By Danielle Smith

Leader Staff Writer

Jessica Brasington is no stranger to traveling. With numerous experiences abroad under her belt, one may consider her a seasoned professional, but nothing could have prepared her for the trip she began two years ago.

Brasington, a 2012 Oxford High School grad, was in the middle of her senior year at Michigan State University. After realizing that the career path she was headed down wasn’t for her, Brasington started attending career fairs and other events that might shine a light on a different line of work.

“One day was Peace Corps day…they set up their presentation right across the hall from where I had class that day…I went into the presentation and left knowing that it was something I had to do,” Brasington said.

The Peace Corps, created by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961, gives Americans the opportunity to serve their country and the developing world through various sectors such as agriculture, health and education.

After leaving the presentation, Brasington started applying that day, spending the majority of her last semester of college gathering all of the necessary medical documents, recommendation letters and other miscellaneous forms to complete the application.

By January 2017, Brasington was working at a school in Troy as a special needs aid when she received the email she had been longing for. “I found out on a computer . . . while I was working. I was on my lunch break, checking my email, seeing what other stuff Peace Corps sent me to do this week and waiting in my inbox was (the message), ‘Congratulations! Pack your bags, Peace Corps Indonesia March 2017,’” she said. In the email, Brasington found out that she would be teaching English for the next two years.

With excitement and gratitude bursting within her, it was time for Brasington to tell her parents, who were surprised at first, but ultimately supportive of this new adventure their daughter was about to partake in. “They were shocked that I went to Michigan State University and got a four year degree to go and live in a Third World country and make $30 a month,” Brasington said.

However, Brasington’s greatest source of support was found in her grandmother.

“When I told her, she was so excited . . . This is something that she had always wanted to do,” she said. “She was my rock for those two months, getting ready.”

With two suitcases allowed and two months to prepare, Brasington had to figure out what and how to pack for the next two years of her life. She found this task to be stressful. Brasington said, “It’s not something I had ever done before. I don’t know how to anticipate what I am going to need and then there is always the question of, ‘When I get there and I need something, is there somewhere I can get it?’”

March quickly approached, meaning it was time for Brasington to say ‘good-bye’ to her family, friends and everything that she had been familiar with during her first 22 years of life. With a tear-filled send-off, Brasington remained strong and confident until she got on the plane and realized that her carry-on luggage, filled with school supplies, didn’t fit in the overhead bin. Thinking that this may be an omen and with nothing else to distract her from all of the emotions over the past two months, tears started to flow as she settled into her seat. However, Brasington wouldn’t let this hiccup dampen her spirits of serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. “I was proud of myself that this is something that I was capable of and something I was chosen to do,” she said.

Her first flight took her to Los Angeles, California, where she spent the next 24 hours meeting the other individuals that would also be serving in Indonesia. Seeing that these individuals were just as nervous, if not more nervous than Brasington helped put her mind at ease. The next day, she received her boarding pass from a Peace Corps official and was sent on her way, spending the next 40 hours in numerous planes and airports.

After arriving on the island of Java in Indonesia, Brasington was met with the kind of heat that she had never experienced in Michigan and a language that she couldn’t understand. After gathering her luggage, she headed to the city of Kediri for language training as well as other training to help make her transition into Indonesian life as smooth as possible.

Four days later, Brasington was sent to live with her first host family while she continued training for the next three months. Once those three months were up, she learned that she would officially be serving the next two years in Cigugur, Kuningan, located in West Java. “They drew a big map of the island of Java on the ground…and they gave you a tag and they blindfolded you and walked you over to where you were going to be on the map,” Brasington said. Once everyone was placed, the volunteers were allowed to take off their blindfolds to see who was going to be around each other over the next two years.

This was when Brasington realized that the nearest Peace Corps volunteer was going to be a three-mile walk from her. “You remember all of a sudden that this is a very solitary experience, that you are really by yourself in your community . . . It was a shock to look on the map and see half of my support system on the other side of the island…a nine-hour train ride away,” she said.

Brasington arrived in Cigugur during the month of Ramadan and met her permanent host family. This meant that she had one month to integrate into her village before officially beginning her service as an English teacher at a vocational high school that focused on agriculture, a one-mile walk from her house.

During her time teaching, Brasington quickly realized that the English curriculum currently being used needed to be more tailored to her students. After bringing this to the attention of the school administration, Brasington was quickly granted permission to modify the curriculum.

“The school administration was very interested in me being there and me ramping up their English Department, which I was happy to do,” she said. “I could tell (the students) loved having me and I loved having them…I loved being a part of their little school community, it meant everything to me.”

Aside from her work at school, Brasington hosted English tutoring clubs at her home as well as Indonesian Girls Leading Our World (IGLOW), a young women’s empowerment camp.

When Brasington was not teaching, she continued to learn more about Cigugur and its people and quickly realized that she was a minority. “As a white American, I have never been a minority…it was really strange to look around and not see anybody that looked like me. It was humbling…it felt isolating at times…I learned a lot about myself,” she said.

Brasington also learned about what was most valued in Indonesian culture: relationships, generosity and time together.

“It’s easy to look at a Third World country and have pity and think, ‘they have so little, that’s so sad,’ but they have so much. Their lives are so full, at least in (the part of) Indonesia where I was . . . We didn’t have much, but our cup runneth over,” she said. “Our lives in America are full, but what are they full of? Stuff? Access?”

As the months passed, Brasington’s departure date back to the U.S. was approaching and it was time for her to start packing and saying “good-bye” to the place and people that left a lasting impression on her.

“(My students) changed me to my core…progress in education is slow. It’s not something you see in the same day or the same week or even the same semester, but working with these kids and helping them build confidence…it’s just everything to be able to be there for my students,” Brasington said.

With one single backpack holding the items that she decided to keep over the past two years, Brasington boarded the plane in Jakarta and started her trek home to Detroit.

“My mom saw me through the doors (at the airport) and she came in and just called for me and just tears…it was so good to see her; she gave me the biggest hug.”

It has been three months since Brasington has been back home in Michigan, and she has quickly realized that she isn’t the same person that left.

“I am different. My mindset has changed, my values as a person have changed, my priorities have changed…my career goals have totally changed,” she said.

After being an educator for the past two years, Brasington wants to go back to school to get her master’s degree in social work or public administration.

“I know that I have grown from this experience into the kind of person that I wanted to be, and I am definitely someone that 17-year-old Jess that graduated from Oxford High School, would be proud of.”