KangGURU
Travels to
Gorontalo and Makassar in 2004
Kevin travelled to Gorontalo and
Makassar in late April/early May 2004 to present a
Teacher Workshop to English language teachers in Gorontalo held at
SMU Insan Cendekia Gorontalo. While there he visited RRI
Gorontalo. In Makassar he visited Francis De Silva and the Makassar
Tourism and Training Project (MTTP) activities at
SMK 8. This visit included chatting with students who have recently
worked in the Savoy Hotel in London. Kevin also took part in the
Makassar Chef's Association Cook-Off at the Quality Hotel and also
chatted with Pak Hamzah and some of his students
from SMU 1 about the school's student exchange programs to Australia. One
of the last visits was to the new SHIMA-ya Japanese
restaurant in Makassar - once again an SMK 8 stronghold.
Gorontalo and Makassar with KGRE
April 28 - May 2, 2004
Garuda Flight 636 took me from Bali to Makassar. The 60 minute flight
is always wonderful as it always flies very close to Mt Agung and if the
weather is clear then passengers on the plane can see wonderful views
of the volcano. Then after just a 30 minute transit wait at Makassar airport
I boarded a Pelita Fokker 100 for the 75 minute flight to Gorontalo, one
of Indonesia's newest provinces.
| 
|
I had never been there before so I
was quite looking forward to it. The flight to Gorontalo was fantastic
with clear skies, beautiful views and no bumps and dips. The plane
landed at 12.30pm. Pak Haris and Ibu Trisnawati were there
to meet me. They are members of the organizing committee for the
KGRE Workshop which was to be held the following day at SMU Insan
Cendekia Gorontalo. |
| One of the first things that amazed
me about Gorontalo was the distance from the airport to the city.
It took an hour by car - almost as long as it had taken to fly from
Makassar. The second thing I noticed was the cleanliness of the
streets and the roadsides. There was very little rubbish to be seen.
Besides that the gardens of the houses that I saw were all full
of colorful trees and shrubs. Gorontalo struck immediately as being
a city where people cared about their environment. Even the streets
in the centre of the city were continually being swept of not only
rubbish but even fallen leaves from the trees.
And the low and behold I saw what looked surprisingly like the Eiffel
Tower in Paris. Right there in the middle of the road was this huge
tower rising up above the roadway from the airport. It is called
Menara
Keagungan and was built several years ago. It was quite
magnificent and such a surprise for me. To see something like that
all the way up in northern Sulawesi was indeed a pleasant surprise.
I even caught a glance at Gorontalo's first Mall - not open yet
but it certainly looked promising. |
|
| 
|
The next surprise were the motorbike taxis called bentor.
They are half a motorbike at the back but a becak with two wheels
at the front. There are hundreds and hundreds of them in Gorontalo
and they are very popular. Later that night I saw them all lit up
with flashing lights and you know what? They even had cassette machines
in them and the pop music was easily heard whenever they came near.
Not every bentor had music blasting for their customers but
I think most of them did.
|
After
lunch in Gorontalo and checking into the hotel, I went out to
SMU Insan Cendekia Gorontalo with Haris to meet the committee
and to check on arrangements for the workshop. The location for the workshop
was about 20 minutes out of town but the scenery and the ride were both
well worth the time it took to get there. The venue was in a very pretty
area with mountains rising in the background and rice fields as far as
I could see. The venue was terrific too with everything prepared and setup.
The committee had the overhead equipment ready to go as well as a sound
system and a brand new cassette machine for me to use. The room was large
and surprisingly cool even though that day was a hot one in Gorontalo.
 |
The SMU Insan Cendekia Gorontalo is a boarding school
with 180 students living there. The
school curriculum specializes in teaching maths and sciences
and is quite famous in Indonesia for doing that and for doing it well. The
students I met had fantastic English too and we a very enthusiastic
and attentive group. |
The
Teacher Workshop began officially at 7.30am and continued throughout
the day until 3pm. Organizers told me that 152 teachers joined the workshop
and that was a fantastic achievement for them. Some participants traveled
from Manado, a 7 hour drive away to the north. Two women also traveled
over 400km from their village to follow the workshop. Several participants
were from schools in Palu and they were keen to have a KGRE workshop there
in the near future.
 |
The equipment at the workshop was
excellent and it was obvious that participants had gone to a lot
of effort to make sure that side of the workshop was successful.
Besides lunch, participants also had two snack breaks as well.
 |
At 4 pm around 180 students, mostly SMU level, arrived at the venue.
