Journey to The Country of Thousand Pagodas, Myanmar

This is a pride for me when I was nominated to be one of the participants to attend the "South East Asian Young Leaders Initiative" in Yangon, Myanmar on 11-15 November 2014. The program is a program initiated by US President Barack Obama and officially launched in Kuala Lumpur in 2013. The purpose of holding this program is to strengthen the relationship between the youth in ASEAN by conducting leadership programs, youth and cultural exchanges between ASEAN countries.

The theme of YSEALI that I join this year is "The Power of Collaboration". In the first day of our arrival in Yangon, we were greeted by a super good people from World Learning. They are the ones who organize our schedule in Yangon. The first event we attended was a welcome dinner at a very beautiful lake named Inya Lake. There we were greeted by Christopher Milligan (USAID Mission Director, Burma) and met some of the people that will be speaker during YSEALI program in Yangon. The night was also become introductions night for all participants to know each other.

The second day of our program is the time when wonderful things started. First we presented a panel discussion with three young men who fight for democracy in Myanmar. They are Thet Swe Win, Sitmaw Gandhi and Aung Nyein Chan. They share a lot of facts and real condition of democracy transition in Myanmar. After that we moved to the Thone Htet Monastic Education School. There we were introduced to the the learning system of the monastic school there. We were also allowed to enter into one of the class and make a chat with some young Monks. The concept of this school is actually not much different from the concept of boarding schools (pesantren) in Indonesia. The different is boarding school in Indonesia more modern than in Myanmar.

Still on the second day, in the evening we visited one of the masterpiece in Yangon. We visited Schwedagon pagoda. Schwedagon pagoda is a very beautiful pagoda with covered by 73-carat gold which always shining the city of Yangon. The pagoda is a symbol of pride for the people in Myanmar.

In the third day Christina Thomas led us for Telling Your Story workshop. In the workshop, we were asked to make three kinds of stories about YSEALI. Three stories that shaped Tea Cup (short), Glass (medium) and Bucket (long). After finishing the story, we continue to the next panelist name Sarah Oh. She explains about The Power of Technology to Unite and Create Change Makers. In the afternoon we did a site visit to a building located at the New University Avenue Road. There we visited the office of Proximity Designs and have a discussion with the founder and entrepreneurs activists in Myanmar.

In the evening we did the next site visit to a place called Project Hub. Project hub is a place where entrepreneurs Myanmar trained to start their business. They invite the people in Myanmar who want to start a business and help them design and started their business.

 Friday is the best day I've ever experienced in my life. Just imagine, in one day I met two very special people for United States. First, in the morning we were visited by Nina Hachigan (Ambassador US Mission to ASEAN). We have a discussion with her. She asked us to explain our country and project that we do. With great pleasure we all are very proud to share our country to her. After discussion we took time to take pictures with her that might be a rare opportunity for us.

After meet Ambassador Hachigian, we went straight to the University of Yangon to attend the speech of US President Barrack Obama. After two hours waiting, finally the most important person in the world appear in front of us. He spoke a lot about the problems in Myanmar like democracy, education and conflict in Myanmar. Surprisingly President Obama had three times mentioning Indonesia during his speech and we cheers so loud for that. When the question and answer session came, I tried my hardest to shout in order to be appointed by him. However, the opportunity has not come to me. But I still happy because luckily the opportunity was obtained by one of the YSEALI participants from Philiphines named Ryan Louie Madrid. After finishing his speech, President Obama immediate left Jubilee Hall. At that moment I feel sad because I cannot interact directly with the president but I am proud that I've seen him live directly with my own eyes.

The last day was ended with a final dinner at one restaurant in the downtown in Yangon. We spend the night with interact with other participants and committee by playing Philippine traditional game. The night was very fun. After the games over, I feel sad when I aware that one of YSEALI participant Zakwan have to leave us at that night. Then in the morning followed by another participants, one by one they leave Yangon and I become the last participant who leave Yangon in Saturday.

Joining YSEALI program is unforgettable moment in my life. When treated to the problems that exist in Myanmar and ASEAN we try to solve it together. We act like a country leader in the ASEAN Summit, we also give our opinion and solutions to solve the problems. The interaction that we do here, that makes us to be very close to each other. Even in this YSEALI Yangon we succeed create YSEALI anthem. Then we promise to make a joint program in the future to bring all super YSEALI Yangon participants. Because for us, the true collaboration is to create a project together for a better ASEAN.