For most of us, missing out on an opportunity to see the president would be a big disappointment, but for one little girl it seemed like the end of the world.
The girl, whose name is Neisha, had wanted to see President Joko Widodo while he was on a work trip to Tomohon, North Sulawesi, last Tuesday. The president’s convoy was scheduled to pass by her family’s house that day on the way to another event and Neisha had been waiting to see him that morning.
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But an unfortunately timed trip to the bathroom caused Neisha to miss Jokowi as he passed by. Upon learning this, she immediately started crying tears of inconsolable sadness and bitter anger, blaming her father for not alerting her to the president’s presence.
Her mother, Nova Rampengan, took a video of Neisha’s adorable sadness over not seeing the president and put it on Facebook, where it quickly went viral and was written about by several media outlets.
The video also caught the attention of Kahiyang Ayu, Jokowi’s daughter. She posted on Instagram, asking if anybody knew how they could get in contact with Neisha’s family. Kahiyang’s message reached Nova, who then got in contact with the president’s daughter to help set up a very special surprise for Neisha.
The result of that heartwarming surprise was published on New Year’s Eve as the latest video blog post from Jokowi’s youngest son Kaesang. In the video, Kaesang and Kahiyang explain the story of Neisha’s missed meeting with their father and also replay the video one more time.
Kahiyang first calls Nova to ask for Neisha. Once Neisha is on the line, she hands the phone over to the president. Their conversation went something like this:
Jokowi: Hello Neisha, good evening. You were the one crying the other day, yeah?
Neisha: Yeah…
Jokowi: Why were you crying?
Neisha: I wanted to meet…
Jokowi: Who did you want to meet?
Neisha: Bapak President.
Jokowi: Oh you wanted to meet the president. And you couldn’t meet him?
Neisha: Yeah…
Jokowi: Yeah, I saw you were crying the other day. Well, I’m recording this, later you can watch it on Youtube, ok? But don’t cry anymore, ok?
Neisha: Ok.
Jokowi: Study hard, ok?
Neisha: Ok.
Here you can see the conversation from Neisha’s side.
The next day, on January 1, Nova posted this impossibly cute video of Neisha praying for the president and his family to be healthy and blessed by God in the New Year.
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