Dissa Ahdanisa's Stories

"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...

Thank you. That's the first thing I had on my mind when I realized that I was actually going to Nicaragua. Yes, Nicaragua. A country in Central America. A country that I swear even my colleagues at work would have never heard before (and this is true... I did a geographical explanation to them when I told them about my plan and until this day, some of them still think I'm somewhere in Africa!). A country without many Indonesians. A country that I have never been. A country at the other side of the globe. I had a dream that I will go to Latin America. Because I love Spanish, I love the culture, the people and the energy. My image of Latinos and Latinas, apart from "they must be dancing a lot" is that they look like warm and nice people. Again, at that time I didn't know. I knew nothing and yet I decided to take a plunge. Yes, it was sudden. I was working in Tokyo and I found this opportunity to work in an NGO, a local grassroots organization that provide...