Excitement is brewing for two Indonesian schools ahead of a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama next week. Obama was six when he moved to Jakarta. He briefly attended Menteng 01 Elementary School before moving to the St. Asisi School, also in Jakarta.

On Thursday, students there were rehearsing and putting the final touches on their activities to welcome the President.

[Hasymah, Headmaster, Menteng 01]:
"This rehearsal is a contest for creativity contest and also to welcome guests including Obama, that is for sure."

Even though Obama only attended Menteng for less than a year in 1970, students are nonetheless proud.

The teachers who taught Obama at the school have since retired, but they still have fond memories of him.

[Effendi, Former Teacher at Menteng 01]:
"If I have an opportunity to meet him, I will be very happy as we have not seen each other for forty years."

[Israella Pareira, Former Teacher at Menteng 01]:
"He always sat at the very back of the class because he was big and the tallest among his classmates. We still keep his chair in the classroom. He was a nice boy, he was tall and helped me when he saw I couldn't erase the blackboard, he came to me and said, 'Can I help you? May I help you?’"

At St. Asisi School, Obama is an inspiration to the students.

[Nathalie, Student]:
"I was taught by Obama's former teacher and she said that Obama was a smart boy, so I hope all the students here in Asisi can be as smart as Obama."

Obama spent four years of his childhood in Indonesia after his American mother married an Indonesian Muslim, following the end of her marriage to Obama's Kenyan father. Then he returned to Hawaii in the U.S. to live with his grandparents.