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KangGURU Travels to Sumatra in 2003 KGRE travels throughout Indonesia delivering Teacher Workshops to English language teachers, visiting schools and radio stations, interviewing Dadi and Alim from the Muslim Exchange Program, meeting with GIGI, addressing KG Connection Clubs (Yogyakarta, Medan, Kota Pinang), and meeting KGRE listeners and readers. On this trip Kevin travels to Yogyakarta, Bandung and Sukabumi, Jakarta, Jambi and Medan presenting FREE Teacher Workshops to English language teachers. Java and Sumatra
May - June 2003 First stop was Yogyakarta. I arrived around 6 o'clock in the evening and the sun had already set in the west. I booked into my small hotel, the Petit Mas just off the famous Jl. Marlioboro. It was an uneventful evening really just having dinner in a small warung not far from the hotel. On Monday morning I caught a taxi to Universitas Muhammadiyah situated on the South Ring Road. ACCISS had organized a special 'Australia Day' event there and I was invited to attend. Beverly Mercer, Cultural Attaché from the Australian Embassy in Jakarta plus Tony Mitchener, Education Counselor for the Embassy were also in attendance. They both spoke at the Talk Show morning session. There were probably 250 students also in attendance. They asked many questions of the guest speakers including may queries about scholarships to Australia. An added Aussie feature was the provision of pikelets, with jam and cream, plus chocolate crackles for morning tea. Now they were a big hit although I did notice some students weren't too sure about the pikelets. Afternoon activities included a cricket match and an Aussie film. It was called 'The Castle' and it featured a real insight into Aussie culture in the suburbs of Melbourne. The day finished with an all out Aussie BBQ. In the evening I visited a KG Connection Club - the Nurul Umaha Club at Pondok Pseantren in Kote Gede, Yogyakarta. I caught a taxi there and was met by several members of the club which is under the leadership of Iqbal. After evening prayers were over we climbed the stairs to a meeting area above the mosque for our KGRE 'mini-get together'. There were 70 eager Club members in attendance and we had a very interesting evening together. We talked about such diverse topics as education in Australia, the Bali Bombings, how to learn English 'easily (?), Indonesian and Australian music and the city of Yogyakarta. It was so good to see that the students had such good English and even better than that - they were really keen to use it. They asked so many great questions that we didn't finish until after 10pm. It is certainly and active club and their interest in KGRE, Australia and the English language are real. Thanks for a great evening.
In the afternoon I headed for SMU 1 Muhammadiah
in Yogyakarta for a Teacher Workshop. Pak IndroYono picked me up at the
hotel and took me to workshop. Around 50 English language teachers attended.
After lunch - a special 'soto ayam' from the local area - we began the
workshop. Almost four hours later we closed the activities and teachers
went home. We had had a lot of fun, did a lot of work and exchanged a
lot of ideas and stories. The railway station in Yogyakarta is quite magnificent in that it is
such a huge place filled with the constant movement and noises of travelers
and sellers plus the usual array of railway station workers. There certainly
aren't any stations like it in Australia so I was very happy to sit there
and pass the time of day on that Wednesday morning waiting for
the Argowillis to take me to Bandung. The train was only a few minutes
late arriving from Surabaya. After Yogya bound passengers alighted from
the train I found my way on board and took up position in seat 3D for
the 5 hour journey to Bandung. It was a great trip with lots to see with
magnificent views of the countryside along the way. It was the human activity
that was even more interesting. Literally thousands of people going about
their daily business - going to school, shopping, visiting friends, playing
sport, working in the fields and just sitting around having a good old
fashioned chat. The terrain alternated between rugged mountain passes,
open fields or sawah, deep gorges, tiny villages and big cities such as
Garut and Ciamis. It was all a sight for sore eyes really - refreshing
and exciting. The next day, Thursday May 22, it was on the road again and this time by bus to Sukabumi. It was a four half trip instead of the usual two and a bit hours. I still can't work out the reason for the incredible traffic jam on the TOL just out of Bandung but it sure added a few extra hours to the journey up a lot. Nevertheless a further opportunity to see the daily goings on in Java. Sukabumi is a huge place and or so it seemed to me upon arriving by bus. People tell me it is actually smaller than Bandung. Teachers from SMK 2 met me at the bus terminal and we then headed for my hillside hotel, about 7 km from town way up in the surrounding hills. It was certainly a quiet place and obviously a popular hotel for people looking for cooler weather and a natural and peaceful environment. Jakarta Sunday in Jakarta was quiet but it did give me time to catch up on some
work. This report for one thing. I also prepared a floppy disk for Ogi.
