He Said He's Proud of Us!

The Backdrop for our Photo with President Obama

The last 72 hours have flown by and now it feels like it was all a dream. I’ve been in 3 different major cities; taken planes, taxis, buses, private cars and pedicabs; I’ve spoken to more important people than I’ll probably ever meet again the rest of my life; and the President of the United States shook my hand and said he was proud of me face-to-face. It was a good trip.

And today I’m back teaching (my co teacher MIA again) at school, where my students and colleagues think that every American has had a personal meeting with Mr. Obama, so no big deal. It definitely brought me back to reality. But for just a few more sentences, I’d like to revel in one of the most amazing moments of my young life.

POTUS and his wife FLOTUS (gotta love those acronyms) were in the capital city of Jakarta for less than 20 hours. This comes after two major trip postponements since March and a plan to shorten this Indonesia trip from 3 days down to one. A lot of people at the embassy put in countless hours of hard work in order to ensure that Peace Corps had the opportunity to meet one of the Obamas. The volunteers found out a week before that we’d have the opportunity to meet Michelle, which all of us were absolutely stoked about. So we packed our best batiks and headed to Jakarta where we stayed in the same hotel that we had stayed in back in March. It was crazy to reflect on everything we’ve experienced and accomplished over the last 8 months; how far we’ve come.

Once we arrived in Jakarta and had a quick bite to eat, we got ready to have a short meeting with our country director followed by a presentation on how to balance learner-centered teaching and sticking to the curriculum. Then we headed to the hotel rooftop with the beautiful Jakarta skyline as the backdrop, and met with various Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, embassy staff and important Indonesian officials. After a delicious rooftop dinner we headed inside for the embassy briefing on what we should expect the following morning. That’s where we met Robb, who is pretty much the most amazing person on the planet. He ran through the events for the next morning and answered all of our ridiculous questions like whether or not it would be appropriate to fist bump the First Lady (clearly not my question). Before bed, most of us watched the State Dinner on CNN where Obama and SBY (the Indonesian president) exchanged inspirational words. Needless to say, that night we all went to sleep with anxious hearts and minds, excited for what was in store for us the next day.

Even though the President wasn’t speaking until 9 that morning, we were all dressed (including our special PC ID badges), fed, checked-out and on the embassy bus by 5:30, headed to the University of Indonesia. I was lucky enough to sit next to Robb on the ride over and hear the story of how he ended up with this job. Talking with him made me reconsider my past ambition of working for the State Department…traveling to a new country every two years, constantly meeting new people, and excellent benefits wouldn’t be the worst job ever, right?

Once we got to the campus we were ushered past the line to get in, went through an intimidating security check, and led through the auditorium to a special tent just for the 18 volunteers, our Country Director and Robb. Wow. We had a couple of hours to kill before the Obamas arrived, so we shared fun facts about each of our respective states and talked about how surreal this all felt. White House staff arranged how we would stand and kept saying “when they arrive we’ll have one stand on each side.” Of course our ears perked up when we heard this information, because we had only been expecting to meet Mrs. Obama. We stood in photo formation, excitedly waiting, when we found out that there would only be one person meeting us. So we continued to guess what color Michelle would be wearing and who she would stand in between. I felt like I was 4 years old waiting to meet the real Santa Claus.

The flaps to the tent opened, and all of our jaws dropped. In walked Mr. Barack Obama himself, wearing his charismatic smile and complimenting how great we all looked wearing our batik. The rest was a 15 minute dreamlike blur. But this is what I do remember: I was the first person he walked up to, shook hands with, asked name and hometown to, and said ‘nice to see you here Maggie”; he called Luke a ‘homeboy’ because they both lived in Chicago for a few years; he threw up the shaka (hang ten) for Sarah because they were both born in Hawaii; he said he was proud of all of us for the work we were doing, asked about our experiences so far, inquired about the fluency of our Bahasa Indonesia, and mentioned the option of working for the State Department in the future. The whole time I felt like a little, star-struck kid. He was so personable and willing to spend time with us. I know a large part of his time with us was just for the photo op in order to promote a positive relationship between America and a growing economic power/Muslim nation, but it was still a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will forever be one of the highlights of my time here in Indonesia.

Then we were escorted through a hidden back door to our seats to watch him speak. The way the lighting was set up didn’t really allow for great photos (sorry), but it was amazing to hear him speak in person about the partnership between 2 countries that I’ve now fallen in love with. Listening to him speak made me feel like I was a part of something bigger. I’m not just an English teacher. I’m an ambassador between the two nations, helping bridge the culture gap in order promote a more peaceful world. I guarantee that at least half of the people who read that last sentence will laugh and roll their eyes, but that’s my ideal perception of what my role in Indonesia is, and I know that I am making a difference even though it may be on a minute scale.

So that was my trip to Jakarta. And in other random news:

1. I am an insanely safe distance away from any earthquakes, active volcanoes or tsunamis that may have been in the news recently

2. My host sister was in a motorcycle accident where she broke her elbow. She’s home from the hospital now and doing much better, but it was still a huge scare for all of us, so please keep her in your thoughts.

3. Next week we’ll be slaughtering two cows at our school in order to celebrate Iedul Adha, the second most important Islamic holiday. I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll participate yet. I don’t really want to see anyone kill a live cow, but at the same time I would like to take part in this important part of the culture.

4. We had our second English Camp for kids this last Sunday and it was another huge success :)

*Also, my thoughts are with the Merrill-Brown family right now. All of my love.*