The Road from Sumatra to Washburn

My name is Dhani Alhamidi Lubis. I am from Indonesia. I am an exchange student who was selected by AFS(American Field Service) to be one of Indonesia representative for intercultural exchange.  Indonesia is located in the Southeast Asia, the capital is Jakarta. I spent 25 hours flying from my home to Chicago. It is long way away.

I live on an island, named Sumatra. Sumatra is one of the biggest island island in the world, almost twice the size of the state of Wisconsin  ! I am from the town of Kisaran, we have the same population as washburn, 2000 people.

In Kisaran my parents operate small palm oil company. We harvest palm fruit by cutting the branches. The palm trees are very tall and the fruit are very heavy weighing 40-70 pounds each. We load fruit on the truck and take to a pam factory where they process palm oil. Palm oil is used to make crackers, soap, shampoo and many other products.

I arrived in Washburn in September so I was able to experience Fall. We have so many different kind of trees in my country because we have tropical forests, but I have never seen colorful leaves like we have in Wisconsin. I was very impressed.

Before I left home there were palm oil field fires on my island. This makes the air smoky and hard to breathe in some areas. Whenever I go outside here in Washburn I am reminded how clean the air is here. The fires in my country are over now.

I grew up in a small town but go to school in a big city called Medan, this is about four hours away from my hometown. My higschool has 3000 students with students from all over Indonesia. In Indonesia, students stay in the same room and the teacher moves around the school based on their schedule.

When I return home to Indonesia next June I will tell my friends how cold it is in Wisconsin. Wearing a heavy coat and long underware is something we don’t do in Indonesia as the average temperature is 80 degrees. I am starting to enjoy snow as I have joined the Kanski Cross Coutry program in Washburn. I hope I can bring some snow back to my country. I especially like to see now on all of the pine trees here. We have pine trees in Indonesia but they are protected because there are now very few.

One of my favourite things here is Lake Superior. I never knew, that I was going live next to the biggest lake in the world. I am looking forward to thr polar plunge this winter. I hope it is not too cold.

I am surprised at how clean the area around the lake is. We also have a big lake in my state on Sumatra. It is named Lake Toba. It is not as big as Lake Superior, but it is the biggest lake in Southeast Asia. Every holiday season many tourists visit. One of the favorite places for tourists is Samosir Island, in the middle of the lake. There is a beautiful waterfall there, called SIpiso-piso water fall. You can take a boat or ferry to the island. This lake is important for our economy as many tourists visit, similar to here. If you want to feel the sense of tropical country, Indonesia is a great place to visit.

I heard from some people that Lake Superior is going to be frozen pretty soon. I am looking forward to it. The scenery around Lake Superior is fabulous, I will mis Lake Superior when I return home.