Kang GURU Travels to Lombok — April, 2007

by Kevin Dalton

In late April, Cheryl and Kevin traveled to Lombok to attend a very special Listener's Meeting at RRI Mataram. It was a Farewell Meeting for Jack and Nada, two very active members of KGRE's interactive Presenter's Network. While in Lombok, Kevin was a special guest on the ‘Talk To Me’ radio program along with Felicity, Siska and Lucia from Australia Education International.

The trip to Lombok started off with quite a surprise. Merpati Airlines had a Boeing 737 200 aircraft for my flight instead of the usual propeller powered aircraft that it uses on that sector. So the flight was a quick one, just 15 minutes from Ngurah Rai to Selaparang airport in Mataram. The problem, for me anyway, was that the aircraft was a very old one. A bit scary in light of recent reports about the Indonesian government banning any commercial aircraft over 15 years of age from carrying passengers.

Nevertheless we arrived in the early afternoon. I went to Qunci Villas directly from the airport. I spent the next few hours working on the June 2007 KGRE magazine. Deadline day for articles was in just a few days. At 18.30 I caught a taxi into Mataram to visit RRI Mataram. Jack and Nada have has a very successful interactive English language program called ‘Talk To Me’ on that station for many years. They started the 7pm program on November 13th, 2004. With a lot of hard work, and support from KGRE, their program has been attracting many listeners from all over Lombok.

Special guests on the show were three members of the team from Australia Education International. Their names are Felicity, Siska and Lucia. Felicity is from Australia and is based at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta as is Siska. Lucia and Siska are both alumni of Australia with Siska, based in Surabaya, an ADS awardee from 2003. They had been in Lombok for several days presenting information seminars and meetings to teachers and students about study in Australia, with particular reference to Australian Scholarships. There were many questions via SMS to the three visitors and even though the show began late (technical difficulties) it proved to be very successful.

It was great fro me to see Jack at work once again. He and his wife, Nada, will be missed when the finally finish in late May on RRI Mataram. There are plans already for a replacement — an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development called Violet Rish, but more on that exciting development later.

Many people in Lombok listen to ‘Talk To Me’, a wonderful English language interactive radio program (talk show) broadcast every Friday night at 7pm. It is presented by Jack and Nada. Others listen to Fadel on Sunday evening at 7pm in his interactive talk show as well as to the regular KGRE program every Monday evening.

On Sunday afternoon Cheryl joined me and we both went to RRI Mataram for a special Listener's Meeting.

The main reason behind the meeting was to bid farewell to Jack and Nada who are about to return to the USA. They will be finishing their show in late May. They have been presenting it since November 12th, 2004 and during the past two and a half years it has proven to be very successful indeed. About 200 people came to the RRI meeting. Jack, Nada, Cheryl and I spoke with the listeners and played some terrific games with them. It was a lot of fun.

Nada in action with one of her many games	Cheryl interviewing a teacher from Mataram
Just part of the audience at the RRI Listener's Meeting	Nada having fun with Sultan, a KGCC member in Lombok

One of the interesting activities were on the spot interviews with members of the audience. In a period of 30 minutes we interviewed around 12 of the listeners ranging from SMP level right up to university and club members. Some people were nervous because the two-hour meeting went live to air across Lombok. Nevertheless they were all terrific and confident and fun. The meeting stopped at 6pm with a fond farewell to Jack and Nada. We wish them luck in the future and it seems they will very keen to return to Lombok someday soon. Jack commented that doing the ‘Talk To Me’ radio program was definitely one of the main highlights of their time in Lombok. Many thanks also to RRI Mataram for their support and enthusiasm working with KGRE. Well Done.

KGRE says thanks too and to show our appreciation ‘shouted’ Jack and Nada and their baby son, Jae, along with Fadel, to Qunci Villas for dinner that night. Cheryl and I both returned to Bali on Monday and back to work on the June magazine.