AFS Program 1958: My Grandpa's Amazing Trip to America

PROLOGUE

For as long as I can remember, I've always heard the story of how my grandfather left Indonesia to attend high school in the U.S.A., and thought not much of it until recently. It was one of those family quirks that you never really tell anyone unless they asked. And it's not because I'm not proud of it or anything, but it didn't feel like something that was different from everybody else' life. That was how normalized it became for me, at least until I stumbled upon a very old newspaper clipping. 

The paper was faded and so brown you could've mistaken the sight for rust. But words were still on it, and they were legible still, and it was about the American Field Service, or "AFS" for short, program that ran from 1958 to 1959. The name felt familiar, even if I couldn't put a finger on it, then I remembered the stories of my grandfather's flight. All of a sudden, it clicked for me that this newspaper was, in part, about him. Those stories were now tangible history in my hands, and it was such a profound feeling that I became curious to see if there was more to this than a single newspaper clipping.

I couldn't very well fly off to the States and dig around, as fascinating as what I could uncover there might be. No, there was only one recourse for me, and so I returned to the living record himself: my grandfather, Prof. Emeritus Syamsuni Arman, Ph.D. I'll leave off at this point to let the man recount things in his own way.

And so, we begin.

GRANDPA SAM'S STORY

Array, you asked me to tell you the process of how I got the American Field Service Scholarship Award to study in an American High School about 63 years ago, 1958-1959 to be exact. You know, since 1955 I moved from Sampit (a small town in Central Kalimantan) where I was born and finished Junior High School. My parents made a very important decision, despites of all the financial burden they had to endure, to send me off all by myself, first to Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan ) in a small coastal boat, and from there to Surabaya (East Java) by bigger seafaring boat, and continued by train to Yogyakarta my final destination. 

Thanks to my mother's distant relatives I was accepted to stay temporarily in their house while I was searching the city looking for Private High School where I could continue my education. A few students from my home town who happened to study in Jogja suggested that I enroll in SMA Muhammadiyah 2 High School in the middle of town. After moving from one boarding house to another, finally I settled in the Asrama Kalimantan dormitory, some 6 kilometers away from the school, and stayed there, commuting by bike, until I went to America.

Malioboro (source: https://www.harianmerdeka.id/2019/08/malioboro-tahun-1952.html?hl=ar)

Early in 1958, when I was already in the third year of High School, The American Embassy, announced to every High School in Yogyakarta (around 40 HS in total) that soon there will be an open contest/exam conducted by the AFS Foundation to select a few students to win a scholarship to study in the USA and while there live in American Family. I was lucky that I had a good English teacher at the High School, and this teacher and my classmates urged me to join, since they were convinced (I did not know why) I would win the scholarship. 

I found the exam very tiring, because besides the written English test, we had to pass interviews with native speakers, and the hardest part was writing a short paper. I did all that, still not sure about the prospect. There would be several months before we know who among us won the contest. And to my surprise and delight I was selected as one of 3 students (one other male and one female) from Yogyakarta High Schools who would be sent to America for one year study. While waiting for the departure I continued my education at SMA Muhammadiyah 2, and did the Government final exam, but until my departure to America, the government had not announced whether I passed the High School final exam or not.

Before departure all three of us were trained by an American couple who were visiting professors at Gadjah Mada University at that time, on American culture including food and bed keeping routine. The couple was very kind to me, they gave me a brand new suit and traveling bag for the trip. 

The trip was something new to me, I had never been in an airplane before, so the first trip on an airplane was the international flight from Jakarta, Tokyo, Guam, Wake Island, Hawaii, San Francisco, and Cleveland, Ohio. We had two stopovers, one in Tokyo, and another one in Hawaii. The airplane was a constellation of 4 propellers driven, as no jet was yet available. Because of the stopovers we had to spend 3 days to reach our destination.

Credit: National Air and Space Museum Archives (https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/america-by-air/online/abaImage.cfm?webID=307.p1)

In Cleveland Hopkins International Airport I was greeted by my American Family, father Bob Senior (an executive in an oil processing company), mother Merril (Housewife), brother Bob Junior (sophomore or second year of High School), and sister Judy (Freshmen or first year of High School, At home I shared bedroom with Bob Junior. All three of us kids went to the same high school, the Thomas W. Harvey High School, and we live in the same town with the high school, called Painesville, Ohio. 

The hardest thing to get used to when you live in America is the traffic, you must take the right instead of left. It took me a while to get used to, especially during class change. In American High School, the teachers wait for students in their classrooms. So, during class intervals all the students are milling around to move to their next class. At first I always bumped into an oncoming stream of students, but after a couple weeks I got used to it.

I took a full course at high school including the compulsory and optional courses. In the second semester I took the driving course. At the end of the school year I graduated successfully, and at the graduation night I sang the Indonesian National Anthem - Indonesia Raya, and another Indonesia song. It was fun.

AFS Farewell trip around America (dokpri)

After finishing the school year, I had to leave Painesville for a two months trip to 11 States in the northeast of the USA, ending in New York City, before departing back to Indonesia. When I arrived in Yogyakarta, I visited my old High School, and was happily greeted with a formal High School Diploma. So, now I have an American High School diploma as well as Indonesian High School diploma. 

Thank God, I think I have achieved all of the small kid's dreams in Sampit a long, long time ago. But as always the truth, new dreams are still burning inside. I hope it will be the same for you too, Array. 

Pontianak, 30 July 2021. 

Love from Grandpa Sam.

Additional Notes:

My grandfather later came back to America in 1981 to study at Rutgers University in New Jersey, sponsored by Fulbright Scholarship. During this time, he also revisited and reconnected with his host parents and siblings in Ohio.

Coming soon :  My grandfather's visit to America in 1958 was covered by local newspaper.