The disk listed some things I needed help with and also some information
for Ogi about the August magazine. We have already started writing and
preparing that next magazine for you. It takes quite a lot of organizing
and writing to produce a magazine.
I also called in to visit MEC where 75 or so private language students, ranging from SD to SMU, were waiting for Kapt. Kangguru. The SD level students were certainly keen and I know that many of them are going to become excellent English language learners in their SMP/SMU years. Many thanks to Pak Aimurul who runs the MEC language course for his help and support on this i to Jambi. By this stage in the day my 'flu like' symptoms had developed further and I had quite a bad headache and ear ache. I returned to the hotel and was in bed and sleeping by 4.30pm. I stayed in bed until 7am the next morning and although I felt a little better the next day I certainly wasn't 100%.
I also met up with Septy, a 2002-2003 AIYEP participant from Jambi. I
interviewed her and you can also hear that interview on KGRE radio soon
- she says that everyone should apply for AIYEP.
She never thought she would get it and she DID! One of the things she
mentioned during her interview was that eligible students, from Jambi
and in fact all over Indonesia, should definitely apply for the next AIYEP
later this year. Day Three in Jambi meant it was time to move onto the next step of the
trip. Staff from SMU 8 and members of the organizing committee arrived
at the hotel at 9am with fond farewells and a few last questions. Then
a quick trip back to SMU 8 to have a final chat with members of the school's
English Club. Their teacher and leader Sokowaty is very proud of them
and so he should be. They are very clever, but as with many students I
meet, they cannot be so shy about using their English. At 12.45 I headed by Mandala Airlines to Jakarta and a four hour wait in the airport for a flight on Garuda to Medan. I arrived in Medan at close on 8pm. I quickly organized a taxi to the hotel and as I was still feeling a little unwell, I went straight to bed. Sleeping wasn't easy as downstairs the PDI political party were having a conference. There was a lot of noise and of course a lot of people in red jackets and shirts.
Hopefully we can organize more workshops at the same time in places like nearby Berastagi for example. In the afternoon we traveled out to RRI Medan and thanks to the staff there for their support and for their preparations. About 60 - 70 English language learners turned up and we had a good chat about KGRE, learning English and Aussie culture. Members of the Medan English Club presented a parody entitled 'Crazy Class'. On Day Two I traveled by rental car on a very long drive to Labuhan Batu and Kota Pinang. I wanted to visit the Pondok Pesantren Ahmadul Jariah and KG Connection Club # 8. The only way to get there was by car. We set off for the journey at 9.30am and finally arrived at the Pondok Pesantren at 4.45pm. It was a 7 hour trip. The meeting with over 300 students at the school lasted around 90 minutes. They had so many questions to ask me with topics such as education in Australia and KGRE itself. Although the meeting was relatively short it was good fun. Then after a further seven hours I arrived back at the hotel in Medan at 2.30 the next morning. During the night hours we even had to go more slowly. My driver, Rudi Chairani was great and he made the journey quite pleasant. Amazingly he was over 70 years of age and yet he was careful, wide-awake and chatty during the whole trip. It must have been difficult for him as there was a lot of heavy traffic (trucks and buses) on the road plus the road was in bad condition meaning we could only travel slowly. Day Three in Medan was taken up with a Teacher Workshop at SMK 8. About 90 keen English language teachers joined in with the workshop and they enjoyed what we did together. They asked a lot of questions about teaching and how to use KGRE to assist them with their curriculum materials and requirements. We also spent some time talking about language students in Indonesia and some of the problems they have such as being shy, being scared of making mistakes and not willing to talk until their English is really