Pak Supardi, driver from IALF Bali, took Kevin from KGRE to Gilimanuk on the morning of Friday the 30th of August. Kevin was heading for Banyuwangi to meet with some KGRE people, including Pak Bowo and John Rollings (ISELP in Genteng) on route to Jember, Jombang and Gresik in East Java with IAPBE. Other meetings included a dinner meeting withmembers of the KG Connection Clubs - KGCC's in Jember. The ferry ride across the Java Strait was uneventful although Kevin was interested to see several people throwing their empty soft drink cans over the edge of the ship into the water. Kevin had been noticing just how clear and clean the water was – nice and blue with many small fish swimming about. The a can floated past and then another. They had been thrown overboard by passengers. Why don’t people use rubbish bins in Indonesia. Why? Surely they must wonder where those cans, and other rubbish, actually go when thrown into the sea?

In Banyuwangi, Kevin met with Pak Bowo, one of KGRE’s longest serving and most loyal supporters. Kevin first met Pak Bowo in late 2000 at KGRE’s very first Teacher Workshops in Batu. Since then Pak Bowo has helped KGRE in many ways. He was one of the first to have an interactive radio program (in English) on Radio Banyuwangi in Banyuwangi. That program is still popular and Pak Bowo was naturally a founding member of the KGRE English Language Presenter’s Network established in August 2005. Kevin also met with John Rollings, an ISELP teacher trainer formerly based in Guluk Guluk, Madrua. John is now in Genteng, about 35 km from Banyuwangi. He is at P.P. Bustanul Makmur. John and Pak Bowo were keen to meet each other and it is hoped that they will perhaps work together on occasions especially on Pak Bowo’s radio program. Caroline Bentley (IALF Bali) and Jo Dowling (ISELP Manager in Indonesia) were also with John when Kevin met him. To finish off their meeting and to relax a bit they all went to eat lesehan style beside the alun alun Banyuwangi. They also celebrated Caroline’s birthday by singing 'Happy Birthday' to her in front of other lesehan visitors.

On Friday morning Kevin boarded the ‘Mutiara Timur’ train at the Karangasem railway station in Banyuwangi. Bowo had bought his ticket the day before so it was easy to just arrive at the station and get straight onto the train.

The two and half hour trip was terrific with wonderful views along the way. Villages and villagers, farms and farmers, children returning home from school and all of those usual activities that were happening all over Indonesia at that time on a Friday morning. Travelling by train in Indonesia, in fact in any country, is a wonderful way to see the life of the countryside. You never know what you’ll see next! A becak driver picked Kevin up at Jember Station and with about 29 minutes Kevin was booked into the Panorama Hotel in Jember.

In the evening Kevin met 15 members of KGCCs in Jember. They were representatives of the three clubs - University Student English Forum (USEF) – KGCC #060, Get Me English Community – KGCC # 071 and English Club For Moslem (ECOM) – KGCC # 024. KGRE was very happy to take them to restaurant for dinner and to discuss about the possibility of a KGCC Get Together in Jember. There is a chance that the GTG could happen in early December or perhaps January 2007. The members were full of life and certainly enjoyed the brief dinner together.

On Saturday morning Kevin went with Russell Keogh to several training sessions being conducted by IAPBE, The Indonesia Australia Partnership in Basic Education. These teacher training sessions were for teachers of English, mathematics, Science and Bahasa Indonesia. During that weekend, IAPBS’s teacher trainers were working in three locations – Gresik, Jombang and Jember. Kevin visited all three locations and spoke with the English language teachers about KGRE and how KGRE can help them in their classrooms. IAPBE trains teachers in other fields beside English and it was great for Kevin to see so many teachers ken to learn and have fun learning at the same time. In Gresik Kevin accompanied Russell to see teachers actually practicing their teaching skills with real classes of students (see left). That was certainly a terrific thing to see – all those kids enjoying lessons, having fun and learning at the same time. Just look at these photographs from several school Kevin visited in Gresik.

Kevin was also very pleased to meet several teachers who attended these trainings from schools in East Java wand Madura where ISELP teacher trainers were based. Alimin from Paciran and Ulfa from Guluk Guluk were just two of the teachers Kevin ‘bumped into’. There certainly is a lot of teacher training going on in East Java thanks to IAPBE. With so many teacher trainers and teachers all working together then future of education in the area has certainly being enhanced.

Kevin also dropped in to SURGA FM in Jombang. There he met with radio station staff including Pak Aan (far right) and English language presenter Mbak Noor (far left), plus newly arrived Australian Volunteer International (AVI) from Australia, Danielle. She had only been there for a few weeks and was very interested to hear all about KGRE and the radio station. Kevin returned to Bali on Monday afternoon, Sept. 4th.