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Rachel
went on from Makassar to Wajo in mid-August to present a KGRE Teacher Workshop. It was a cool and cloudy morning, as I was getting ready to leave my house in Bali. For once I managed to get everything ready on time and find a taxi. Sometimes it is very difficult to find a taxi in Bali in the early morning. Fortunately, I got one easily that morning and got to the airport on time. After I checked my bags in I met Pak Geoff and Pak Kevin having coffee. Pak Geoff is the CEO of IALF and works from the Jakarta school. Ogi wasn’t at the airport because she was already in Makassar. Our flight took off on time and crosses the Flores Sea in no time (very quickly). It is only an hour and fifteen minutes flying, even though it is a really long way. A friend of mine once took a PELNI boat to Makassar from Bali. That took trip took three days and three nights! But flying is only 1h 15m, isn’t that amazing? We arrived in the airport to bright, clear hot weather. We collected our bags and jumped in a taxi. It took about an hour to get to the hotel from the airport. The hotel gave us lots of lovely by Pak Syahrir for his radio program, Kang Guru Radio English Interactive Show. Pak Syahryr is a long time friend of KGRE. He is a teacher, he is a club leader and founder of BEST Forum club (KGCC # 3). He is one of the innovative presenters of an English language radio program on RRI Pro 1, Makassar. After the interview was finished Pak Geoff and I went shopping. Our hotel was right next to a famous shopping street where people go to buy crafts, sports equipment and gold jewellery. Pak Geoff bought some snacks and some passion fruit juice to bring back to Jakarta. I bought some fun pencils and two wooden souvenirs. Later that night we all went out for a big tasty fish dinner in a nearby restaurant. The next day, Sunday 21st, was the big KGCC Get Together. Ogi, Kevin, Geoff and I arrived at the venue at 8am. It was already packed with club members from the particating clubs- BEST Forum, English Conversation Club, Pioneer English Meeting Conversation Club, Benteng Panynyua English Club, Al-Markaz For Khudi Enlightening Studies (Makes), The Eagle – English Meeting Club and Kang Guru Lovers. Pak Syahrir and Ibu Ana opened the event and invited Kevin to make a speech.
Then for the rest of the day the clubs presented some of their work for all of
us to enjoy. We saw a couple of really wonderful plays and enjoyed some
magnificent singing - without music! Later on Kevin did a great music quiz and
Geoff and I played a language game with the participants. Throughout the day
there were guest speakers talking about BAKTI information center, the new
Australian Education Centre office in Makassar and about a HIV/AIDS prevention
and cure project in South Sulawesi. Just after dark Pak Muksim brought me to see some famous giant bats. These fruit bats certainly were absolutely huge, I have never seen anything quite like these before. I have a couple of small bats that live under the roof of my house. They are about the size of my fist (tinju) but these bats in Sulewesi must have had a wingspan of about 1.5 meters. The next morning (Monday 22nd) Pak Muksim and I met at the hotel and he brought me to the venue for the KGRE Wajo workshop at the DIKNAS office. There were 80 teachers attending and many of them were really active participants. We had a lot of fun doing lots of activities from the KGRE In The Classroom Teachers’ Package. And as usual we had a great time doing quizzes and giving away KGRE merchandise. That evening Pak Muksim brought me to a viewpoint to see the town panorama and then on to a local weaving (menenum) factory (see photos). The weaving factory was really interesting for me. There was only one lady weaving when we got there because it was late in the evening. She showed me her day’s work- it was a really finely woven piece of white fabric with a wonderful delicate design. She told me that usually one weaver can make 1.5 meters of fabric in one day. When you see how fine (lembut) the weaving is it seems impossible for someone to make that much in one day. On Tuesday 23rd I went to Sajoanging village to visit Pak Muksim’s school, SMP 2. His SMP students took turns doing a speech, reading a poem, or reading from the KGRE magazine. They were all really wonderful and did a fantastic job. After their language demonstration we all went outside to watch a local traditional dance performed by some of the students. These beautiful girls were all dressed in pretty pink coloured local dress. Their dance was really graceful and a pleasure for me to watch. We just had enough time to get some refreshments before I had to go back to Makassar to catch my flight. My favourite snack was the Kue Lapis with coconut and palm sugar- delicious. Many thanks to Pak Muksim, the workshop organizing committee, SMP 2 Sajoanging and everyone else to worked so hard to organize my wonderful trip to Wajo. |
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