good. More than 20 teachers ordered the Teacher Package and hopefully they will be using parts of it with their English students within a month or so. Ogi and Alwi will take care of those orders over the next few weeks. Day Four started with a brief meeting with Pak Wibowo from the Medan English Society. I thanked him and his committee for their work organizing the activities in Medan and wished them well for future events. Garuda flight # 185 left from Polonia Airport right on time at 10.50am. Polonia has to be one of the only airports that I have ever seen that is in the very middle of a city - amazing really as usually airports are well out of town. The two hour flight to Jakarta was smooth and pleasant. A quick taxi ride from Jakarta airport was next on the agenda. I met with the CEO of IALF at a restaurant in the city for lunch and a general catch-up on what had been happening on my trip. I certainly felt a little better after a few iced coffees and a sandwich, that's for sure. After lunch I headed on the next leg of the trip. The Argo Gede to Bandung was just a three hour journey - very pleasant too as they showed a movie that I hadn't seen before called 'Seven Years in Tibet' starring Brad Pitt. I couldn't hear the sound so well so I had to follow the subtitles pretty closely. The staff from the Lombok Guest House picked me up at the station. Before I knew it I was curled up in bed watching Sunday night television.
In the late afternoon I met with Solehudin, an old friend of KGRE's.
He is now a part-time SD teacher in Cicalengka teaching English. He is
well and hopefully KGRE can assist him also in some small ways with his
budding career. I also met with Citta Selapan from the Sampoerna
Foundation - an Indonesian organization making scholarships available
to SMU students amongst others. Along with Citta I also met her co-workers,
Erina and Iwan. Interestingly enough Iwan is a former AIYEP student, More
news on this later on radio from KGRE. Captain Kangguru boarded the train to Jakarta from Bandung at 9.05 Tuesday morning and within three short hours was in sunny Jakarta. The driver from IALF met me at Gambir and after a brief stop at the hotel we went to our appointment with GIGI. It was held in a house which also served as their office in Jakarta. Armand, Budjana, Thomas and Budhy. The interview lasted over an hour and the guys were happy to talk about almost anything. We talked about aspects of their education. They talked about the history of GIGI and about their favorite GIGI songs.
On Friday I went to PPIM in South Jakarta to interview Dadi Darmadi, a participant in the Muslim Exchange Program to Australia. We chatted for over an hour and he had many very interesting things to say about Australia. He talked about the Muslim communities in country Victoria for example. He told me about their lives and about how they are growing fruit in the Shepparton region. I can assure you that Dadi's comments about his Australian experiences will be of great interest to you all. Read the transcript of one of his many interviews whilst in Australia with the ABC. After spending several hours with Dadi I moved onto the Department of Youth Affairs in Jakarta for a chat with Drs. Asaat Esyam, Director of Youth Affairs and his assistant, Ibu Esti Dinar Napitupulu. We talked about the Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP). And did you know that besides this program to Australia that they also handle similar exchange programs to Canada, Malaysia, ASEAN and Singapore? More on those program in the coming months on KGRE radio. I left Jakarta late in the afternoon and returned to Bali after three weeks away. One more job to do though and that was on Saturday the 7th of June in Ubud Bali. I had dinner with volunteers from the Australian Volunteers International organization. Around 20 of them had gathered in Ubud for an annual get together with representatives from the Melbourne AVI office. It gave them a good chance to meet each other and to discuss their work here in Indonesia. I was a volunteer back in 1990 - 92 so I also enjoyed meeting with them and chatting about volunteering in general and about their particular placement in Indonesia.
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