Kang GURU
Travels to Jakarta, November 2007
Kevin's visit to Jakarta was to collect
information basically for the December 2007 Kang Guru magazine.
That meant quite a few interviews, many taxi rides and lots
of fun too. In Jakarta Kevin met with TV chef Ibu Sisca, The
Australian Ambassador, Mr. Bill Farmer, and Deputy Ambassador,
Ms. Louise Hand plus the Head of AusAID in Indonesia,
Mr. Blair Exell. In Yogyakarta, Kevin met with Indonesian motorbike
champion Doni Tata Pradita.
My first interview was with well-known Indonesian cook and
television personality, Ibu Sisca. I met her at her house
for the interview. To my great surprise Ibu Sisca had prepared
a very special lunch for me. The food was Indonesian food
of course but there were a few surprises for me. I really
like opor ayam but this time the chicken meat was
shredded so at first I didn’t know what it was – to look at anyway. It was delicious as were the other dishes.
I guess there were at least 12 different dishes spread out
for me to try. What a great start to an interview.
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Ibu Sisca talked about her career with food including
cooking and selling cakes in Surabaya when she was
still an SMP student, working for Feminina magazine
as a food stylist and consultant and finally her past
12 years on Indonesian television. Her cooking program
goes all over Indonesia and is even broadcast in Singapore,
Malaysia and she told me that it can also be seen
in Saudi Arabia.
Ibu Sisca has written 53 cook books, she has studied
in Japan and the United States, travels regularly
to Singapore to work there AND she absolutely loves
what she does. Read more about Ibu Sisca, or Ibu Masak
as she calls herself, in the December 2007 Kang Guru
magazine.
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| The second interview was with Mr. Bill
Farmer, the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia. Mr.
Farmer talked about food for the next magazine and how
he loves hot, hot food especially food from Padang.
He also spoke of more serious matters such as illegal
fishing by Indonesian fishermen in Australian waters,
the continuing and somewhat surprising connections between
Australian and Indonesia and also about Tamara, an orangutan
born in Australia and recently returned to ‘the
wild’ in Indonesia.
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The next interview was with Mr. Blair Exell, Head
of AusAID Indonesia. He has only been in Indonesia for
a few months and it was good to have him interviewed
for Kang Guru. Mr Exell talked about his role with AusAID
in Indonesia, his background and past Indonesian experience
plus he chatted to me about food. We had to do that!
Check out the article on Blair in the December 2007
magazine. |
Immediately after the interview with Blair, I went to Ms.
Louise Hand's house for lunch and the next interview. Ms.
Louise Hand is Australia’s Deputy Ambassador to Indonesia.
Louise was keen to talk about her recent experiences when
opening a wonderful new school in Banjarbaru, Kalimantan,
for the Basic Education Program in Indonesia. Food was a hot
topic too and you can read more about that interview in the
December 2007 magazine. And I can tell you that Louise is
a wonderful cook and loves cooking. Maybe you do too?
Ms. Louise Hand with teachers from the Banjarbaru area
at the opening of SMPN 13 Banjarbaru - an AIBEP
school inIndonesia
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Louise and the children chatting at SMPN 13 Banjarbaru
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On my last evening in Jakarta I attended a reception at the
Ambassador’s residence for Dr. David David. Along with
a hard working support team including Yayasan Citra Baru in
Jakarta, his team of surgeons and medical staff are doing
wonderful work with giving people with facial deformities
a better future. Check
out their website now!
On my way home to Bali on Wednesday morning I flew via Yogyakarta.
There I met a fine young SMA student who is destined to become
a world champion one day. His name is Doni Tata Pradita. He
is already famous in Indonesia, and overseas too in the motorcross
world, for his skill and success with MotoGP for Yamaha. I
met Doni at his school, SMA 1 Sleman where we had a very interesting
interview for about 30 minutes. It was Dina from Kediri who
made it all happen as she wrote to Kang Guru and requested
that we interview Doni. So thanks Dina for that suggestion.
Doni will appear in the December 2007 Kang Guru magazine for
sure.
From Yogyakarta I returned to Bali and onto the job of joining
with other Kang Guru staff to finish writing the December
edition of the magazine.
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