KangGURU
Travels to
Lampung in 2004
In Bandar Lampung, the
teacher workshop was organized by VETA - Vocational English
Teacher Association. While in Bandar Lampung Kevin also visited RRI
Bandar Lampung to meet with staff and management plus listeners of
KGRE.
Travels Jakarta and
Lampung - June 2004
It was a public holiday, tanggal merah, all over Indonesia but
I was on a plane heading for Jakarta and eventually to Lampung. The flight
to Jakarta seemed to take a long time. Much longer than the usual 90 minutes.
As we approached Jakarta the plane began circling rather than go straight
for the landing. We flew around for at least 20 minutes before finally
landing very smoothly at Jakarta airport.
| On Friday the 4th of
June I had an appointment with an Australian Volunteer International
(AVI) at DEPLU in the busy Senayan district of Jakarta. Jason
has been working in the DEPLU offices for just a few weeks. He only
arrived in Indonesia a few weeks before I met him. He is working there
with career diplomats teaching and assisting them with their English.
Their levels are quite high with much of Jason's work concentrating
on cross-cultural issues, writing responses to media articles and
writing for newspapers. Jason is maybe new at
DEPLU but he has an interesting series of experiences prior
to coming here to Indonesia. For example he spent over a year working
in Canada. He also spent several years in China as an English teacher.
You can hear Jason during October on KGRE radio talking about his
career and about his experiences so far here in Indonesia. |
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After my meeting with Jason I went to the Australian Embassy to catch
up with Beverly Mercer, the Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy.
As usual Beverly gave me lots of information and ideas and we set up a
few possible happenings in the near future. While there I also bumped
into people from Millennium Kids from Perth. I also called in on IALF
a few hundred meters down Jl. Rasuna Sahid from the Embassy.
Mid afternoon I went to visit Gene Sugandy at her
house in Daan Mogot, South Jakarta. Gene is one of the two wonderful people
(Yakindo Designs)
who looks after the KGRE website. We chatted about the future plans of
KGRE and we discussed future promotional items. New stickers, website
features and other promotional items are in the planning so keep and eye
out for those soon from KGRE especially our new buku tulis design.
Many of the current features of the KGRE website plus new features such
as the 2004 FORUM Page have been put together by Gene and her business
partner Danielle. One of the reasons the website is growing and becoming
so popular is because of their hard work. Did you know that the website
averages 35,000 visits every month? Thanks Gene and Danielle.
Saturday was Workshop Day at UIN Jakarta
Universitas Islam Negeri in South Jakarta,
Sarjanna picked me up from the hotel at a very early 6.30am. We went by
taxi out into the early Saturday traffic and it really seemed just like
traffic at other times of the day – terrible! But I guess it is a big
city and heavy traffic is all a part of that. I remembered going to UIN
a few years back when I interviewed Dadi Darmadi for KGRE. He was one
of the first Muslim academics who went to visit Australia under the Muslim
Exchange Program from AII. He is now in the USA but I heard from him a
few weeks back and he is due home soon.
The workshop participants were mainly English language students who in
the near future will be teachers themselves. The Organizing Committee
also invited teachers from the nearby schools. I’d say there were 80 participants
in the workshop. It went well with some interesting questions after the
workshop concluded. Questions mainly centered around curriculum issues
and Competency Based activities.
One of the interesting things about this workshop was that the Organizing
Committee was completely made up of students from the English department
at the university. I first met Miftahul and Sarjanna at the Australian
Film Festival in Jakarta last January. They came to the Film Festival
because of their interest in English, films plus Aussie culture and lifestyle.
After the festival they chatted with me. That is when they decided to
go ahead and organize a teacher workshop for students and teachers at
their university.
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They approached KGRE soon afterwards about holding
a workshop. They were very keen but KGRE had a full schedule with
workshops in Lombok, East Java and Makassar. While they waited for
confirmation of dates from Ogi they began to make sure their workshop
plans were well organized and thorough. The committee kept in close
contact with Ogi at KGRE and eventually a date for the workshop was
set. It was great to see how they had all worked together to make
the day a great success. Congratulations to all 17 members of the
committee. KGRE will be very keen to do some further activities with
them again in the near future. |
In the late afternoon I
met with Catrina and John Henry Taylor, representatives of Millennium
Kids in Perth, along with Nastiti Puspitosari from Tunas Hijau in Surabaya.
They were all in Jakarta attending the Indonesian World Environment Day
(June 5th) Exhibition held at the Jakarta Convention Centre.
The exhibition was open between June 3rd to the 6th.
After another of their busy days at the exhibition they met me at the
Hotel Century Atlett for a chat and quick interview.
We talked about he work of Millennium Kids, an
Australian Not For Profit (NGO) organization which began back
in 1996. Catrina has been the driving force behind the organization
although she would give that credit to all the young people she has
worked with during the period since Millennium Kids began. Those young
people were all aged between 10 and 18 and are referred to as ‘kids’
in the name of the organization. It is in fact the passion and the
hard-work of those young people that has made the organization so
successful. The basic aim of the NGO is to empower kids – to give
the skills and the ideas which enables them to make changes in their
world, especially in respect to environmental issues.
Newmont Australia Ltd and
the Australia - Indonesia
Institute (AII) sponsored Millennium Kids to attend the World
Environment Day in Jakarta. |
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We first heard from Nastiti on KGRE back in late 2003. Nastiti was Princess
of the Environment that year. Tunas Hijau, an active environmental NGO
based in Surabaya, conducts the Prince and Princess of the Environment
Awards each year. In 2004 this competition will no longer just available
for just junior high school students in the Surabaya area BUT it is to
become a nation-wide event. Keep tuned to KGRE for more information and
also take a look at the Tunas Hijau website for more information – http://www.tunashijau.org/
You could be the next Prince or Princess of the Environment in Indonesia
and win a trip to Perth as a part of your prize.
