Kang GURU Travels to Aceh -2007

In November, Sue flew all the way to Aceh for Kang Guru's second trip to that part of Indonesia this year. Activities included workshops at SMAN 1 in Bireun and SMK 3 Banda Aceh. Sue visted ARNETT radio on the outskirts of Bireun and RRI in Banda Aceh.

I find it hard to believe it’s already a month since Ogi and I went to NTT. The time really flies by – we are always so busy in the KGRE office. But at 7 o clock on Sunday morning I found myself back at the airport in Bali. This time I was waiting for the flight to Jakarta. After checking into my hotel I left almost immediately for Lippo Karawaci. While Ogi and I were in NTT we had read in the newspaper about a slow food festival that was to be held in Jakarta. That’s right a SLOW food festival! What is slow food I wondered? Unfortunately I didn’t get too many answers! Although it was advertised as opening at 9 o clock and I arrived at 11:30 many of the stalls were still empty. Maybe they would be opening later – no one could answer my questions! I did look around the stalls selling organic vegetables and honey and bought some ginger. It smelt lovely but as yet I haven’t tried it. The slow food festival was being held in the open area of the shopping mall. As I wandered among the empty tents I was surprised to come across one tent with a real cow in it! Apparently, during the week the festival had been visited by many school groups and the cow was there to show students were milk really came from! After buying some organic ice cream (the weather was very hot!) I decided to leave and took a taxi to spend the rest of the day visiting a friend.

The next morning I left the hotel at 7am and went back to the airport. Luckily there were no delays and my flight to Aceh left on time. After a brief stop over in Medan 50 minutes later we touched down in Banda Aceh airport.

Pak Samsul and Pak Deyden met me at the airport and after signing the certificates for the Bireun workshop on the front seat of the car, Pak Samsul returned to his office and Deyden and I went with Iwan the driver to Bireun. It is about a five hour drive, but the time passed quite quickly as we chatted and looked at the surrounding scenery. The drive took us through the mountains and onto the east coast of Aceh province. We arrived about 6 in the evening and an hour later I was having dinner with three new friends Lena from Sweden, Jan from Australia and a wonderful lady from Bandar Aceh. They are all working on different projects related to reconciliation after the many years of conflict in the Aceh region.

The next morning I ate breakfast with Pak Deyden and then we went to SMAN 1 in Bireun for a mini workshop with some of the teachers in the area. The school is quite big with over one thousand students. Classes 2 and 3 attend school in the morning and class 1 come in the afternoon. Next year they hope the new building will be finished and everyone can attend school at the same time. The builders were working very hard trying to finish on time. That particular day they were cutting ceramic tiles and every time they turned their machines on the electric went off in the language lab where we were holding the workshop! Eventually I sent someone out to buy batteries and we used Pak Samsul’s boom box until the workers stopped for lunch! It was only a small group of teachers but most of them were active and enjoyed the workshop! At 12:30 they collected their certificates and lunchboxes and went home. Then it was the turn of the students. What a great group they were. No one mentioned they hadn’t eaten lunch until they were leaving about 2:30! After those students went home it was time to meet class 1 students and we moved to their classroom. This group of mostly girls was great. They weren’t shy about asking questions and the boys almost missed out on a boy’s Kang Guru quiz as the girls all wanted to take part. At 4 I left the school after lots of photos and it was back to the hotel for a quick shower and then we went off to the beach for the sunset. There we sat for a while talking to some of the local fishermen and the village head, a very astute man who had many good ideas about improving the life of the local people. The sunset was lovely pinks and oranges and after a cup of strong Aceh coffee we went back to the hotel. I am amazed at the number of coffee shops in Bireun. I asked Pak Dayden where all the women where as all the men seem to be in coffee shops and he said at home watching television! Later that evening we enjoyed a tasty ayam baker in the centre of Bireun town, then went back to the hotel as we had another early start to Lhokseumawe the next day.

We left the hotel at 7:00 and drove to Lhokseumawe. It took about one hour. Pak Deyden told me that during the time of conflict this journey could take up to four hours as there were many road blocks by different groups. Also few people were brave enough to drive along this road at night. Times have changed and our journey passed without any incident. When we arrived at STAIN a group of students were waiting to greet us and we went to the warung for refreshments before meeting the students. I really enjoyed talking with them and giving them hints and tips on how to improve their English. They had lots of questions and were keen to know more about KGRE. Bahrul and Zainul were very good hosts and escorted us to the next venue – SMU 2. The students were all busy in their classrooms studying maths, physics and chemistry. I interrupted their lessons to talk about KGRE. Some of the students had great English and after the initial shyness wore off they were keen to practice it with me. The trip to Lhokseumawe was too short and by 1: 00 we were back on the road to Bireun. We had a meeting at ARNETT radio on the outskirts of Bireun. This is one of the new ‘community’ radio stations being set up in the district. Hopefully next year they too will be playing Kang Guru.

We continued our drive and stopped for a late lunch in Matang and ordered the famous satay matang. Iwan thedriver did a great job on the long drive and we reached Banda Aceh about 9:00 that evening. I said goodbye to Pak Deyden as he would be back at work in the UN Habitiat office the next day. I checked into the hotel had a shower and dropped into bed!

Next morning Iwan picked me up at 7 and we went to SMK 3 where Kang Guru was holding a workshop. Some of the teachers had arrived early and I chatted to them as we waited for the others to arrive. Almost 50 teachers attended the workshop and it was nice to have the teachers seated in a U shape instead of the usual rows. I was able to interact with all the participants and no one was able to nod off! Pak Samsul arranged an excellent lunch and snacks and provided rubbish bins for the rubbish! Great – no flies! The teachers were quite active and enjoyed the KGRE quizzes at the end of the workshop. That afternoon Pk Samsul amazed me at a local Aceh coffee shop where he drank 3 cups of strong, dark Aceh coffee!! It was quite delicious and I bought several freshly ground packs to take back to Bali. That evening I joined Pak Samsul for some delicious prawn noodles, before returning to the hotel to pack my bag.

Before going to he airport at 12: 00 I had an action packed morning planned. First stop was RRI Banda Aceh. Then it was onto SMk 3 to meet some lovely students who were very interested in KG and had lots of questions. After spending about 45 minutes with them we rushed over to the kitchen area of the school to meet the teachers and students who were preparing meals for Garuda for their Haj flights. I was taken through each area of production and took lots of photos for the December magazine. Then after a quick tour around the rest of the school – the hotel training area and the beauty and fashion departments it was back in the car and of to meet some intensive English students who were studying at STIKES. They were great and had loads of questions about how best to improve their English. After a quick KG quiz it was back in the car and straight to the airport to catch the flight back to Bali. I had a lovely time in Aceh and met some interesting and generous people. Thank you to everyone who contributed to make my visit a success.