Introducing me x)

Posted by Fafa on December 29th, 2007 | Categorized as Introduction | 158 views and 6 Comments

hello, everyone.

My name is Tisa Hanifa, but you can call me Fafa.

I was born as an Indonesian, in Hong Kong. It was my Dad’s first posting out of the country, and there were a lot of things that my parents went through. So, as a child, I did not question why he moved around. 3 years later, we went back to Jakarta and everything began to change. That was my first adaptation stage: weather change, finance change and we live in a house. Not an apartment, like in Hong Kong.

My Dad began to have meetings outside the country, and I still wondered why he had to go. One day in 1996, me and my 4 year old sister were told that we were supposed to go to Iran. We searched on the map, and it was half way around the world. We got so excited!

We grew up making friends with multicultural background. We were best friends with ASEAN Diplomatic kids, we played daily with fellow Indonesians and we tried learning Persian by “intruding” playtime of our Iranian neighbors.

I was 11 when I went back to Jakarta. Being a pre-teen, I thought that I was pretty normal. My hair was dark, fair skinned, my lips, nose and eyes were perfectly normal. I was chubby and happy. My 6th grade Indonesian friends accepted me just fine, though I had to learn my language AGAIN. However, when I entered Junior High School, bad things began to happen.

The first thing EVERYONE questioned was, why I can pronounce English words perfectly while they still struggle on remembering the word “comfortable” or “vegetable”. I see other Indonesians that scored A’s in English, but they still questioned me for my accent and knowledge in the subject. I was more fair skinned than the other tan Indonesians, and I told them that it was probably because I play in the snow too much. I told them that my Dad works as a Diplomat, that his job requires him to go places. They give me looks when I read English essays faster than them and when I write better grammar than my seniors. And when I told them that I was born in Hong Kong, they alienated me.

In English period, they copied my work. In other subjects, they dominated. During recess, they dissed me.

Even my seniors. A lot of people hated me, without even getting to know.

Everyone thought that I was wealthy just because the way I speak is not like a native Indonesian.

I graduated Junior High School just fine, but I still have that question in the back of my head.

“Do I belong?”

I am not a Chinese, though I was born in Hong Kong.

I am not an Iranian, though I grew up there.

Nor was I accepted by Indonesians.

Few months back, my sister and I came across a book called “TCK” and she explained to me what it was.

I finally felt that I belong, that there are millions of global nomads who might get rejected by their own fellow friends back home….wait, I mean, that does not feel home in their passport citizenship.

Currently, I am staying in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

My Dad’s posting will finish by the end of next month and he is going back to Jakarta for few years before getting posted elsewhere.

I am staying, I feel like home in Kuala Lumpur. (okay, and because I want to finish my University here too!)

But when my Dad gets posted again, I am definitely following him!

Tisa Hanifa

I'm a 17 year old Indonesian, born in Hongkong, raised in Iran and now in Malaysia.