Having Challenge on the way To UM for Good

 Having Challenge on the way To UM for Good 

 By Eiton Kogoya

Have you ever felt lonely, feel hopelessness, miss families or your best friends when you have a hard time? Of course, we all feel that way because life is hard. This is my story started from my hometown Papua, Indonesia to the USA. I have had challenging experiences; felt unable to deal with new things that you can imagine when you go away from your family and home. I live in Missoula and study at UM is like in the dreams, anyway. 

I was born and raised in a remote region called Mulia, in Papua, Indonesia. People live in this place only indigenous people know Ndani and they do everything in their own way, including culture, habits, believe system. Most Ndani people do not go to school because this place is far away from the city. People usually reach Mulia only by small airplane and it takes two hours to get there. So, my family didn’t go to school. My father dropped out of school when he was a high school student. When I lived in my home, I did not have an idea to go away from families to study or to take travel to visit other places because I knew that my parents did not have money to send me to school. I used to feel that it is impossible for me to have a chance to study other languages because I did not know how to speak foreign languages. In addition, I rarely met people from overseas like America, UK, or New Zealand. So, I felt there is no way to learn English. Also, one main problem in my hometown was the education system is low. For instance, most of my teachers were not teaching well, they just showed up twice a week.  There was a lack of learning tools too such as notebooks, computers etc. All of those happened because the distance from the city was far away so teachers didn’t want to travel. In that situation, I had a really difficult time engaging because of this experience. Luckily, I finished my high school with the standard education in my home. 

After that I went to the capital city called Jayapura to continue my education. I felt embarrassed whenever I joined the soccer team. My new friends looked at me in a weird way because my Indonesian accent was unusual for them. That occurred not only with my soccer teammates but also with my coach Juli. Once he asked me to carry a small rectangle goal, but I was confused to follow his instructions. My coach Juli brought that small goal from his home and put it in the corner of the field. So, he told me that I have to move that goal and put it in the right location. But I didn’t do that, instead I just stood there and watched him talking. My heart was pumping up and sweating because his face looked angry. I didn’t know about the small rectangle goal. I knew only one big goal that we usually see in the soccer championship. Also, the view of the field was a lot of grass and greener that I never saw in my home. Then, the smell of that place was unpleasant, more polluted or smoky. In the beginning, everything was new and felt a little bit uncomfortable. However, after I interacted with people and adapted to a new environment, I felt more joy because I learned many things in school as well as outside of school. I thought I could finish my education in Jayapura, but all my plans changed in order to study in another country.  

In 2015, I got an opportunity from my local government, Papua province of Indonesia. My government made programs to help indigenous students to study abroad. Then, they informed all students to bring required documents and to take English test to find out the student’s ability to comprehend English. I followed all their instructions and took an English test to join that program. At that time, my English score was not that good but my government accepted me into the programs. I was happy and really excited to go to study overseas. I already told my family that I would go to another country to study. My parents were so glad to hear that, and they congratulated me.  In July 2015, I flew from Papua to Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia to study English. In Jakarta, I got stuck learning languages, particularly Indonesian and English because I was raised only to speak my first language called Lani. Lani doesn’t have a dictionary to translate Indonesia as well as English. So, I learned these two languages at the same time. It was extremely hard to learn Indonesian and English. I learned these two languages in Jakarta eight months to prepare to study in another country. In March 2016, my government asked me to choose the country and school wherever I want to go. So, I chose to go to the United States to study at the UM. 

In summer 2016, I started to study English at UM. Before I came to the US, I thought my English was good enough to study at a US university, but my level of understanding English was low, and I could not understand English speakers speak. So, at that time my English teacher put me at a very basic level to learn English. I got double challenged my first years living in Missoula to understand culture, the education system, and even technology. Everything was new for me, people are different, food, environment and all activities that people do here completely different than I used to in my hometown. Of course, the weather is so much different, I never see snow when I lived in Papua. But the first time I saw snow in the winter 2016. Also, I always think Missoula is a big city because when I compare to my hometown, Mulia there is smaller than Missoula. We didn't have a lot of buildings, transportation, and people. First time I had an overwhelming experience.  I felt just gave up because I cannot stand for all these same times. My first purpose was Study at UM, but I have an extra challenge to learn culture because I have to if I want to go to UM.

Then, two years later I lived long enough in Missoula, I learned many things. I made Missoulian friends, joined communities like churches and clubs at the UM. I still have a hard time catching up, especially the learning process. One of the most significant moments that changed my perspectives was in the spring of 2018. At the time I had a classmate with a DSS student in Math probability and linear class his name was Daniel. He deaf but he studied hard to catch up with his class assignment. Every time, he always went to class with an interpreter because he really needed help to explain in body language. Then, I realized he had a dream and worked on it to make it happen. So, at that time I started to use the same strategy to study hard. More importantly, I found out that everything that I learned through difficult situations will be useful for my future. I felt less afraid to ask questions whenever I needed help from other people. I adapted culture and stayed up to catch up.

When I look back at my people, there are a lot of people who need help. For example, teaching English and leading young people to follow the modern era. Now I am happy to learn something at UM to help myself and to reach out to people who need it.