Laurel MacLaren first came to Indonesia in 1985 as a high-school exchange student and later spent her twenties in Yogyakarta working on the country’s early HIV/AIDS response. During the Reformasi era she built a career in international development, focusing on poverty alleviation, social cohesion, and human rights. Laurel’s blog Hope is a Verb chronicles her personal journey of defiance and everyday resistance to authoritarian rule. The views expressed here are her own.