I felt like I hit the jackpot when in 2009 I was chosen to participate in the Indonesia-America teacher exchange program. So, there were 15 of us heading to America on the Jakarta-Singapore-Chicago route. These 15 teachers came from three different cities: Balikpapan, Makassar, and Yogyakarta. Since I didn’t have children at the time, it wasn’t a problem for me to leave Indonesia for quite a long time, around 40 days. With the kind permission of my husband, we set off for the US, the largest immigration country.
What did we do there? Well, if you ask me, the main goal was to explore and have fun. The primary focus of the program was to study and compare different religions, express opinions, and promote freedom of speech. Thanks to the cooperation between the US and Indonesian embassies, the program became a reality. We visited schools and places of worship representing various religions in America. Our base was at the University of Massachusetts, led by Dr. Michael Hannahan. To keep ourselves entertained, we had the opportunity to watch baseball games, visit museums, and witness the grandeur of the United States. We traveled from the nation’s capital, Washington D.C., to New York and even made a stop at Harvard University. During that time, Barack Obama was serving as the President, although we didn’t meet him personally. We only visited his office and took photos with his statue.
What was interesting about our trip was the discussions we had regarding religious differences, tolerance, LGBT issues, youth problems, education, and government laws.
