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KangGURU Travels to Sulawesi in 2003 Kevin travelled to Jakarta, Sulawesi and within Bali in early 2003. He visited AusAID activities in Jakarta (banking) and interviewed the Australian Ambassador, Mr. David Ritchie. He also went to Manado and Makassar to conduct IELTS testing for the Australian Development Scholarship program. While in South Sulawesi he also visited several KGRE Connection Clubs including a club in Wajo - four hours north of Makassar plus he interviewed AIYEP participants who had just returned from Australia. In March he also visited another KGRE Connection Club in Bali. Kevin also conducted Teacher Workshops in Jembrana and Ubud, Bali. It was time to get moving so the first KGRE trip for 2003 was a five day journey to the nation's capital city, Jakarta. It was a real business type trip with many appointments and a lot of criss-crossing the city. I went to the Australian Embassy for a short interview with Australia's new Ambassador to Indonesia. Mr. David Ritchie. We chatted about KGRE (he was very interested in the work of KGRE) but also about his newly announced appointment to Indonesia as the Australian Ambassador. My other Embassy meetings included one with staff from ACIAR, another with the Manager of Australia Education International, Tony Michener, and the new Cultural Officer to Indonesia, Beverly Mercer. We will be hearing a lot more from these and many other Embassy personnel during 2003. Other highlights of the Jakarta trip included an afternoon meeting with PADI (great to see them again) at their new recording studios in South Jakarta and with Emma and Helmi at Warner Music in Jakarta. It was Warner Music that helped me obtain interviews with Marcell and Andien. And I must not forget my interview with Steven Orr from the AusAID sponsored banking restructuring project - now that was a very interesting interview indeed. Listen for that one on Kang Guru Radio soon and read about it in the April 2003 magazine. An afternoon was spent with Gene, KGRE's website designer. Gene and I worked on the new KGRE Flyer - it is now finished and I hope you like it. If you have any ideas how we should distribute it or use it for promotion then please write to me and tell me. Late January KGRE headed north from Bali on a four hour plane journey to Manado, capital city of North Sulawesi. One of the main reasons for going to Manado was to assist fellow IALF staff with the Joint Selection Testing of applicants for Australian Development Scholarships (ADS). Together with Caroline and Jo, we began testing keen but nervous applicants at a large university just outside Manado. While in Manado I also visited students at several schools including SLTP 1 and SMU Rexamundi. At SMU 1 Manado I was interesting to see on the wall of the Principal's Office a rather long list of past ADS winners who actually attended that school a long time ago. I wondered how many of the people interviewed during the ADS testing this time around were old SMU 1 students. At RRI Manado over 100 local school students participated in an interactive KGRE session with me as the leader. This interactive event was broadcast live over local television in Manado and that little surprise made me just a little nervous - live television all across the city. I wasn't aware that the broadcast was going to take place until I arrived at RRI. But as a result of the broadcast KGRE received many requests for the magazine and now KGRE is all the more well-known in that far northern part of the Indonesian archipelago. After a few days in Manado I headed south to Makassar to assist Vlad and Pauline with ADS testing. Around 60 applicants completed the reading, writing, listening and speaking test necessary for ADS selection. We wish them all luck. KGRE's old friend, Pak Shyrir welcomed me to the regular Sunday afternoon meeting of the Best Forum Club at SLTP 1 Makassar. Other South Sulawesi Connection Club members joined us there for an informal chat about KG and the Connection network. We talked a lot about many things including The POUCH and how is can be used in club meetings, A big thrill was helping Pak Syahrir with his RRI Interactive program a few days later and it was great that so many people called in to speak to us. Makassar certainly has some great English language speakers and they all seem so keen to practice too.
Bali - March 18th - 22nd, 2003 During February KGRE presented Teacher Workshops to English language teachers in Jembrana and Ubud, Bali. At the invitation of SMP 1 Mendoyo, I happily introduced 65 teachers to KG in the Classroom. It was interesting to note that the students at SMP 1 Mendoyo actually facilitated the workshop in their school - they are a very active KG Connection Club - Formula English Club - and mad about English. They presented several comedy and cultural performances to add to the day's more academic activities. There are certainly many keen and enthusiastic English language learners in that area of Bali. At the Bali Hati complex in Ubud a further 70 teachers
attended a workshop jointly presented by KGRE and IALF Bali. This was
a full day activity with Kevin leading off in the morning closely followed
by Siti and Dian from
IALF in the afternoon discussing the teaching of grammar in the
high school English classroom. Bali Hati, a well-known and very active
NGO in Bali is to assist KGRE in future months by organizing similar workshops
in other towns such as Almapura and Karangasem. If you would like to know
more about these planned events then contact KGRE by e-mail.
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