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On Sunday morning I caught up with Catrina and Nastiti
at the Jakarta Convention. We visited the Tunas Hijau display and
met with Ronnie, leader of Tunas Hijau, and several of his fellow
workers. I took a few photographs of the stand and the staff and then
had a quick look around the rest of the exhibition. There were more
than 50 exhibits to see – some small and some quite substantial and
from all parts of Indonesia. I just wish I had had more time in the
previous few days because there was so much interesting stuff to see
there. I could have easily spent a few hours talking to the various
NGOs for example about the work they are doing tackling environmental
issues in Indonesia, There is certainly a lot of concern for the environment
in Indonesia although the rubbish laying around on the ground outside
the convention centre was quite disturbing. It was just the opposite
of what was being promoted inside the exhibition centre. |
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Nastiti, along with 4 other winners, went to Australia in late 2003
as Princess of the Environment. She is now about to continue her
travels by attending the World Environment Conference in
the USA in July 2004. Nastiti, together with 5 other Indonesian
students, will represent Indonesia and will be involved in Renewable
Energy Finance Forum - Wall Street. We will have more news on that
exciting visit to America by these highly motivated Indonesian teenagers
on KGRE soon. We wish them all the best. Their concern and their
willingness to be involved with this important issue is fantastic
isn’t it?
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Not only are they traveling the world but more importantly they
are learning more about real issues to do wit the environment and
how they can be influential in helping to improve the situation
both here in Indonesia and overseas.
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Bandar
Lampung
By 12.00pm that very same day I was sitting in the Prize Lounge at
the Jakarta airport waiting for my Merpati flight to Bandar Lampung.
I had to wait 2 hours or thereabouts so I set up the laptop and worked
while I drank coffee and ate little tiny cakes – delicious! The flight
to Bandar Lampung was only 25 minutes so before I knew it the plane
had landed and I was in a car heading for the Indra Puri Hotel high
atop a hill overlooking the port and city of Bandar Lampung.
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Members of the Organizing Committee accompanied me to
the hotel from the airport and helped me to book into my room. The
group comprised the Head of the Vocational English Teacher Association
of Bandar Lampung, Drs. Zakaria Hasyim (far right) and Secretary,
Sutiman (far left), Pak Ahmad Swafei, together with Apral Miswirawan
from RRI. After I checked in we sat together and spoke about the plans
for the coming days. It was obvious right from the beginning that
the committee was well prepared for the three days ahead. After I
checked in the welcoming committee departed the hotel. I basically
worked for some time in my room writing articles for the August KGRE
magazine. |
At 7 pm some members of the Organizing Committee returned to my hotel.
We chatted together for an hour and a half in the lobby. We discussed
the program for the next two days, teaching English in schools, the workload
of teachers, listening tests and all other manner of things. It was a
great chat and all 6 of us enjoyed it. It was informal and although occasionally
serious, it was generally lighthearted and yet informative.
At 9.00am on the first day of the new week I went to
RRI Bandar Lampung for a meeting with the Head of the Station, Drs. Syaiful
Anwar.
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He welcomed me to his office for our meeting with the
station’s Broadcasting Manager, Harsono Asmoro and Assistant Manager
for Music and Entertainment, Nauval Sahupala. Apral Miswirawan (above
- second from the left) was there too and he is the Assistant
Manager for Pendidikan and Kebudayan and basically takes care of KGRE
for the station. |
It was quite an informal meeting but we did chat somewhat seriously
about KGRE in Bandar Lampung and the future plans of KGRE with special
reference to the interactive radio plans of KGRE for 2005. It was also
terrific to see a representative of RRI, Pak Apral, on the workshop committee.
After the meeting was over we all went to the station’s auditorium for
a listener’s meeting. About 75 listeners came to the meeting to find out
more about what KGRE has to offer. It was fun and I am sure most of the
participants went away all the more aware of KGRE in Indonesia. I hope
they continue to listen to the program for many years to come.
Lunch followed the morning’s activities. Then I returned to the hotel
for more writing for the up and coming August magazine. I also
signed 150 certificates for the following day's workshop participants.
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The very enthusiastic Organizing
Committee picked me up at 8.00am on the dot and we went to
BPG for the KGRE teacher workshop. Although we began a little late
it didn’t really matter. A representative of the Walikota, Pak Baheramswah,
was there to officially open the workshop accompanied by the Head
of the Office of Education, Pak Dedy Hermanto. The workshop went very
well with 130 participants. Many of them were very lively participants
contributing lots of life and excitement into the activities. The
day’s workshop activities concluded around 2.30pm with the usual KGRE
Quiz and prize giveaway. Staff from the Australian Education Center
based in Jakarta followed the workshop with their presentation about
study in Australia. |
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In the meantime I went to a nearby room to talk with
students. The SMU students came to meet with me so we talked about KGRE,
school and learning education. The vast majority of the students were
very shy and quiet but a couple of them really asked loads of questions
and were most active. Thanks to them and I did thank them by handing out
some prizes to them in a special ‘Questioners Only Quiz’.
After a very long but enjoyable day with the Organizing
Committee, the teachers and the students, I returned to my hotel. Very
early the next morning Pak Sutiman and Pak Zakariah took me to Bandar
Lampung airport. I then flew back to Bali via Jakarta. Another KGRE trip
over and the last one for me until September. I am going on long holidays
from July to August so no more KGRE trips for me until September.
Return to Past Travels of KGRE in Indonesia
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