KangGURU
Travel to Jepara
in 2003
Travels with The Captain
KGRE travels throughout Indonesia on a regular basis.
On this trip Kevin travels via Jakarta to see the Kiripuanji
Art Exhibition and then to Jepara in East Java for a
Teacher Workshop, a KGRE 'Get
Together' and to see an ACIAR supported research activity
into shrimps at the Centre of Brackishwater Aquaculture
Development (CBAD).
 |
First stop on the KGRE trip to Jepara
on August 28th was Jakarta. I attended the opening of the
Kiripuanji Art Exhibition at the Teksu Gallery Kemang. Mr.
David Ritchie, Australian Ambassador, opened the exhibition of aboriginal
art. There were about 60 people there to look at the wonderful art
work from the Tiwi Island artists of the Northern Territory. The exhibition
has already been displayed in many other parts of the world including
India and Singapore. |
On Friday August the 29th I flew to Semarang
in Central Java and then took a
taxi onto Jepara. Jepara is famous in Indonesia for the furniture
produced there. It is also well-known for the hot daily temperatures it
has and the day I arrived was no different- it was HOT HOT! I wasn’t
there to look at the furniture of course but to conduct Teacher Workshop
for local English language teachers and to attend the Jepara district
KGCC Get Together. Late in the afternoon Mizan from the Jepara
English Club came to see me in the hotel to discuss the weekend’s
activities. Everything was well underway in the planning department and
after talking to him I was very excited at the prospect of meeting both
teachers and students over the following two days.
The Teacher Workshop was well underway by 9am
on Saturday the 30th with a collection of 60 secondary and tertiary English
language teachers assembled at Aula Kampus STIENU Jepara. It was great
to ‘get into it’ and enjoy the workshop activities once again.
It was the first time that I used some of the activities from the August
2003 Reading Class Set including a wonderful gap-fill about GIGI. It includes
selection of their music alongside facts from their career. Participants
loved it and I am sure students will enjoy it too when their teachers
give it, amongst others, to them in their English language classrooms
during 2003 and 2004. The brand new KGRE posters were a big hit with the
workshop participants as were KGRE t-shirts.
 |
After the workshop at Kampus STIENU
Jepara the wonderful organzing committee took me to the Centre
of Brackishwater Aquaculture Development (CBAD) in a beachside
area of Jepara. |
Although Pk. Ambas Maswardi, Head of CBAD was unavailable
at the time, Pk Taslihan and his associates were more than willing and
able to tell me all about one of their current projects at the
Centre for Brackishwater Aquaculture Development (CBAD) in Jepara.
We took time ted research activity into
shrimps at the Centre of Brackishwater Aquaculture Development (CBAD).
|
First stop on the KGRE trip to Jepara
on August 28th was Jakarta. I attended the opening of the
Kiripuanji
Art Exhibition at the Teksu Gallery Kemang. Mr. David Ritchie,
Australian Ambassador, opened the exhibition of aboriginal art. There
were about 60 people there to look at the wonderful art work from
the Tiwi Island artists of the Northern Territory. The exhibition
has already been displayed in many other parts of the world including
India and Singapore. |
On Friday August the 29th I flew to Semarang
in Central Java and then took a
taxi onto Jepara. Jepara
is famous in Indonesia for the furniture
produced there. It is also well-known for the hot daily temperatures it
has and the day I arrived was no different- it was HOT HOT! I wasn’t
there to look at the furniture of course but to conduct Teacher Workshop
for local English language teachers and to attend the Jepara district
KGCC Get Together. Late in the afternoon Mizan from the Jepara
English Club came to see me in the hotel to discuss the weekend’s
activities. Everything was well underway in the planning department and
after talking to him I was very excio look at some of the 60 brackish
water ponds in which shrimp are growing while being studied by the research
scientists at CBAD. Eliminating the ‘white spot’ shrimp disease
is one CBAD’s prime objectives and with assistance from
ACIAR their objectives are slowly being realized. For ACIAR's
Indonesian activities - Click Here. More on this interesting
work in the December 2004 magazine and on radio KG in the early months
of 2004.
Once again I have to say that Jepara is one of the hottest
places I
have ever been to in Indonesia.
Nice – but HOT!
I stayed at the Jepara Indah Hotel and over the weekend
they hosted owners of Harley
Davidson motorcycles – plenty of them. During the course
of the weekend the hotel car park was abuzz with the roar and huge motorbike
engines. They noise began early morning and although it wasn’t all
day long, the noise was still to be heard late at night as well. I believe
it is the 100th anniversary of Harley Davidson and owners all
around the world are celebrating. Noisy but okay by me.
