Brigita's Here!

Today was one of my favorite days here. YSEALI Fall 2019 University of Montana cohort went to Missoula International School. We were teaching them about Southeast Asia. Indonesia was divided by two group. Iqbal and I were teaching two classes in 3rd grades (7-8  y.o). I do love them so much. Their eyes when they saw us, when they listened to our explanation. And d has a the most thing I love is how they gave us soooooo unique question. Like... Whats your favorite food? Whats you wearing everyday in Indonesia? What it that mean? Et cetera. They just asked without thinking so harder. I love it so much. And it make me think about one thing: how come? How come they can be so smart. Totally different when I was kid. I think I didn't ask like that or maybe didn't have any bravery when met new people. In MIS, the students also learn Spanish. Most of their conversation using Spanish, but when we talked with us, they using English. Excellent! On this day, YSEALI fellows also had ...

Sudah beberapa hari ini mencoba menulis dalam Bahasa Inggris. Sungguh bukan ingin pamer atau karena sedang berada di Amerika. Saya hanya ingin belajar lebih dan lebih. Kalau kamu baca tulisan saya dalam Bahasa Inggris, sangat mudah untuk menemukan betapa masih terseok-seoknya saya dalam bahasa Inggris. Entah dalam delivering idea atau grammatical error. Whatever! I do not care! Saya sadar untuk belajar, kita harus melewati semua hal yang sulit. Menangis. Tertekan. Kecewa. Ditertawakan. Tidak ada kata muda dalam belajar. Ketika berada di Amerika, mengikuti program ini, saya sadar saya masih memiliki banyak kekurangan. Saya melihat teman-teman saya selalu. SELALU. Selalu lebih pintar dan lebih hebat dari saya. YA. Memang. Karena mereka berjuang. Karena mereka belajar keras. Itu yang saya pelajari dari mereka. Saya mau juga hebat seperti mereka. Dan saya rasa setiap orang ingin menjadi hebat....dengan cara terbaiknya masing-masing. Harus dilalui dengan cara yang sulit. Tidur ...

Rafting can be my favorito kind of sports. I did it two times this week.  Yeseterday with my homestay family; today I did it with my fellows.  It was very fun.  We was handled by Lewis and Clark Adventures. Compare on Blackfoot River, Alberton George stream more challenging for me. But the animals countless than Blackfoot.  I fell.  Just Lee and I. When we met high wave. I got shocked for a moment, I lost my eiger hat.Thats my favoritoo eveeerrrrr. I lost my 'naughty'sunglasses too. Its okay, its fun.  I love rafting.  Now its my favorito one.  #BetaDiMontana

I left my heart  in David and Linda's. They very kind. Taking care of me like they own daughter. I realize, sometimes I did'nt understand what they said. I just said yes without got the point, sometimes. LOL. It is my challenge.. every-second-day here. Today the homestay day was over. 08.03 PM Linda dropped me to the dorm. And then I realized.. I left my heart to them. #BetaDiMontana

United States of America is always full of surprises—for me! Well it is my very first time going to the U.S and I enjoy it so far. As Indonesian, which have a huge different with this country I love to explore anything here. And today my YSEALI Fellow and I had a great chance to live with American family till next two days. Ruzzel—from Philippines and I lived in David Cole and Linda Handerson’s house. They have two kids, a daughter and son, Kristin and Dylan. But both live outside Missoula. The Cole-Handerson family live an active lifestyle and they enjoy outdoor activities very much. They love to explore wildlife in or out Missoula. Linda is retired nurse and David is a retired wilderness reserah scientist. Both are so amazing. In the morning, just with Linda—because David just want to enjoyed his lazy Saturday—we went to Farmer’s Market in North Downtown Missoula. We had been here before, but we want to repeated it. Previously we had a breakfast in Veera Donuts. In Farmer’s Mar...

One of aour activities today was went to Missoula Food Bank and Community Center. They are a community who concern on how to end hunger in our community through activism and volunteerism. The provide health food and logistic for people who need it.  They have store which provide logistics for community. People can come twice a month. On first coming, people can bring any logistic they needs based on their household number and condition. On second coming, they only permit take some logistic.  Beside provide free food and logistic, Missoula Food Bank also concern on community activities. The have Kids Empower program, Kids Table Summer, Learning Kitchen, Roots program, Kids Table After-School, Food Circle and Grocery Rescue, and also Advocacy and Lived Experienced. They love to work with volunteer and give a huge oppotunity to anyone can join their activities.  We met Ashley, she expalined many things about MFB and gave us chance to do some voluenteer activity....

Today I learned about youth engagement and group project collaborate.  Class started at 09.00 in Forward Montana, Missoula. Actually, Forward Montana is a community which not only concern in resources but also organization training and mobilizing young people.  There was Erin Miller, the Field Manager of FM, explained alot things about how Forward Montana engaging youth.   First session, we discussed about the common assumption about youth to bring and make-up our mind. This session was bridging an intoroduction about 'What Forward Montana Do'. Erin explained. Briefly, Forward Montana has 4 focusses work, among others, quantitative, qualitative, citizenship, humor and fun, the last but not least, leadership development.  Recently, their focus in on how to engage young people to vote. They have 'Knock-out Campaign' as a one tool to reach goal. This campaign mechanism quite simple yet challenging. The campaigner must knock stranger's house, build a co...

