Dissa Ahdanisa's Stories

Wednesday, 7 September 2016 would be a date I always remember. As I nervously held my passport, waiting for my turn to pass the security, I prayed in my heart that I would get picked to sit behind the stage of YSEALI Summit Town Hall, so that my face would be seen behind President Obama while he was talking. So that I would be in a same frame as POTUS, and so that I could show my parents at home. I was hoping to make them proud. Embracing my West Sumatran roots that day with traditional "Songket" Unfortunately, I was not selected. The town hall staff, some are from The White House, escorted me to the audience seats. My disappointment suddenly changed to a wide smile. I quickly realized that I got to sit at the front row, right in front of the stage! I would just be couple meters away from President Obama himself! From that moment, I continued my prayers, but this time I was hoping for The White House staff to not change her mind and escort me out of my seat. That...

Ella es la del pelo desordenado, descuidado, pintado por el sol. Su piel está lejos de la piel blanca que era antes. Ni siquiera besada por el sol. Está quemada con muchas líneas de bronceo, heridas y picadas aquí y allá. Pero por cada defecto en su piel, hay una interesante historia por contar. No salgas con una chica que viaja. Es tan difícil de complacer. La usual cita y película en el centro comercial la aburrirá hasta la muerte. Su alma quiere nuevas experiencias y aventuras. No se impresionará con tu carro nuevo o tu reloj costoso. Ella preferiría escalar una roca o saltar de un avión que oírte fanfarronear de estos.  No salgas con una chica que viaja porque ella te estará insistiendo en reservar un asiento de avión, cada vez que hay una aerolínea con rebajas. No saldrá de fiesta a Republiq. Y nunca pagará más de $100 en Avicii, porque sabe que un fin de semana de fiesta equivale a una semana en un lugar mucho más emocionante. Lo más probable es que no tien...

Leaving is hard. But it is harder when you can’t say goodbye to some of the people you love. That what I thought would happen on my last day. Pedro, or so I called him Pedrito is one of the smartest kids in the school, he plays chess, he doesn't tattletale and he doesn't get into trouble. Those are enough to make him my favourite. Also, his smile is super adorable. However, on my last day, I thought I would never see him again. Have you ever met a kid that sounds and behave very maturely? I have met few and Pedro is one of them. Talking to him doesn't feel like talking to a 12 year old. He listens and responds like an adult. He doesn't go around and looking for trouble with other kids, instead he sits down and read when the class finishes and he has nothing to do. One time he told me that he was bored, so I told him to teach me Spanish. He actually sat down and told me all vocabularies of things around the school.   Former v...

Every friday we  have a fun day. It's when the kids do not have their usual English class and volunteers come up with and idea for a fun activity instead. So, Leonie came up with an idea to clean up the barrio, or the neighbourhood and last friday, we had an environmental day at the school. For weekdays, we have around 40-50 kids divided into for different classes, but on friday we only have two. We have the pre-schoolers in the morning and then the older kids after. This Friday, all older kids were divided into groups of three. Each group got a plastic bag (that Keeley and I got from Palí) and in 30 minutes they will have to collect plastic trash from around the neighbourhood. Only plastics, no paper, no leaves, just plastics. Also, they cannot take the trash from their house. Just the one on the street. Sounds fair enough, yea? And the team that fill their plastic bag the fastest will win! To make it more dramatic, I lined them up outside and gave the plastic bag to each...

Te mando esta carta y este corazon. "I send you this letter and this heart" It was sunny and hot in Pantanal, the neighborhood where our school is, and the kids were having their English class with Francis, the beloved teacher. Like other volunteers, I was helping some of the kids finishing their exercise. We went to some tables to sit down and help them if they have some questions. We were doing numbers in English. Francis wrote down some number and the kids had to write it in English. Some kids did know what they were doing, so they came to us to confirm their answers, which mostly were correct. However, some weren't that fortunate. They didn't know how to say the numbers in English, let alone write them down. And José Lopez was one of them. This cute 10 years old boy can write well and understand the what he needed to do to finish the exercise. He can spell 1-10 in english, he can say 100, 200 and other big numbers, but when we mix it, e.g 432 or 215, he ...

"Mucha gente pequeña, en lugares pequeños, haciendo cosas pequeñas, puede cambiar el mundo" -Eduardo Galeano "Many small people in small places who are doing small things, can change the world" Granada is a beautiful town. It has colorful colonial buildings, old churches and lively market. Most of the colonial buildings are now hotels and cafe, which are used by many tourists as getaways from the noon heat. However, some of them are quite expensive and most of the dishes they offer are internationals... or americans. So, I rarely go to the cafe, unless if they have great coffee (which I can refill freely of course haha) or they have something unique that I have never seen before, like this one. Cafe de Las Sonrisas or cafe of the smiles, is the first cafe in the Americas and the fourth in the world that is staffed entirely by people with hearing of speaking disability, or deaf-mutes. I read an article about it in the local magazine. It is said that its me...