On 9 th February I set off to Jogya from Bali. I was looking forward to the trip to Salatiga, Surabaya, Bojonegoro and Mojokerto to present teacher workshops, to visit AIBEP schools and radio stations. At the airport I was met by a driver and we set off for Salatiga. It was nice to be driving along roads I haven’t been along for a while. Just as we approached Salatiga it got very dark and as we drove into the hotel the rain came down – hard! However that didn’t stop the committee driving over to the hotel to pick me up an hour later and we went to the workshop venue. It was going to take place in SMAN 3 a beautiful, old Dutch building. Everything looked great and we tried out the CD, laid tablecloths and ate snacks! The committee also insisted on a photo taken in front of the banner as they said it would be too busy tomorrow.
The next day the committee picked me and all my boxes up at 7 and we drove to SMAN 3. The participants were registering and the workshop began on time. Pak Suyit Mudjirno – the headteacher of SMAN3 gave a short speech, Pak Priyono. I also met Ibu Tina from Yasa Luhur who was one of the sponsors of the event. The workshop was great. The teachers were keen and energetic and after some encouragement joined in the activities. I say after encouragement as I feel for some teachers their “Javaneseness’ was making them shy to join in! At the end of the workshop they presented me with a box of souvenirs.
After the workshop I joined Ibu Tina and a couple of the other teachers and we drove over to Yasa Luhur to meet some of the students. At Yasa Luhur they can learn English, computer skills, and professional development at all levels. The group of students ranged from 5 and 6 years old to 22. One of them was an ex student who was now working on cruise shops, but was back in Salatiga for a holiday and came over to meet – KGI. The students were great – even though some of them were very young they weren’t shy about asking questions. I had a bit of a laugh too as some of the questions were quite unusual – did I like vintage cars and what food did I like in Salatiga. That evening Ibu Tina, her husband and some of the staff took me out for dinner at a local joglo restaurant. Ibu Tina and her husband had spent time in Australia when he was studying there.
The next morning it was an early start – 6am as I had to get to Semarang to catch a plane to Surabaya. The road from Salatiga to Semarang was busy all the way. As it was I could have spent another hour in bed as the plane was delayed and I didn’t arrive in Surabaya till lunchtime. That afternoon I went out for a couple of hours as a notice had been left in my room to say ‘fogging’ was going to take place at 4:30. It’s not healthy to breathe in all those chemicals. The next morning I checked out and took my suitcase to the last KGI/ELTIS workshop in Surabaya. It was quite a big workshop for ELTIS with 41 participants. As usual they were an energetic bunch – I’m never sure if they are so happy because of the Kang Guru workshop - or because it’s Friday and the last day of their course! We had a good time though but at 4: 00 I had to leave as the ELTIS driver was taking me to Bojonegoro.
The journey took about 3 hours because of the heavy traffic and I just had time to shower and change before the committee came to the hotel to meet me. About 7 members of the committee came over to the hotel – including Rafi,Eki, Puniq, Reny, Syham, Eko and Pak Kurno, complete with snacks and salak! We discussed the program for the next coupe of days and then I went back to my room to arrange the boxes of materials for the next few days.
In the morning we left the hotel at 7:00 to go on several school visits. The first stop was at SMP1 an RSBI school and what a surprise! Students lined the path from the front door of the school to the outdoor stage. And sitting in front of the stage were about 1,000 students! Yes that’s right 1,000!
Once a month the school has a self development activity for the students and often invites someone for an interactive dialogue. This Saturday it was KGI’s turn. Before the KGI presentation we all sand Indonesia Raya then groups of students performed. Students performed a traditional Bojonegoro dance, the school choir sang a song about Bojonegoro and a group of girls performed a modern dance. Then I gave a short presentation about KGI before the questions from students began. There were questions about scholarships, the best way to study English and asking my opinions about Bojonegoro and the area. I presented some KGI souvenirs to the school, and they presented a huge box to KGI! What was in in I thought! I didn’t have time to open it as we had to leave for the next school – SMA 4. There was a romantic theme at this school – well it was Valentines Day- and I was presented with a bunch of red roses at the school gate. The students who came to the meeting also had red roses.
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Two students Denny and Sally gave a presentation then they had lots of questions to ask me. Their teacher – Pak Kurno was there to listen as well. I was impressed by their English. When we finished here I was presented with another gift – but much smaller than the last one – I was still wondering what could be in the big box!
Next we went to an AIBEP school in Sroyo, Mts –SA Manabaul Hidayah about 40 minutes from Bojonegoro. Although the school has yet to open it was alive with students! There was a workshop for students run by Bojonegoro English Student Community or SEC. They were holding a full day of activities for almost 100 students. When KGI arrived the students were ll busily working on their wall magazines in groups around the school. There was a visit from a marching Band and a mobile library – run by SEC with donations from Exon Mobile.
