During my study in the US, I experienced many meaningful things, both academically and non-academically. I want to share some of my experiences related to my involvement in a cultural student organization at Georgia State University, MISA which stands for Malaysian-Indonesian Student Organization. MISA was initiated by one Malaysian student and one Indonesian student who both studied in Georgia State University. They wanted to create a joint organization because Indonesia and Malaysia are close to each other and both countries have some similarities in their culture.
I was attending the first unofficial meeting back in October 2012 and after getting know each other, we chose the e-board for the organization and I was chosen as a secretary of MISA. We defined the charter and agreed about the purpose of MISA is to unite Malaysian, Indonesian, South East Asian students and to invite people from all around the world by promoting Malaysian and Indonesian culture.
As a secretary, I was in charge in keeping accurate notes and times in every meeting. I also helped the president related to organize the account of attendance, membership status and meeting schedule. MISA is affiliated with International Student Association Council (ISAC) which supervises about 15 cultural student organizations. As a part of ISAC, we used to invite and to be invited in student cultural events from Indian Holi festival until Taste of Caribbean. We also had an opportunity to expand our friendship from people from around the world and get to know their culture.
MISA had several cultural events under ISAC. Our first event is “Get to Know Malaysia and Indonesia” which held on February 28th 2013 in Dahlberg Hall, GSU. This event was basically contained of presentation about both countries that covered the country’s basic information, culture and travel. We also had a posters exhibition related to the history of both countries since the colonialism era until after independence. Other than that, there was a Balinese dance show from Sanggar Lestari Indonesia to entertain the attendees.
In our first event, all of MISA members had a great effort and solid teamwork to make our first event to be successful. We also got support from the Consulate of Republic Indonesia in Houston, Texas. The consul general, Al Busyra Basnur and his staffs were really supportive and thoughtful to give us donation in terms of food and brochures about Indonesian travel. Although there were some conflicts and technical issues throughout the preparation process, it turned out to be a great event with more than 100 people showed up in our event. It was an amazing start for MISA journey in the future.
Another experience that I will not forget when I joined MISA was performing Saman dance in several events. Saman dance is a traditional dance from Aceh, Indonesia. The dance is called as dance of thousand hands and is usually performed to celebrate important occasions. This dance is done by a group in one line and dancers perform while kneeling.
In our group, there was only me who has ever danced Saman. It’s been a while since the last time I danced though so we learned it together from Youtube. Fortunately, we also got some help from people in Sanggar Lestari Indonesia. In one quick session, two dancers from SLI taught us how to dance Saman. Our group which consisted about 8-10 Indonesian students used to practice together twice a week and became more intense as the D-day approaching. As the coordinator of the group, I used to schedule the practice sessions, assist some members who did not mastered the dance well enough, manage the costumes and music. We practiced hard to prepare the dance performance, it was not an easy task but I am glad that my friends are fast learners and all of our hard work paid off when we performed well on the stage.
Our first performance was a success; we got a big applause from the audiences who were from around the world. Since then, the next performances became easier to manage since we already knew about the basic so we just need to make a little adjustment and practice few times before performing. We have performed for Vietnamese Student Association’s event Culture Shock, GSU School of Public Health’s International Potluck, also Mr and Miss International Pageant.
As an organization, MISA also participated in several events such as Batik Making in Learning Asia, cultural exhibition in Student Organization fair and Spring Festival. At the end of the spring semester, MISA as an organization which less than one year old has received an award in ISAC banquet as association of the year due to our contributions. I was attending the banquet with the president of MISA and we were really surprised yet so happy and proud for our achievement.
Each May, each student organization in ISAC should have a new election for the new e-board so we chose five members to replace the first e-board. Although I was no longer become an e-board but I still participated and contributed as a member. On MISA Traditional Games which held on October 1st, 2013 I became a host with one of my friend. In that event, we held five types of traditional games that usually played by people in our countries. The games are crackers eating contest, pencil in a bottle, gunny sack race, passing marbles and rubber rope skipping. At the end we also invited the attendees to dance Poco-Poco together with MISA members. We were so glad that everyone had fun and the winners also got prizes which are Indonesian or Malaysian traditional stuffs.
Indonesian people in Atlanta were also really helpful and supportive in most of every event that MISA participated. They lent us their traditional stuffs for the decoration such as Wayang puppet, Indonesian map made from batik, traditional music instruments and many more. We really appreciated their support. In most of our events, we usually provided Indonesian and Malaysian food such as beef rendang, chicken curry, roti cane, gado-gado, chicken satay, bakwan jagung, etc. It was amazing to see people from around the world to taste our authentic food and they liked it even some of them couldn’t bear the spiciness.
As an Indonesian student who studies abroad, involving in MISA enables me to share the culture of my country to the world since Georgia State University is a very diverse university. Personally as an e-board and also member of MISA, I can practice my organizational skill from coordinating things, working in a team to hold an event until deal with conflicts. I also had an opportunity to experience other various cultures and had many international friends. I feel that there is a beauty in diversity. When people from other countries respect and appreciate our culture, we have to appreciate our own culture more.
Ceteris Paribus 