On Sunday August 31st I attended the 3rd
KGCC Get Together. It was held in Jepara and was attended by over 100
KGCC club members from as far away as Semarang. The activities began with
an opening speech by Mizran, leader of the Organizing Committee from the
Young
Jepara English Club, KGCC # 30. I introduced myself next and got
straight into things with the regular Club Mixing Up Activity.
The activity is designed to get members from different clubs mixing and
meeting each other.
It was successful and meant that we could go on with the second activity
– KGRE’s Language Quiz. Participants were organized into groups
of 6 people. Members of the groups had to include people from at least
three different clubs. The language quiz was quite successful and it was
great to see members discussing and thinking about answers to questions
such as –
1a. What is the name of the airport in Makassar?
b. What is the name of the province?
c. Name the alternative name for Makassar?
2. Think of three words –
a. The first starts with ‘h’ and is a place of healing.
b. The second starts with ‘m’ and is a form of transport –
9 letters.
c. The third (two words) starts with ‘tp’ and can be found
in many
bathrooms.
3. Unjumble these words to make
a question –
? members here are there many how club today
4. Name three artists who have
been interviewed by KGRE during the
past two years?
| 
|
The day continued with mini presentations from the
participating clubs. These included poetry, singing performances
and short speeches.
Guest speakers including Pak Taslihan from the ACIAR
supported shrimp project in Jepara also gave a presentation about
their very important work with shrimp aquaculture and disease control.
Students really enjoyed the presentation and they asked many questions
about the research project. Questions and answers were in both English
and Bahasa Indonesia. There will more about this ACIAR supported
activity on radio KGRE and in the December 2003 magazine. ACIAR
not only supports this project in Indonesia but also in Thailand
and Australia. |
The Teacher Workshop was well underway by
9am on Saturday the 30th with a collection of 60 secondary and tertiary
English language teachers assembled at Aula Kampus STIENU Jepara.
It was great to ‘get into it’ and enjoy the workshop
activities once again. It was the first time that I used some of
the activities from the August 2003 Reading Class Set including
a wonderful gap-fill about GIGI. It includes selection of their
music alongside facts from their career. Participants loved it and
I am sure students will enjoy it too when their teachers give it,
amongst others, to them in their English language classrooms during
2003 and 2004. The brand new KGRE posters were a big hit with the
workshop participants as were KGRE t-shirts.
|
After the workshop at
Kampus STIENU Jepara the wonderful organzing committee took
me. After lunch we gave away more Door Prizes to lucky ticket
holders (15 winners altogether) and we held the KGRE Music
Quiz. Participants, once again in groups of 6, listened to
10 short segments of some well known English and Indonesia
songs. Some of the songs were played double speed just to
make some of the songs a little more interesting.
- What is the name of the group?
- Translate the first line of the
song into English.
- Who is the female singer at the
beginning of the song?
|
 |
to the Centre of Brackishwater Aquaculture Development (CBAD)
in a beachside area of Jepara. |
Although Pk. Ambas Maswardi, Head of CBAD was unavailable
at the time, Pk Taslihan and his associates were more than willing
and able to tell me all about one of their current projects at the
Centre for Brackishwater Aquaculture Development (CBAD) in Jepara.
We took time to look at some of the 60 brackish
water ponds in which shrimp are growing while being studied by the
research scientists at CBAD. Eliminating the ‘white spot’
shrimp disease is one CBAD’s prime objectives and with assistance
from ACIAR their
objectives are slowly being realized. For ACIAR's Indonesian activities
- Click Here. More on this interesting work in the
December 2004 magazine and on radio KG in the early months of 2004.
|
The Jepara KGCC Get Together finished
around 3pm with presentations of gifts being made to individual
clubs attending the Get Together. The Organizing Committee gave
me a motorbike as a thank you gift. Great, eh? Sure was and it was
a wooden motorbike made right there in Jepara by local craftsmen.
I want to thank the Jepara Organizing Committee
very much for all their hard work organizing this wonderful day.
Everything went so well including communication equipment, snacks
and lunch, club presentations and general minute to minute activities.
A job very well done!
Another excellent result of the visit to Jepara is that within a
few weeks KGRE will be broadcast on radio in the Jepara area. ‘Radio
Persona’ will be broadcasting KGRE every Sunday afternoon
as a part of their regular Sunday afternoon English language services
to the Jepara community. I really appreciate their willingness to
play KGRE and look forward to working together with the radio station
and Pak. Noor Ain, English Language Coordinator at the station.
|
| After the Get Together was over I was
driven to Semarang by members of the Organizing Committee. I booked
into the Ciputra Hotel for the evening and headed back to Jakarta
early on Monday morning. I did not stay in Jakarta but flew straight
onto Bali arriving there mid-afternoon. Another KGRE trip finished
and time to get back into the office for a while. |
|
 |
|
Return to Past Travels of KGRE in Indonesia
|
