Dare to Dream and Have Self-Preparation

I am Kristiani Pedi, usually called Ina, from a village in East Sumba regency, East Nusa Tenggara province. Like other young people after having graduated from high school, I wanted to continue my study to a higher level to have a proper job and a good career. Formerly, I wanted to study theology to be a pastor serving church congregations. However, I faced hard challenges, such as the paradigm that women do not need to get a high education, the offer to work, and so on. The biggest obstacle to continue my studies was the economic limitation that forced me to put off my hope to continue my study but my enthusiasm still flaming out.

Well, on one hand, the situation made me down, but on the other hand, it put me have spare time. I am a person who cannot stay still and I wanted to do many activities, so I decided to participate in any activity as long as it is useful. One time, I took part in a training held by Stube HEMAT Sumba, and through it, I understood that the institution concerns for students and young people by equipping many things about life, the importance of the learning process, knowledge and science, how the implementations and many more. I felt so grateful when Stube HEMAT Sumba through an Exposure program to Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta in 2019 provided an opportunity for me and two students from Sumba to learn at Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta for one month. During the program in Yogyakarta, Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta accompanied us to learn more about self-development, agriculture, creativity and entrepreneurship, photography, cooking, and several other practical skills. When I arrived back in Sumba, I received continuous attention and support from the Stube HEMAT Sumba and Yogyakarta teams to share and develop the knowledge I had while in Yogyakarta. One of them is developing agricultural land for young people and photography.

In 2020, there was an admission for a Hospitality School in Southwest Sumba and I decided to take part in the selection. I had to compete with hundreds of candidates from four regencies in Sumba for one chance. I realized that the competition was tough because this school has an international level but I did not give up. I dared to dream and I have to prepare myself by learning and loving every process. One of them was improving my English skills, yes, because English is an international language. The ability to speak English will help someone to communicate in the international level. I learned English independently without taking courses. Eventually, I became one of the fifty candidates for the department I was interested in, the front office department. Now, I am very grateful to be part of this school as a dream school for some Sumba youth. Here I learn to be a disciplined and responsible person.

I think back when my study was delayed, it turns out that God opened ‘another way’ to learn through Stube-HEMAT, which made me a tough, resilient, and creative person. At the age of twentieth, I received God's blessing to continue studying at the Sumba Hospitality Foundation in Southwest Sumba. Stube HEMAT inspires me and opens opportunities to learn many things. One thing that I always hold on to is that Stube never let the students walking on their own, I am very lucky to be part of Stube HEMAT that has been supporting me and even being a family.

Many dreams that I have for the future, such as taking a half-part of my mother's burden in paying the school fees of my younger siblings, pioneering a workshop of traditional tied woven cloth to preserve the cultural heritage of East Sumba, opening job opportunities for the young people, developing Ana Tana community (youth agriculture) to reach young people and become a platform for talent development. (TRU).