It was very unusual for four members of the KGI team to be going on a trip together, but that's what happened recently. Ayu, Ogi, Alwi and myself all flew to Jogyakarta on Thursday evening. We stayed the night then early the next morning set off from the hotel in 4 becak for the railway station. It was only a short ride away but it can be quite alarming at traffic junctions when cars, motorcycles even buses whizz by with what feels like only inches to spare. Taking a becak in Jogya today is not as relaxing as it was 20 years ago!

The train left on time and was very comfortable – wide seats, plenty of legroom – staff even offered a full menu if you were hungry. The journey passed through some lovely rice field scenery and two hours later we arrived in Purwokerto. We went straight to the Dynasty hotel – our base for the next couple of days. After lunch at a local warung we were met by Yudi, the President of SEF and members of SEF – the Student English Forum at Jenderal Soedirman University. After introducing ourselves, and remembering our last meeting in IALF, Jakarta we went to the university to meet the other members.

As we drove through Purwokerto all the KGI team remarked on how clean and tidy the town appears. After the meeting we all went to a local restaurant – 'Kamangi' and enjoyed some local food – including tempe mendoan. Yummy! Until the food arrived we played games and a couple of people had to pay a fine – by singing. One was very good but with the other singer I think it was the audience which was being punished! While we were at the restaurant we were able to watch some of the Royal wedding on the TV – it looked spectacular.

The next morning Yudi picked us up at the hotel and we went to the new, three month old building. Wow, what a place! The auditorium is the biggest I have ever seen, a gym and several smaller rooms – one of which we used for the KGI/SEF Fun Day. The opening ceremony was short and to the point. The day was noisy! All the students joined in and there was a lot of English used and a lot of laughing. We had team games, quizzes, a yell yell competition and a listening activity – all in English of course. After lunch we were joined by some teachers from local SMP schools. We showed them how to find and use Kang Guru audio and activities on the website, and introduced them to the new Joeys page on the Internet.

We asked them to promote this page to their students and hopefully we will see some positive results soon. As we were presenting our afternoon session a thunderstorm outside was getting louder and louder. Minutes after we finished presenting there was a very loud crack of lightening and all the electricity went off! We were lucky although we had to drive back to the hotel in heavy rain!

That night we went to a local food court for dinner and I think most of us were happy to have an early night and watch at least some of the Royal wedding. In the morning Ayu and I left Alwi and Ogi at the hotel and we returned to Jogya. Ogi and Alwi still had some KGI work InPurkokerto. The drive took about four and a half hours and we went direct to the airport. Ayu was going to Jakarta to work with the next group of BRIDGE teachers and I went back to Bali.

See more about SEF and their activities including a wall magazine on www.sefunsoed.org