No filthy students despite long sleepovers

By Gedsiri Suhartono

JAKARTA (JP): Home is where one's heart is, goes the old saying. That sense of belonging, for hundreds of Jakarta university students who have been sleeping over at their respective campuses to keep up with the swift moving pace of student movements, is primarily mirrored in their togetherness. In sharing their idealism, their home is away from home.

"Home means being close to and around friends. Other tools equating the comfort of a home are secondary," said Dicky, a third semester student from Tarumanegara University, who for the past two weeks has been sleeping at various university campuses.

As the night moves slowly into the wee small hours, small bonding groups, all enmeshed in discussion, were seen around the Atma Jaya University campus. Others contemplated their chess boards or tuned up their guitars. A circle of students giving massage to each other was a familiar sight. Every now and then, there were glimpses of those flirting with each other.

"What a waste to sleep when I can have fun just hangin' out!" said Freddy of the Institute of Social and Political Sciences, who is also a member of the students logistical team.

No wonder, at 9 a.m., on Friday, many bodies were still seen flopped out at various places on campus. Some had their faces covered with small towels, used to repel mosquitoes for the night. Others have their feet covered. Dissembled cardboard boxes seemed to be the most popular sleeping pad, on the floor or on benches.

"Wherever feels comfortable, the last place you hang out is most likely where you would wake up the next morning," Hansen, 20, a student of the School of Economy, Atma Jaya University, said.

Similar scenes could be seen in the parking lot. There were certain crowds that surrendered to a mosquito attack at first strike. They could be seen either packed or paired sleeping in cars in the parking lot.

Once the campus resumed its wakefulness, flocks of youngsters with thin towels the size of a hand towel around their necks and their plastic bags of toiletries could be seen to head for a quick early wash. Some would race each other to the washroom, and the losers got to wait. Although generally not too long of a wait to endure, this loss was reason enough to bang on the door.

Luckily, the washrooms are not so fancy that one felt comfortable being in there for a long time. "I go in and do my thing and head out. Ten minutes at the most. At home, I can spend some 30 minutes rinsing alone," Kiki of the Tarakanita secretarial college.

Sleepovers are far from appearing filthy. The logistics team, besides providing meals and snacks, also accommodated student activists with simple toiletry needs. Soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, towel (during the demonstration, it was used to protect one's eyes against the teargas), mosquito repellent, sanitary napkins, and basic homely, unprescribed drugs like aspirin and vitamins are given out free for personal use.

Somehow, there are always the odd ones out. "There are some who come here, expecting that we are a convenience store. They ask for some fancy item such as razor blades and shaving cream. Or moisturizing lotion. Then I would say, 'Hey we are in a warlike situation, kiddo. You better come prepared,'" says the fair-skinned Mieke. A gentle breeze permeates the air with her cologne. "I come equipped to groom myself as I would at home. There are just more friends around for the whole 24 hours," she continued.

Even in such restricted conditions, hot commodities at the logistics center ran out fast. Such as cartoon-printed towels. What came as a surprise was how male students vied with each other to get their hands on a towel the size of a washcloth with the picture of KeroKeroKeroppi, a frog animation that is generally popular among schoolgirls.

"I succeeded in having one part of the kerokerokeroppi towel. I thought it was cool. Just fun to have it. But a friend ripped mine in half, because he could not get hold of one," sighed Hansen.

Considering the longer duration of some students' stay, the logistics team was also equipped with basic apparel like T-shirts and shorts, and new, sealed underwear -- for men and women.

"I guess it would be difficult to come up with lingerie. We would have to provide quite a variety of sizes. Besides, the guys would have fun mortifying us," Mieke says sheepishly.

Thus far, none has been seen to launder and air-dry these items on campus. Perhaps too petty a task, or too embarrassing to display such intimate apparel to the world at large.

"Are you kidding? We're here for greater purposes than to handle such nitty gritty. I just turn it inside out and wear it again. Thank goodness, I only had to bear that for three days," says Ferry of Atma Jaya University.

Bringing one's apparel for use during the sleepover serves its purpose. A reminder to visit their primary home and tell their parents that they are still well, healthy and continuing the struggle.

"When the underwear runs out, it is time to get fresh items. I planned it this way otherwise I might not go home for a long while, having too much fun," Hansen said.

Toilets around some campuses -- in a time of a reasonable number of users -- remain relatively clean. Decent enough, no toilet paper of course, to relieve the burden of nature's call. As long as the twin senses, odor and sight, which judge one's perception of cleanliness okay the condition, other matters generally fall into place.

But it would be an entirely different matter when toilet odors can be detected from miles away, and most likely one would opt to put on hold that perpetual call of nature.

"Perhaps people were preoccupied with other thoughts and were not thinking straight. You could smell the toilets from kilometers away," said Ferry, referring to last week's fiasco of having thousands of people on the campus compound.

"I held it in for more than 10 hours. Otherwise, I would probably have ended up throwing up in the bathroom."

Things have become progressively better since the pandemonium. The university's cleaning service deserves a thumbs-up. Familiarity and acquiring that sense of place, however, have their limits. "The toilets are not dirty or unpleasant. I just can't do it elsewhere but home. So I avoid high-fiber input, until the day I plan to head home," said Ferry.