It was an early start for my trip to Kendari. I left home at 5:15 and because it was so early there was little traffic and so I met Tjok at the airport in Bali at about 6:00. The flight to Makassar left on time at 6:50 where we had almost a three hour wait for the next plane to Kendari. The time passed quite quickly and before long we landed in Kendari. This was my first visit to Kendari and I was surprised to find how spread out it was. We checked into the Athaya hotel about 1:00 and decided to have a rest after our early start. At 4:00 we called for a taxi to take us to the mall – which was more like a market, and as we wandered around I was amazed that almost every stall was selling things for women – clothes, bags, shoes, jilbabs, jewelery, perfume – it was incredible. Is there another market for men somewhere?
We called Yussuf our friendly taxi driver and we wnet to another 'mall' which turned out to be Matahari where we had been told there was some places which sold fod. Nothing there took ur fancy so we walked down the road til we found a busy stall selling basic ayam and ikan bakar. Very tasty it was too! Pak Yussuf came back and we went back to the hotel via the oleh-oleh shop. Kendari is famous for cashew nuts so Tjok and I bought nuts, biscuits, coffee and popped chilli corn to take back to Bali and the office. – after trying them all I can say they were all very nice – especially the jagung goring special!
After breakfast the next morning Tjok and I began to prepare the room for the workshop. As we unpacked the boxes and got everything set up I realized we had no worksheets! We phoned Alwi who admitted to have forgotten them! AAAAAHHHH. Luckily I always keep a copy with me so we got the worksheets together, jumped in a taxi and went to the photocopy shop. Wow – I was very impressed by the shop as we arrived. There was a bank of 8 photocopiers back to back against the wall, lots of staff in uniform, at the back of the shop was a book binding and printing section and the adjoining shop sold all sorts of stationary supplies. 'Very professional,' I said to myself, 'Good, this won't take long.'
How wrong can you be! Half the machines didn't actually work – although staff never stopped trying to use them. It was if they aren't used for 5 minutes when I go back they will be working again! There was a technician but apart from chain smoking – while standing under the no smoking sign didn't actually do anything. People kept trying to push in with their orders, the lady who began my order soon passed it on to someone else while she took charge of changing a machine – then disappeared. I think over the next hour and a half it took four different people and four different machines to finally complete my order. By the way the cashier didn't do a very good job either! She undercharged us! – maybe it was compensation for the long wait!
We raced back to the hotel and finished preparing the room, then back to our own rooms to prepare for the participants arrival. As I tried to get ready my room telephone was ringing and there were knocks on the door as the participants arrived and wanted to 'register' – the hotel reception had given them my room number. Eventually I went out about 12:30 and met the teachers who had arrived early plus Ibu Suharti, the District Coordinator. |
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All the teachers and Ibu Suharti had come from the Kolaka area – a 4 hour drive away. Most of the teachers were ready to begin at 1:00 but I think a couple of them were having a snooze and it took a few SMS till everyone was in the room. We began the workshop with an introduction to Kang Guru and how we work together with AIBEP teachers. The teachers were quite well informed about AIBEP but few had heard of Kang Guru. They were very interested to learn more. During the afternoon we covered topics such does a teacher just teach and why we need a lesson plan. The afternoon finished at 5: 00 and it was time for us all to take a rest. During the afternoon we all made complaints to the hotel as the air conditioning was not working properly in the room, and as the afternoon wore on we all got hotter and hotter. So at the end of the session the hotel told us we could move upstairs to a different rook for the next two days. Thanks goodness! We all enjoyed a very social dinner later in the evening where the first of the many photos were taken! |
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The next two days, although quite long, passed very quickly. Tjok stayed for the first morning, videoing then she returned to Bali. The participants received 'Listen and Learn with Kang Guru SMP Packages' and we tried different types of activities. They, worked in groups to plan activities around a topic, using criteria they selected, they tried giving clear instructions and also had fun with some team and individual games and quizzes including a quiz using the March 2011 KGI bulletin. All of the activities were practical - the teachers could replicate them in their own classrooms. The climax of the three day workshop was the Kang Guru quiz which the teachers played in teams. There was fierce competition for the prizes – new Sabang to Merauke Kang Guru tshirts. In the end the quiz was won by an all-woman team.
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After all the participants left – and more photos, I packed up and went to my room – and slept – for 8 hours! I was coming down with a virus and by Saturday morning I had lost my voice completely – in fact today – nearly 2 weeks later my voice is still not 100%. You will be able to hear some of my squeaky voice if you listen to series 7300 of the Kang Guru radio shows.
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