Wayan Damai

Translated from Bahasa Indonesia

Introduction

My name is I Wayan Damai, I come from Keliki, Tegalalang. I have polio. 

At the age of 5 I couldn't walk. I kept getting sick and my temperature was super high. I realized that I'm not like others. I was taken to a shaman. They thought I had some sort of dark magic and did some things to “help” me. But instead of getting better, I got sicker. Because polio requires a doctor or hospital, not a witch doctor. 

Because of my temperature and an injection they gave me, it caused some sort of complication in my body, and my temperature became too high. So I had a seizure. Polio can affect the legs, it can affect the hands. In my case, my legs were normal, just super small. They couldn't develop normally. Polio can affect the hands too.

Yayasan Cahaya Mutiara

Before Yayasan Cahaya Mutiara Ubud, I had already created a foundation in Jogja. It was an organization for the disabled community and we were able to help people with disabilities, overall improving their happiness and motivation. When we first started, we only had a few members, but over time we got bigger, but unfortunately we had to end that orginization.

That's why I created YCMU, I wanted to be a good example of transparency within an organization. The aim was so that our friends with disabilities are more educated and have knowledge so that they can be on their own, can live independently. I saw that if we don't work together, i don't meet others, socialize, stay at home, we won't be able to develop. 

We are all human beings, I am just different from you. Maybe you are faster than me, but I can also get to my destination. For example, other people can get to a destination in 5 minutes, I might take 10 minutes. But our destination is the same. One of the modules of YCMU is spirit. We have a vision that Yayasan Cahaya Mutiara is part of my soul.  Social justice is important because if we live only to be rich, it's not ideal for anyone. 

I established Cahaya Mutiara with my friends because I didn't want anyone else to experience what I experienced. The process to get to where I am now was not easy. Many people laughed at me. They still do. Disability needs family support, it needs neighborhood support, it needs community support. I'm trying to find ways so no one has to experience what I went through and I hope Cahaya Mutiara can be a good example for other foundations. 

Profession

I’m the chairman of the board of trustees for Cahaya Mutiara Ubud Foundation. I'm the one who gives the okay for all the decisions. That's one of the tasks of the supervisor: to give input, to give guidance. 

I used to be a painter. Now I still paint, but rarely. I also worked for a company, Mitra Bali Fair Trade. I used to work when the Bali Bombing happened, I was thinking of ways to get a stable income. So I tried working in a company for maybe 12 years. After that I tried to find something else. 

It was then that I got into sports. I didn't think I had any skill in sports. I just entered as an employee to recruit athletes in Bali. From there, I saw the opportunity to enter as an athlete. I decided to try basketball first, in Bali. After that, in 2017 I became a champion athlete in Malaysia. I was interested because I saw that in Korea there was something magical called cycling. That didn't really exist in Indonesia. We were asked to compete in the Asian Para Games, and I won. I got a Silver and Bronze. Then people saw me, recognized me as an athlete. That had never happened before. So, after winning, I got another recommendation and I competed again. I often won in clubs too, I got gold for basketball. I got the best player twice. In Korea, I was ranked second in the world for the Long Ball Championships. Doing all this sport, I felt better than ever. 

Discrimination

It's less now. In the past, there was more discrimination. When we played, it was difficult for us to climb the stairs. We were not given a school for people with disabilities because it was seen as a virus. If we get a taxi the driver sees a wheelchair, sometimes they wouldn’t take us. In Jogja, I waited for a whole day to get on a bus, even though the destination was only 5 km away. 

Recovery

It took a long time, because it's not easy. We go through many trials. There was a time I wanted to commit suicide because my family was poor. So I left home, went to a special school, specialized for friends with disabilities. I went there just to learn how to read and write. After that, I wanted to go home again. But the teacher wouldn't let me go. I was able to read when I was in second grade, I was able to read and write because I was enthusiastic. My spirit was higher. In ‘95 I won the national painting championship in Jakarta. From there I rose from my life problems. From there I was able to see that the world is still good, that’s one of my motivations that life has to be lived.

We are not like you. You can apply for a job, if we just came looking for one, we wouldn’t have the same chances as you, even though we are smart. People only see good physique. 

But I believe that life has been carved out. I live with a disability, I believe I can do it. We must be more enthusiastic, have many skills. Disabilities must be able to do a lot. All that must be done, even though we are not as physically strong as other people. That's a motivation, that I can be better, I can be smarter. I am human, you are human. I can get married, have a good normal wife and have good children. So it's not always impossible. The impossible can be possible. 

Regret

I regret it when I see my friends grow up. When I was a kid, I thought my life was no problem. I went to the rice fields on all fours, I looked for eels, that was normal. I walked on all fours. I regretted it when I saw my friends all riding bicycles, going to school. At the age of maybe 18 or 20, I started to regret it. "Why do I live like this?" My parents didn't have anything either. I had no idea where I should go. It made me sad. My mother would often fight with my father because he liked to gamble, so there was no money. Sometimes they couldn't feed me. There was a point where I only ate cassave. From that I thought, this life is not necessary. I thought it was better to die. Why do you need to die? Because I'm no longer productive. It's hard to go here, it's hard to go there.  There is no way. In the village, people's brains are also not advanced. They think that people with disabilities are diseases and garbage. If there are people on motorcycles, riding motorcycles, I feel sad. There is nothing to do. I don't see the world as good. I see my friends who are teenagers, sometimes they go out with other friends. When they leave, I'm alone. I cry alone. I also didn't want my mother to cry because of me, so it was better for me to cry when no one was looking. That, in my earlier years, is something I regret. 

Happiness

There are many things that make me happy. One is when I can help my friends at the foundation. There are 3 foundations developing. There's Sari Hati and Kim, besides YCMU. That's one of the places where I'm happy. Sometimes during meetings, I can tell people, and they change. They can be better, they can work, they can live, they can go back to their family, they can be healthy. That makes me happy. I have a lot of happiness. Having a job makes me happy. Now I have a place to live. I have a good wife, good children. One motivation that makes me happy is my little family. 

The point is, what makes me happy is that I can go freely. I can ride a motorcycle, ride a car, educate others from what I do. In the past, not many people made motorcycles for people with disabilities. I was inspired by my friends in Jogja to modify a bike and make it useable for me. It’s ugly but still usable. So what makes me happy is transportation. I can go anywhere, I don't need to ask for help from friends and family. I can go by myself. 

That's what makes me happier, I don't like working with people. What makes me happy is knowing that people accept me. I'm quick to make people laugh, that's one of the ways I'm happy. That's good for me. 

Message for the World

Obviously, the most important message is that we shouldn't give up. That's probably part of people who are already frustrated, stressed. Sometimes there are big problems, sometimes people are just too lazy to deal with them. We have to dare to try, one of my messages is that we have to be enthusiastic. First, we have to go through it because the process can't be skipped. It's not like boiling fried noodles and eating them right away. It needs a process. Sometimes we get sick, we accept it, we heal from it. It doesn't always have to hurt. If the process is done well, we will get results.