The students continued working while KGI went into the school to meet the committee of the local AIBEP schools and give a presentation to teachers. I also presented a package to the 5 AIBEP school teachers who came to the meeting. Later on in the afternoon I was the judge of the yell-yell and ‘daily activity’ competition by the students. It was not easy to choose a winner they were all so good. The staff from SEC had done a great job.
I returned to the hotel about 3:00 and had a rest till we went to Radio Mandani to meet the presenters and have an interactive show. Although only one listener actually visited the studio – Taufiq there were 15 SMS and 8 callers.
I visited the SEC and met with their head Pak Agus before going back to the hotel about 9:30. It had been a tiring day but very interesting. I was very impressed by the work done by the SEC and was amazed at the English from the students earlier in the day. |
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The next day it was another workshop – for about 100 teachers in Bojonegoro. Sunday in Bojonegoro is car free day and Kurno had come to pick me up was told by the police he could not take his car to the hotel but had to park 500 meters away. Well we had 6 big boxes and I wasn’t going to carry them to the car! So I went and asked the policemen if they could help carry them if we couldn’t bring the car in. Immediately they said we could take the car in! I guess they didn’t want to carry the boxes either! The venue was very comfortable with air conditioning and held in a big hall. There was a slight panic as the box containing the workshop materials was mislaid, but then we remembered it had been put in the car the day before by mistake. The workshop started punctually and after singing Indonesia Raya the workshop began. |
Some teachers had traveled from Ngawi to attend the workshop. The tables were in a U shape which made it easy for me to get around to all the participants - except for the ones right at the back. Everyone enjoyed themselves and went home happy with new ideas for their classrooms. That wasn’t the end of the KGI day though as we also went to visit another local radio station - Radio Surya. Once again we had an interactive show and a group of listeners arrived just as we finished the show! Once again the radio station was very generous and presented KGI with gifts – I was beginning to get worried – how was I going o get all these gifts back to Bali – and I still hadn’t found time to open the big box from SMP 1 – I wonder what was in it! |
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After the radio show finished I was to travel to Mojokerto with the committee. But they couldn’t decide whose car I was to go in. And we had to call into SEC to drop off a couple of members – and use the toilet before we left. In the end we decided on the Kijang and left SEC-only to realize we had left one of the group behind! So we drove round the block and picked him up and just out of town we picked up another driver too – someone who had spent time working in Japan – or was it Taiwan? He was very funny and kept us amused on the trip. The drivers chose the back road to Mojokerto as they said it was quicker and had good views through the forest – except it was night and we couldn’t see very far! - and the road was very broken in parts, and windy so we had to drive quite slowly. Just before we reached Mojokerto we stopped at a small roadside warung – the committee were hungry – I was just tired! We ate fried chicken and rice cooked by a lady whose son was married to an English woman and lived in England – what a small world. I fell into bed about 10:00 that night - exhausted!
The next morning I thought I was being picked up at 7:00 and was ready and waiting. However it was 7:45 before the car arrived to take me to the workshop. On the way we loaded the 6 boxes of KGI materials, souvenirs etc into the back if the car, picked up cups and other crockery for the workshop and drove to Kutorejo to the workshop venue.
Was I surprised when I got there? I sure was – the school had no roof! The committee had gone to a lot of trouble to make the venue look special - in fact it looked like a wedding with white cloths on the chairs and white ‘curtains’! However the tent like roof wasn’t going to keep out the rain! The morning was interesting with many local VIP’s coming to give a speech – about 5 in all! Then the workshop began. Some of the teachers at the back kept moving seats so I asked them what the problem was – there were several – the curtains kept blowing across their seats so they couldn’t see and the cement floor was still wet in places so they were sitting in puddles of water and damp cement! It was funny! The teachers were enthusiastic though and even a knee high wall which went across the room didn’t stop them coming to the front and participating in the games.
After lunch the black clouds got closer and closer. In the end, at about 2:30 we had to finish the workshop as the rain came down. Luckily we managed to move everything in time so it didn’t get wet. An interesting day! Then I went back to Surabaya with all my bags and boxes and arrived at the hotel about 6:00. Finally I was going to open the big mystery box. I had to do some serious repacking as I had too many boxes to take back on the plane. I opened the box and there it was looking at me through it eyelashes – what was it? A wooden cow! It’s very nice, unusual and beautifully made – but not the most practical of gifts to take back to Bali! I repacked bags and boxes till I was down to 3 boxes a suitcase and one carry on piece of luggage. I hope the porters were strong! All the bags and boxes arrived in Bali safely and I would like to thank all the people of Central and East Java for their generosity and fantastic gifts. – And the cow? He’s sitting on my terrace at home looking out at the rice fields!
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