Kang GURU
Travels to Barabai and Jakarta — January, 2007
This was the first trip for KGRE in 2007. Kevin flew to Barabai in Central
Kalimantan to AIYEP participants in their host village of
Barikin, to present a KGRE Teacher Workshop in Barabai
and to visit an SMP school being built by AIBEP, the Australia Indonesia Basic Education Program, in Ayuang Village. While in Jakarta on the way back from Kalimantan,
Kevin met with former Indonesian Idol, Joy Tobing, for
a Kang Guru Celebrity Interview.
It was a four hour taxi trip from Banjarmasin airport to get to Barabai. That
was after two flights with Garuda — one from Denpasar to Jakarta with a
short stopover in Jakarta and then a further 75 minutes in the air from Jakarta
to Banjarmasin. The taxi from Banjarmasin airport to Barabai was okay except
the weather was bad, the windscreen of the car was very dirty and the driver
had poor eyesight. Well it seemed that way as the darkness of night set in half
way to Barabai. But Kevin made it and booked into the Mutiara Hotel, a small
hotel next door virtually to the town's largest mosque.
Pak Saiful from the local organizing Workshop Organizing Committee dropped by
the hotel at 8.00pm as he promised he would. The heavy rain didn't stop him and
he was traveling by motorbike and had come 16 km to see Kevin. They discussed
the following day's events and Pak Sjaiful headed off at 8.30pm. Kevin also
spoke by phone with Melissa Crouch from the AIYEP group located in nearby
Barikin about the plans to visit that group of young people the following day.
The rain continued to pour. The hotel had no food and so Kevin decided that
television could be a good idea. Oops, television reception was very poor so
for the first time ever with Kang Guru, Kevin watched some DVDs that he had taken on
this trip just in case of a situation just like that!
It rained all night long but as per usual, breakfast time was sunny and clear
at the Mutiara Hotel in Barabai. Breakfast consisted of nice and tasty yellow
rice with a spicy piece of chicken plus the traditional hot, sweet tea.
Pak Saiful and Pak Harley picked Kevin up at
8.00am and they all went to Kantor DIKNAS to meet with officials there before
heading off to SMPN 8 Ayuang, one of the 2000 schools being built with
technical assistance from the Australian Government as a part of AIBEP, the Australia Indonesia Basic Schools Program, and in
close cooperation with the national education department in Jakarta and local
offices of education in the provincial areas such as Barabai. These wonderful
building projects are currently being done all over Indonesia with a further 9
AIBEP-construced SMP schools being built in other parts of KALSEL at this same time.
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Back in July 2006, after a series of community meetings with local education
department officials, the decision was made to build an SMP school in Ayuang
village. It is about 40 minutes by car from Barabai. The first 30% of the funds
from the Australian Government were transferred to the construction committee
in Ayuang village. Building commenced on Dec. 2 and amazingly, when Kang Guru
visited on January 5th, the buildings were well underway. There are 6
classrooms under construction, all 9m X 7 m in size.
Besides the classrooms there is a terrific library area, office space, staff
room and staff toilets and even a ‘rumah jaga’ close
by. In addition to the main school buildings there is a toilet block for
students. This block looks really good with many separate cubicles and change
areas for students. The view from the school yard is excellent with rice fields
and giant trees surrounding the school. The planning committee certainly chose
a great piece of land.
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In the nearby village of Ayuang, materials are being collected, and in some
cases assembled, for use in the construction of the school.
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Over 70 local workers are busily working from 8.00am until 5pm on their
new AIBEP-constructed SMP school. They are keen and enthusiastic as this school is for their
children.
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Future students of this new AIBEP-constructed SMP school in Ayuang Village ' keeping an eye'
on their new school.
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The day that Kang Guru visited was a Friday so work was not in full progress however
there were around 30 workers, young and old, mixing cement, carrying wood,
shifting materials and measuring walls and doors. It was an active building
site for sure. On a normal day there are about 70 workers there. These workers
are all from the local community and they are all quite passionate about the
work. The school they are building is for their children and their
grandchildren too. The workers are being paid for their work BUT they are also
keen to do the very best job that they can. In just a month they are well on
the way to having the school completed well before the start of the 2007 school
year in July.
Kevin interviewed Pak Ardinasyah, Kepala Tukang of the project about the school
plus Pak Norfiteri, Ketua Proyek. Listen to KGRE radio and check the March
magazine for what they had to say about their new AIBEP-constructed SMP school. When Kevin returned
to Barabai he met with the Team Leader for KALSEL's School Construction Project
from AIBEP, Pak Baharuddin, and Pak Faisal, SMPN 8 Ayuang Barabai.
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After Friday midday prayer time, Kevin met with Melissa Crouch and Kustiadi,
two of the 36 participants of the
2006-7 Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP). These 36 young
people were coming to the end of their month long stay in Barikin village about
30km from Barabai on the Banjarmasin/Barabai Road from Banjarmasin. Melissa is
the leader of the Australian group of participants while Bintang, from Medan,
is the leader of the Indonesian participants. They had been living and working
with the community of Barikin on many small projects since early December 2006.
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Kevin visited a few of the AIYEP sponsored activities in the village. They
included –
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a newly paved section of the school grounds at SD 1 Barikin now made suitable
for playing badminton when wet weather has made the rest of the playground a
mud patch.
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a renovated classroom in a nearby orphanage which has been turned into a
Reading Room for local students AND adults.
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roadside gutters that have been cleaned out and re-constructed (with the help
of local army personnel)
Kevin interviewed several other AIYEP participants about work that they had
been involved in.
That included –
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introducing Aussie sports such as cricket and football to students in the
village.
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teaching popular Aussie schoolyard games to students such as Tunnel Ball and
Poison Ball.
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creating healthy food in organized cooking classes for both village adults and
their children.
Here are some links from the KGRE Archives featuring AIYEP in Indonesia -
Link 1, Link 2,
Link 3
On Saturday, Jan 6th, Kevin presented the first KGRE Teacher Workshop for 2007
at SMK1 Barabai. The old jam karet problem was present once again but
the workshop was well underway by 9.00am. There were 49 participants and once
the workshop got started, they all joined in freely and with quite a deal of
enthusiasm and quite a few questions. The workshop continued on until around
1.30pm when the venue was taken over by 40 high school students. It was so
great to meet so many students who already knew about KGRE and were already
receiving KGRE magazines. There was great interest in language clubs and we
hope that KGRE receives a letter saying that the Barabai group of students is
ready to form a club. Many thanks to Pak Saiful from DIKNAS and to the teachers
at SMK 1 for their support and for providing the venue for the workshop. Thanks
also to the four AIYEP participants who dropped in to say hello and who stayed
for a few hours to work side by side with the teachers following the workshop.
That was much appreciated especially as they got lost getting there but still
made it eventually.
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On Sunday morning, Kevin returned to Jakarta for an overnight stay in the city.
On Monday Kevin visited Joy Tobing at her home for a 30 minute interview. Joy
talked about her blossoming career, her new English-language CD called ‘Rise’
and her experiences with education, both formal, and in relation to show
business.
Kevin flew back to Bali in the late afternoon. There were clear skies most of
the way and one interesting sight was the significantly increased activity of
Mt Semeru. There was a lot of thick smoke belching from the crater (much more
than Kevin has seen before) and in fact, the smoke/ash could be seen floating
north-eastwards over Madura.
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