American Field Service Exchange Program - Overseaer Yearbook (New York, NY)

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A- 1 William Sakahara displays his talent as a cow milker on his Dutch Farm. A typi cal Dutch peasant woman and her child in a quaint Dutch village. LINDA WHITNEY Camp Hill, Pennsylvania TED WILLIAMSON Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania JACK WOLFE Alliance, Ohio .ji I TOM YOUNG Sebastopol, California

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INDONESIA-That's all the white card had said. For the four of us it was quite a shock at first. Books pictured this country to be a tropical paradise of tall volcanic mountains, lush green rice paddies, and waving palms. We could expect only what we had read in books as we were the first AFS group to be sent to this little-known country. If this land was unfamiliar to friends at home, the true America was equally unknown to the Indonesians. All summer we found ourselves counteracting false impressions given by American books and movies. Now at home we four are busy sharing our knowledge and love for our second country, Indonesia. We found that the element left out of books was that of the warm-hearted, genuine Indonesian people. They will always stand first in our memories. Our families were all different: some large, some more modern-minded, some quite religious, some wealthy, some closely-knit, but all of them surrounded us with love as their own children. Our happiest moments were spent in the heart of the family life. Soon we reached beyond the family to be adopted into large groups of friends. Everywhere young people were eager to meet us, to practice their English, but most of all, to be friends. With a group of happy young people we might go to a party, speak at a high school, go on a swimming picnic, take a trip to a tobacco factory, visit a Moslem mosque, sing Indonesian folk songs on the veranda, or wander through the gay night markets. Although eager to learn about America, our friends were even more eager to teach us their Indonesian language, customs, and culture. Often we struggled through the steps of a Sumatran dance, or asked what this was in Indonesian, or blew away on a suling pipe, but our efforts were rewarded by the pride of our families and friends when we were success- ful. The most exciting part of our summer was the trip at the end of the summer. Grier and Sue left Bandung, and with two AFS returnees travelled to Surabaja where Molly and Jo had been living. Together we went on to the exotic little island of Bali where for four days we saw graceful dancers, a cockfight, and delicately carved Hindu temples. The highlight was a cremation where jo got a little green. The nasi goreng, or fried rice may have had something to do with it! On this island we were given a bright green tropical bird which we promptly dubbed AFSIS and swung out the back of the station wagon. Once again on java we visited several cities, Semarang, Solo, and jogjakarta. In every city we were taken in by new families and made new friends. They took us to see all their cities had to offer: batik cloth factories, schools, ancient ruins, and even the Crown Prince of Jogja. We got back to the capital city just in time for the big Independence Day cele- bration on August 17th. There was a two and one half hour speech by the presi- dent, a long colorful parade, and a whole evening of national dances to help us realize the pride and enthusiasm of this young Indonesian nation. Perhaps the one moment the four of us will always remember was our interview with Presi- dent Sukarno himself. This charming head-of-state asked us himself why we fAmericaj did not send better things than rock 'n' roll, movie star magazines, and Hollywoodized movies. He presented a challenge which will always be be- fore each one of us. That is, to bring the countries we love so much into a richer, deeper understanding of each other.