Most of these students were from the school but other students did arrive
from Gorontalo. All of the students were very polite and a little reserved
to begin with. After 20 minutes or so they began to participate more and
by the end of the meeting they were full of life and very happy to participate.
It is always great to see students like these who are so keen to use their
English. I wish that I could have stayed there longer chatting to them
individually as they were all so friendly and lively. Maybe I can get
back there one day?
On Friday morning I met with about 75 students at RRI
Gorontalo. We all participated in an interactive talk show between 9.00am
and 10.00am then an in-house chat sessions for another hour or so. The
students and teachers in the studio along with people phoning in were
all terrific. We had a lot of fun and I had a lot of goodies to give away
too - Ogi made sure of that! Many thanks to Drs. H. Hadjar,
Head of the Station and to his Head of Broadcasting, Pak
Halid for their support. Also to Surya Thalib, a young lady from RRI who
is to develop their interactive radio program in the future for English
language students in the area. In fact the crew at RRI Gorontalo were
all terrific.
| 
|
After leaving RRI I went shopping for local goodies
(oleh-oleh) to take back to Ogi and the KGRE staff in Bali.
Then to the airport with Trisnawati and three of her students - Amelia,
Umi and Siti. They were keen to chat and they enjoyed waiting with
me at the airport until my flight left. |
The flight to Makassar was just fantastic with beautiful
views once again of the Sulawesi landscape below. Francis De Silva from
MTTP met me and took me into the city and to my hotel. The following day
I had several appointments.
The first was with Pak Hamzah at SMU
2. I was keen to hear all about the student exchange program that he and
his school conduct with schools in Australia. I also met four of his exchange
students - two who have already been on exchange to Australia and two
who are about to go to Australia. Exchange destinations include the Bendigo
Senior Secondary College in Victoria and a catholic school in
Adelaide in South Australia. The interviews with these five people are
very interesting and you can hear them on KGRE later in the year. Are
you interested in an exchange like this? Why not suggest to your teacher
to contact Pak Hamzah for information on how to organize such an activity?
| 
|
|
After an hour or so at SMU 2, I went to The Quality
Hotel in downtown Makassar for an Executive Cooking Competition. It was
conducted by the Hotel's Association of Makassar and was just an event
for local restaurant managers and owners and NOT for chefs. They had to
cook things such as nasi goreng and mie goreng. It was a fun way for the
participants to get together in an informal way. The competition was judged
by Ibu Siti and Ibu Ellya from
SMK 6 - an MTTP school in Makassar. There were a lot of laughs
for sure as the men cooked their way through several local dishes. The
two judges from SMK 6 were watching carefully and tasting the food too.
After the cooking competition Francis
took me to another MTTP school, SMK 8, for lunch with their students
in the school's restaurant. More food and it was GOOD! I loved the
chicken I had and besides excellent food the service was good too.
Like SMK
6 Makassar, this school is producing world class students.
Some of this success is due to the involvement of MTTP. While there
I met with several ex-SMK8 students. Both Salmyah and Dolly have recently
returned from a years work experience at The Savoy
Hotel in London. The Savoy Hotel is a world famous hotel and
these two girls were lucky to be a part of SMK 8's association with
the hotel. In fact many students from SMK 8 go to London every year
to work in the hotel. All expenses and salaries are paid for by the
hotel. Listen to their stories on KGRE radio later this year and also
read about them and this wonderful program in the August 2004 magazine.
I also chatted with Dewi Andriani, a student from SMK 8. Dewi
is a very keen student and even came into the school especially
to talk with KGRE about her course. She also served at our table
and I am sure she will be a famous restaurant person someday soon.
Her interview was terrific so keep tuned for that on KGRE. |
|
My last activity for the day was to
visit a very new and exciting Japanese Restaurant in Makassar. It is called
SHIMA - ya and is situated in the new Mall GTC in Makassar. The interesting
thing for me was that many of their young staff are from SMK 8.
Francis explained to me that SMK 8 students have a proven record of success
at the 5 star Imperial Aryaduta for example. Hotels and restaurants
are constantly looking for students of this quality. This is exactly what
SHIMA-ya did. So impressed were the owners of this up-market restaurant
with students from SMK 8 that they then took them to Jakarta for 3 months
training in preparation for the opening of their restaurant in Makassar.
The Head Chef is from Bandung and his name is Dede (far right). He trained
and lived in Japan for 2 years and you can hear his story plus other related
information on KGRE soon. We wish the restaurant and the staff all the
best in this new venture.
Francis took me to the airport and I left for Bali on the late afternoon
Garuda flight.
Another very interesting trip for KGRE in Indonesia.
Return to Past Travels of KGRE in Indonesia
|
