Bungah and Paciran with ISELP - KangGURU Travels in Indonesia

Kevin travelled to East Java in early April to visit two Australian ISELP (Islamic Schools English Language Program) teacher trainers who have been working in pondok pesantrens for the last 12 months. Cheryl and Prue were not the only people he met. Kevin also met Teamo the Clown from Australia. ISELP Is an AusAID activity in Indonesia.

Prue Price and Cheryl Read work in East Java. They are teacher trainers working for the ISELP, an AusAID activity which places Australian teachers in pondok pesantrens in East Java. They are not the only Australian teacher trainers in East Java. There are others in places such as Madura, Malang, Probolinggo, Kediri, Banuwangi and Jombang.

ISELP teacher trainers are very busy people. Their main jobs are to improve the quality of English used by English teachers and to improve the capacity of those teachers to teach English to their students. They arrange and conduct workshops for teachers. They assist with the development of more effective teaching programs for schools. They arrange and encourage teachers to mix together from the different areas and to work together helping each other.

On Saturday and Sunday, April 8th and 9th, 2006, KGRE visted both Cheryl and Prue in their pondok pesantrens to see some examples of just how busy they are. First of all Kevin called into Pondok Pesantren Sunan Drajat, Desa Banjar Anyar, in Paciran. Paciran is on the north coast of Java, about 2 hours from Surabaya. Cheryl has been working there since January 2005. She lives close to the pesantren in an old Javanese house. The house was builtby, and lived in, by a former Dutch administrator over 50 years ago. Her house is about a 15 minute walk from the pesantren.

Kevin met one of Cheryl’s work colleagues that day. His name is Alimin. He is a young teacher and is very keen to learn more from Cheryl. Most of her teacher colleagues feel the same way as Pak Alimin.

That night we walked from Cheryl’s house to Radio Persada FM, a small radio station that belongs to the pesantren. Every Saturday night, Cheryl and Alimin conduct their very popular KGRE/interactive radio program from 7.00pm until 8.00pm. Kevin was their special guest so there were lots of questions from Alimin about KGRE. A regular called, David, also called in with some questions. The small radio station was very busy as quite a few students from the pesantren gathered outside after the program. They were certainly a keen and enthusiastic group of young students.

On Sunday Kevin went along to Prue’s pesantren in Bunga for an ‘English Day’. Prue and her teachers, especially Ibu Aza has been organizing the day’s activities for quite some time and what a great day it was. Prue invited a friend of hers from Australia to meet her students. His name was Teamo and he is a performer.

Teamo is a clown but he does other interesting things when he meets students – he walks on stilts and he conducts student workshops in juggling. The students at Pondok Pesantren Qomarrudin, especially the very young students, were very surprised when he walked out into the school yard on stilts. He must have been 3 meters tall. He wore clown make-up, he performed tricks and he sang songs too. It was a very hot day but that didn’t stop Teamo from performing and entertaining the students for over an hour. There were at least 600 students watching the show.
Well Done Teamo!

After the performance, Teamo conducted several workshops with students teaching them how to juggle. Teamo has been teaching juggling for 25 years so he really knows what he is talking about. Students from both Pondok Pesantren Sunan Drajat, Desa Banjar Anyar, and Pondok Pesantren Qomarrudin Bungah-Gresik had a great time. Thanks Teamo. He also performed in Madura, Malang, Probolinggo, Kediri, Banuwangi and Jombang during his visit to Indonesia. He was a very busy clown indeed.

Prue warming up the students for Teamo's juggling workshop

Teachers at the peseantren, and not just English teachers, have formed a group called English Community. They meet regularly and are learning English with Prue. They are keen and full of great ideas. One of the many interesting features of the English Day at Bunga was a special little place called ‘Warung TALK’ . This warung was one of their clever ideas.

The warung was in the grounds of the pesantren and served delicious food and drinks such as gado gado and iced tea. The English Club members helped too. To order food in this warung, students had to use English AND so did the teachers who were running the warung. It was an English language warung in the middle of the pesantren – what a fun idea. It was crowded all day long and they sold a lot of food and a lot of drinks.

After the long, hot but wonderful day at Pondok Pesantren Qomarrudin, Kevin returned to Bali

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