| Kevin traveled to Labuhan Bajo to present
a KGI teacher workshop for teachers in that western
part of Flores. The workshop was initiated by Emily
Morrison, an Australian Volunteer in Labhan Bajo, and
set up by local teacher/volunteer in Komodo, Pak Doni
Parcsa.
After having lived in Indonesia for so many years I
finally got to go to Labuhan Bajo. It had been a dream
of mine and beginning March 5th, the dream came true.
KGI was invited to Labuhan Bajo by Emily Morrison, an
Australian Volunteer International based there. Although
Emily left on March 1st, the teacher workshop she requested
was finally delivered on March 6th. I had just missed
Emily but circumstances were not right for the workshop
to be done earlier. Thanks Emily.
Pak Doni Pacra, who volunteers at Satu Atap Palau Komodo
provided a lot of help which mean that the Kang Guru
Indonesia workshop for English language teachers in
the area could go ahead. Doni worked very hard contacting
DIKNAS, teachers in the area, Emily and working with
Ogi Yutarini at KGI Bali so that the workshop could
go ahead.
I flew to Labuhan Bajo on Friday morning from Denpasar.
I sort of wasn’t looking forward to the flight
on Trigana Air cos I had a lot of KGI type-baggage and
was worried that it would be too much for the aircraft,
and I remember Trigana as having sort of old planes.
I was quite surprised when the baggage was no problem
and that the aircraft was a 4-engined jet – not
propellers and quite a large plane carrying around 60
people. The flight was just 55 minutes and of course
the views were spectacular over Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo
and flying into Labuhan Bajo itself. Spectacular!
I met with Pak Doni the first afternoon at the hotel
and we chatted about the workshop, his career and his
life in the Flores area. He is a very busy young man
and has a real passion for teachers and students. His
enthusiasm was great to see. Without him I think the
workshop would not have gone ahead.
He told me about his school on Komodo – a new
AIBEP school – a satu atap – an SD school
to which has been added an SMP or junior high school.
The additions t the school were completed about four
months ago (November 2009) and just a month later a
local school Principal was appointed. The school has
about 80 students of which ??? are in the SMP section
of the school. It is the first time ever that the students
on Komodo have had a high school to go to thanks to
the local community and the Australia Indonesia Basic
Education Program (AIBEP). The Komodo school is just
one of 2000 schools built across Indonesia and all are
due to be fully open and operational by July 2010 –
fantastic!
The students and community in Komodo are really proud
of their school. It has an office, 3 classrooms and
separate toilet facilities for girls and boys. It is
new and looks great. Now the community has to address
several issues to make their school complete.
Staffing is made up of teachers from the SD section
of the school so there needs to be teachers working
there that are trained for SMP level students.
There is no electricity but this is actually not a great
problem as the island only has electricity between 6pm
and 11pm anyway courtesy of a private GENSET (generator)
in the tourist area about 15 minutes from the school.
Komodo dragons can enter the school area because there
is no fence to keep them out. Several years ago a young
student was attacked by a komodo dragon very close to
the school and just a few months ago a teacher was mauled
and had to go to Denpasar for emergency treatment. A
passing boat with American tourists on board recently
donated Rp.15 million to help build a strong bamboo
fence around the school. That’s great and thanks
to the visitors BUT the fence will not last forever.
The community wants to erect a permanent fence for the
school and for the protection of the students and teachers.
Doni is working hard to make sure this fence is built
soon.
On Saturday the 6th of March I went to SMIP 5 Labuhan
Bajo to present a KGI Teacher Workshop for approximately
50 eager teachers from the area. Two of the teachers
had traveled lal the way from Ruteng in inland Flores,
a 4 hour trip by road. They arrived the night before
so that they would be on time for the workshop.
The workshop
was timed to begin at 8am so I went to SMIP Labuhan
Bajo by car at 7.15am. Howevr the rain started and it
was very heavy rain. Teachers were late and the school
grounds were flooded and getting around this large school
was quite difficult. The workshop actually began at
9.0am with 32 teachers coming from as far away as Ruteng.
The wotkshop went well even with the initial technical
problems we experienced.
Lunch was provided
by students in the Food & Beverage who spent he
morning preparing and cooking the delicious lunch that
we all enjoyed. Thanks to the staff and students at
SMIP or SMK 1 Labuhan Bajo.
The workshop
continued after lunch and finished at 3.00pm. The vast
majority of the teachers had never had a teacher workshop
before so they really appreciated the activities and
the materials from KGI. The participants want more of
the practical activities for teaching English so perhaps
KGI can return some day soon.
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Teachers from the Labuhan Bajo area worked hard during the KGI teacher workshop BUT it was also fun. |
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