I now have two
days of work under my belt and I’ve been enjoying every minute of it! Misato
and I are interning at the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue in Indonesia (Dian
Interfidei). It is an NGO with six staff members that operates out of a small
house in Northern Jogja. As the name suggests, Interfidei runs programs that
help encourage harmony and mutual understanding in a religiously diverse
country. This is an enormous challenge, especially with the recent violence
against religious minorities and “heretical” sects of Islam.
In the six weeks
I’m here, my task is mainly to create promotional materials for Interfidei.
Misato and I are making two 15-minute videos about some of their programs. We
also will create a PowerPoint presentation and a series of pamphlets.
So far we have
just started to work on the video. Misato mainly goes through their collection
of video clips and compiles them, while I am in charge of choosing and editing
the photos. As I sort through the thousands of photos, I have been getting a
really good feel for what Interfidei is all about. At interfaith dialogues for
university students, everyone is smiling and laughing. Serious discussion is
paired with singing, dancing, and other silly activities. There are girls in
headscarves laughing with girls in abbots. It is clear that Interfidei makes a
positive impact on religious tolerance in Indonesia. I’m really looking forward
to helping them with their mission.
As my title
indicates, we began Bahasa Indonesia classes tonight. Monday through Fridays a tutor comes and we
have night classes at the house from 7-8:30pm. The language is very easy in the sense that
they don’t really have a lot of grammar rules, but the vocabulary is difficult
to memorize because the words are so foreign to me. I’m hoping to become
conversational in the next few weeks.
For now, good night or, selamat malam!
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