After arriving in Jakarta I set out by car for Cianjur. I thought it might take two hours to get there but I was wrong – it took four as that road is so busy on the weekends. Luckily I like looking out windows when I travel and I had lots of opportunities to do that. The road to Cianjur passes through some beautiful countryside and interesting towns. I think the most interesting thing however was watching people from Jakarta enjoying themselves in the cooler climate of the hills. Everywhere people were buying fruit and eating snacks and looking for souvenirs to take home. Lots of local people were sitting in front of their houses talking and looking at the city tourists.

After arriving in Cianjur I left the driver to have lunch and a rest and travelled to the club meeting at a madrasah by motorcycle. The room was decorated with a spanduk and copies of the KGRE magazine and Pouch bulletin on the walls. In addition to the club members, most of whom are English teachers, there were a number of junior and senior high school students.

Everybody introduced themselves and then we had a question and answer session. I was impressed by the standard of English and the fact that they’d all read the latest Pouch bulletin. However the thing that really impressed me was that they were prepared to take a risk even though they might be making a mistake. That’s really important as it’s impossible to learn a language without making mistakes.

If someone didn’t know how to express an idea in English the others helped. This is a good example of a ‘safe’ environment and it obviously works well for this club.

At the end of the meeting I cut a beautiful nasi tumpang and presented the CD player to Agung, the club president. The club presented me with a framed photograph of the committee and some souvenirs of Cianjur for KGRE staff and then of course we took lots of photographs. Unfortunately couldn’t stay for lunch as I knew it would take a long time to get back to the airport. In no time at all I was back in the car leaving Cianjur. The traffic was very slow on the way back but this gave me an opportunity to take some photos of a tea plantation.

I finally arrived home at 12.15 on Sunday morning. It was a long and very rushed day but I’m pleased I went to meet the club. I promised to go back some time and stay longer. But next time I won’t try to travel there and back on one day, and definitely not on a weekend!