On November 22, ETA Maria Isabel “Isa” Nieves Bosch gave a presentation about her home, Puerto Rico, to her school SMKN 7 Surakarta. The Aula was full of teachers, students, and guests from other schools. After singing the national anthem and the SMKN anthem, the principle Bu Wening introduced Isa; then, the ETA explained that the event was in celebration of International Education Week.

Throughout the presentation, Bu TriYa and Pak Joko helped translate from English to Indonesian. Isa showed pictures of her culture, food, and music. In addition, she discussed Puerto Rico’s colonial history and the island’s current relationship with the United States. Isa taught a few basic Spanish words like “buenos días” and the alphabet. Everybody repeated ABC’s in Spanish after her.

Later, Isa got up on stage and demonstrated the basic steps to dance salsa. Some teachers and students joined the dancing and found it a little complicated. They were not used to the rhythm and the instruments. However, they laughed at their mistakes and just kept moving. In the end, people had the chance to ask questions and give comments. One woman said: “I think the Spanish language is very sexy.” Isa laughed at this but agreed. There were lots of moments that made the event special. The ETA especially liked finding the similarities between Indonesia and Puerto Rico. Some examples are the love for fried food, Sinetron, and telenovelas, dugong and manatees. Even on the opposite part of the word, people can see other cultures very close to home.

Maria Isabel “Isa” Nieves is currently teaching at SMKN 7 Surakarta, Central Java.