Herewith,  I don't want to tell a story about how was my day. Nope.  I wanna tell you about everyone who with me now in this awesome program.  As an opener. Let me introduce you... Heidi Blair . She is our program manager. She overseeing daily management and implementation of the program.  Kayla Sheridan and Kyra Cronin . She is a program coordinator at the Mansfield Center. She helps Heidi manage this program. In this program we asist directly by Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTA). They are Zach Goodwin, Nicholas Maya, Alex Ocanas, and Quinn Huisman. The last but not least, Dr. Nicky Phear . She is our academic director. She was founding director of University of Montana's Climate Change Studies Program. As YSEALI academic director she has had the privilage of mentoring  emerging leaders in developing collaborative that address shared environmental challenges across Souteast Asia. Ah the last one, Deena Mansour . She is the Administrative Director of...

It's been along time. . Terakhir menulis di sini kira-kira 4 bulan yang lalu. WAAAH. Sudah banyak debu dan sarang laba-laba nih! HAHA.  Sesuai judulnya, sekarang saya sedang berada di Missoula City yang terletak di Montana, U.S.A. Pernah mimpi untuk datang ke sini, untuk belajar dan Puji Tuhan.. Tahun ini dapat kesempatan luar biasa injak tanah asalnya McDonalds. Sebenarnya sudah dari beberapa hari yang lalu tiba di sini. Tapi baru hari ini punya mood untuk buka notebook, ke web browser dan menuju blogger.com untuk mulai menulis sesuatu.  Anyway, perjalanan ke Amerika ini sepenuhnya dibiayai oleh Pemerintah Amerika Serikat. Makasiiii banyak ooo kaka . Begitu orang Kupang bilang. Karena memang setiap yang kita lakukan dari pembuatan  visa keberangkatan hingga tiba di tanah kampuang masing-masing dibiayai sepenuhnya oleh mereka. Makasiiiii lagi oooo. Saya akan berada kurang lebih selama 5 minggu di University of Montana bersama 20 teman lainnya dari 10 negara...

Ini adalah salah satu hal tergila yang saya lakukan di awal tahun 2019. Mungkin terkesan berlebihan ah tak mengapa. Saya punya alasan kuat kenapa saya menyatakan ini adalah salah satu hal gila yang saya lakukan. Alasan gila yang pertama saya ketinggalan informasi, tidak tahu menahu hingga H-1 pelaksanaan. Padahal saya mengakses sosial media seperti biasa. Tetapi kemudian ini menjadi refleksi dan pembelajaran bagi saya tentang bagaimana mempromosikan kegiatan di sosial media. Bisa jadi informasi hingga tampilan visual kegiatan tidak cukup mencolok sehingga tidak cukup banyak yang memperhatikan bahkan hingga tertarik pada kegiatan yang disuguhkan.            Alasan gila kedua yang segaris dengan kegilaan poin pertama. Mepet tahu informasi membuat mepet pula persiapan yang dilakukan. Ditambah pula keadaan ekonomi yang kala itu sedang sekarat. Namun karena perasaan ingin yang begitu besar saya pun memberanikan diri untuk meminjam uang...

2019. 25.  Time flies so fast .  Akhirnya sampai juga saya di usia yang cukup saya takuti kala masih duduk di SMA atau kuliah. Entah kenapa. Saya merasa angka 25 adalah usia yang tidak lagi muda. Lima tahun lagi menuju 30 tahun.  Sudah jauh dari angka 17. Dulu pun.. entah kapan.. Saya pernah bercita-cita menikah pada usia 25 atau 26. HAHA. Pemikiran pendek! Sekarang sudah lebih jernih berpikir. Menikah not by age but just by myself .  Perayaan ulang tahun kali ini adalah perayaan paling tidak semarak, paling sunyi, dan paling menenangkan.  Pagi pergi ke Gereja dengan kedua orangtua, bekerja seperti biasa, Mama dari Om Obe di kantor meninggal, lalu pulang dan makan malam dengan keluarga. Tidak seberapa. Malu juga saya sudah usia segini tetapi belum banyak bisa memberikan apa-apa ke keluarga saya.  Teman-teman saya di kantor, komunitas, bahkan teman dekat saya pun tidak tahu saya berulang tahun, kemarin. Bagi saya pun perayaan ulang tahun adala...

Pernahkah kamu merasa kamu tidak pernah jadi yang pertama? Selalu jadi nomor dua.. tiga.. dan nomor-nomor berikutnya. Entah apa saja. Seperti tidak kelihatan. Tidak dianggap. Padahal mungkin. Mungkin ya.. kamu sudah memberikan yang terbaik. Terbaik menurut versi kamu tentu saja. Tapi pertanyaannya, apa harus selalu jadi nomor satu untuk selalu terlihat? Atau untuk jadi yang terutama? Jadi apa guna nomor dua... tiga... dan nomor-nomor berikutnya? Kenapa?