own language of instruction for the arts and sciences – this means that they use Bahasa Indonesia language in all subjects and in professional disciplines. I realized that their progress might be slow but gradually they can develop their own brand and identity which shall be known throughout the world in due time. These are the thoughts that floated on my mind as I was drifted away by the waves of the swimming pool and when silence enveloped me and my colleagues.

When we were about to go home, I got the chance to teach one of my companions to swim. This is a nice encounter because I know that she has this special kind of magnetic influx towards me. This is not the first time that I am near her. We have been with each other previously when we went to a forest adventure. While teaching her to swim, it may be the time to clarify one important thing, I suppose. But while I was teaching her, I was not courageous enough to ask any question. I just taught her the basics and I am serious with my job at that moment. Unfortunately, she was not able to learn the basics; instead, she told me in the end that she cannot move her entire body. I felt guilty after that because I might have pressured her that much with my desire for her to learn.

The day ended with one word stuck into my mind – water fun – with so many opportunities to make friends and be acquainted with colleagues. It’s dusk when we retreated. After I washed at home, I found my body drop down the bed only to regain my consciousness the following morning.

The facility was visited in May 2011