Flying Back to Russia with Time Machine (Part I)

One time I was wondering enough, why a lot of people especially youth at my age want to go abroad instead of learning something new in their own country. One of those youth is myself maybe. The time when I wondered was the time when I’ve ever been stayed for several weeks in 2 communist countries. Up until now, I’m still questioning why people have their own dream countries outside of Indonesia, whereas Indonesia is too big and too good to be explored.

As usual, the time when we ask is actually the time when we actually already know the answer. We just need some evidence to prove our thought. Frankly speaking, in my opinion traveling a lot is beneficial to shape our selves, in terms of perspective and attitude. So, suddenly there’s an imaginary Doraemon’s time machine that brought me back to the memories of my experience in 3 years ago. People usually call this experience as a life-changing experience. I was re-calling the memories to have a self-reflection why I should go to somewhere new or countries or even to have a dream country. Should I?

In summer 2010, I was joining a program called Global Exchange Program that provided by AIESEC, a world youth organization that exists in more than 120 countries. I was being one of the Indonesian delegates to be involved in social project called “Sunshine Project” in Chelyabinsk and “You’re Welcome Project” in Mezhdurechensk, Russia. Sunshine Project concerned about education and aim to increase the cultural sensitivity among Russian children. It took place in Summer Camp (yeay! :-D). Instead, You’re Welcome Project concerned about increasing cultural and diversity understanding among Russian people. Chelyabinsk is a small city near Ural highlands and 2 hours taken by plane from Moscow. Meanwhile, Mezhdurechensk is a smaller city than Chelyabinsk nearby Novosibirsk. It takes 24 hours by train from Chelyabinsk to Novosibirsk then continued by 6 hours trip by bus to go to Mezhdurechensk. I had no idea about where Chelyabinsk and Mezhdurechensk are before. All I knew about Russia were just polar bear, vodka, a bit sarcastic, and cold weather.

Well those stereotypes will only be a stereotype if we never experiencing the reality there. By having 7 weeks of experiencing Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Mezhdurechensk, and Moscow, it’s quite giving me 2 concepts of benefit. Benefit for me to be the global citizen and benefit for my maturity process.

At that time, I was 18 years old with no experience of going abroad alone or even within a group. As what AIESEC promised about this program, the one who joins this program will definitely be a global citizen that giving positive impact on society. Why? Yes I got the opportunity to teach English to Russian children even adults above 30 years old in some English Clubs there. It’s quite challenging since I just found out that Russian is not an English spoken country.

Furthermore, I was not alone in Sunshine and You’re Welcome Projects, there were more than 15 people in my team from more than 10 countries, such as USA, India, Mainland of China, Taiwan, England, Italy, India, Germany, etc. It’s totally a diverse team with truly different culture from one to another. I was being one of the Indonesian ambassadors with my other 2 Indonesian friends. We presented Indonesian culture and travel business in some classes and forums, and also built an Indonesian booth in Mezhdurechensk Cultural Festival that quite attracted people’s attention :D. By having these activities, it made me realized that even though Indonesia has thousands of islands and uniqueness, not all the global citizen out there know or even heard what Indonesia is. It reflected me back that the more miles we go from our “home”, the more we will know about who our selves and our “home” really are.

Being in a team consisted of diverse people from different countries made me realized that each of us has the same right to be the global future leader. Though the process to get there is not easy since leading diverse people means that we need to be able to listen more, adaptive in various thoughts and backgrounds, and also make right decision for all. And frankly speaking, this experience truly gave me perspective in how people from each country think, discuss within a group, react on something, give meaning of their life, put effort in achieving something, make decision, build relationship, enjoy life, etc., that hopefully could help me or all of youth who join any exchange programs to achieve our dreams or even to be global leader.

A lot of people say that we should go outside of our comfort zone, since there is no growth in comfort zone. But of course there will be no comfort in growth. One of the things that people could do is to go to some new places or group of people, explore and learn new things. Explore and learn new things are never enough also. We should implement what’s good for our development. Those benefits that I mentioned above are common things that most people will get also when traveling to some new countries or joining exchange programs. But more than that and deeper from what I share here, I got a truly self-development for my maturity process that really help me to be where I am now and where I want to be in the future.

I would like to share more about what I gained more detail in my next posts. Keep reading my blog with this time machine, just wait! ;-)

Here I attach some picts about what I captured in my mind after re-calling back my Russian memories with time machine ;-)

Teaching English with my team from USA and China

My diverse team. Could you see the diverse flags we held?

In Entrepreneur Forum. I spoke about Travel Business in Indonesia

My Indonesian friend taught the children how to play dakon (Indonesian games) in summer camp

Indonesian booth in Mezhdurechensk Cultural Festival attracted people's attention :D

@antiik