KangGURU
Travels to Bangkalan and Pemalang
written by Cheryl Reid
Cheryl continued on the KGRE trail without Kevin. Cheryl stopped off in Bangkalan and them onto Pemalang near Semarang for more KGRE activities including a workshop and club visits with
KGCC #010,
English Society Club RRI Semarang.
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After an interesting trip from Pamekasan past beautiful sea views, Kevin dropped Margaret, John and I at my hotel in Bangkalan. Margaret and John work for ISELP in Madura. Before long I got an SMS message from Ibu Siti Aminah inviting us to dinner with members of the committee. Margaret and I got a good view of the main street from our becak on the way. I was surprised when I first spoke to the English teachers in the restaurant because their English was so good. I then discovered that they have a very active English Teachers’ Forum in Bangkalan, and one of them has spent time in Australia, another in the United States. They’re trying their hardest to raise the standard of English in Bangkalan by sharing the benefit of this experience with others. |
The next day I arrived at MAN Bangkalan to find the assembly hall ready for the workshop with everything I could possibly need. John is very interested in traditional Madurese culture and soon found some dancers to photograph. They performed a graceful dance during the opening ceremony, wearing beautiful costumes. I was impressed, but I didn’t realise this wasn’t the only entertainment planned for the day.
The welcoming speeches were just the right length, and we started the workshop 5 minutes early. Around 100 teachers attended, and many of them were very active participants, asking and answering questions and volunteering for everything. Everyone loves Kang GURU t shirts and cassette tapes so even the quieter ones were noisy when it was time to give away prizes. During the breaks we had a special treat: the school band played pop songs for us, some of them in English. They were fantastic musicians and singers, and the English pronunciation was very good. The committee were very helpful all throughout the workshop and at the end gave me a special souvenir – a farmer’s hat filled with Bangkalan salak and Bangkalan batik. |
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After the teacher workshop I met about 60 students from different schools in Bangkalan. We had a great time talking about music and learning English, especially about being brave and trying to speak another language even though we might makes mistakes. I’m sure some of them are going to be English teachers in the future! We had a lot of fun when talking about writing a letter to Kang GURU. One of the shy students answered questions about himself, with a bit of help from his friends. I was very pleased when he came and shook my hand at the end of the meeting.
After that it was time for photos and then more teachers came to order Kang GURU materials and talk about the radio program and Kang GURU Connection Clubs. By the time I left Bangkalan I felt like I had made a lot of new friends.
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The next day I flew to Semarang, the start of a new adventure. This was my first visit to this interesting and historic city. From my hotel room on the fourth floor I could see a hill covered with towers, reminding me of Brisbane, my home town. The first part of my program in Central Java was a meeting with the English Society Club (KGCC#010.) Club leader Keyko and 10 others members collected me from the hotel and took me to the top of a hill where we had a beautiful view of the city lights. We sat on mats under the stars and talked as we ate jagung bakar manis. This is a very active and successful club, and I think I know one of the reasons. The members I met that night come from a variety of backgrounds – sales assistant, factory worker, psychologist, university students, retired army helicopter flying instructor, teachers and a motorcycle salesman. (I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone – I was having too much fun to write a list.) We talked about their meetings at RRI Semarang, the radio program and their social work activities, including their recent trip to Bantul to help survivors of the earthquakes. |
fter dinner they took me to see the new Mesjid Agung Jawa Tengah, and on the way we passed the oldest Christian church in Semarang. To everyone’s surprise when we arrived at the mosque it was closed. However, this didn’t stop the club. They sent a law student to persuade the caretakers to let us in and we spent about an hour walking around. In the main building, which holds six thousand people, I saw the two meter long hand written Al-Qu’ran and the giant Bedug Ijo. It’s a beautiful building and I feel privileged to have seen it on such a beautiful night with a group of very enthusiastic guides. On the way back to the hotel they took me past the Catholic cathedral but I was too tired to send the law student to talk to the caretaker!
The next morning at breakfast I met Adi, who had flown to Semarang after leaving Sue in Tarakan. That day we traveled to Pemalang, about three and a half hours by road on the coast west of Semarang. Members of the committee collected us at the hotel and we talked about lots of different topics on the way. We waited a long time for lunch but it was worth it, at the beach at Pemalang with a cool sea breeze blowing.
| In the afternoon we visited Pondok Pesantren Salafiah to meet year 8 and 9 students and their English teachers. Bapak Kyai made a very warm welcoming speech and sat with us as we played games and held competitions with the students. Some of them were very shy but all of them smiled and laughed and were very keen to be in the photographs. It wasn’t a long visit as we needed to finish before Maghrib but we had a short time to talk to the English teachers and visit the pondok putri and pondok putra before leaving. After our big lunch we didn’t need much dinner, so we went to a small restaurant and ate grombyang, the delicious speciality of Pemalang. It’s very similar to nasi rawon, but it’s made with buffalo meat and has a cinnamon flavour. |
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The next day there were about 32 teachers at the workshop at SMPN2 Taman – Pemalang, all members of the English Teachers’ Forum. They attended a Kang GURU workshop with Rachel last year, so this was a ‘follow up’ workshop covering listening, speaking, reading and writing skills with discussions about planning and motivating students. The teachers were great participants, asking a lot of questions about teaching. Some of them work in quite difficult conditions but they’ve very dedicated and their English is very good. Ibu Titien and her husband Pak Teguh spent two years in Australia and she’s making the most of what she learned there to help other teachers in her area. They were very kind, and even searched for a durian for me! |
Thanks to Pak Teguh’s excellent driving we arrived safely back at Semarang airport the next day with our Pekalongan batik souvenirs. Then we flew to Jakarta and finally toDenpasar. On the flight from Jakarta we passed Gunung Semeru smoking below. A great finish to a great trip.
Return to Past Travels of KGRE in Indonesia
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