Kang GURU Travels to Malang, Surabaya and Jakarta

by Kevin Dalton

Kevin traveled to Malang, Surabaya and Jakarta in late June. Kevin presented a KGRE teacher workshop in Batu, ‘up the hill’ from near Malang. He also met with members of Tunas Hijau in Malang and with other Tunas Hijau members in Surabaya before heading off to Jakarta to attend various AusAID activities including the Muslim Exchange Program from AII and to conduct interviews with the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr. Bill Farmer and his wife, Elaine.

Kevin left Bali at 10.10 and flew to Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city. Then direct onto East Java's second largest city — Malang. To get to Malang these days from Surabaya means traveling on the road straight through Sidorajo as the Jalan Tol is closed. In fact parts of the freeway from Surabaya to Gempol have been dismantled due to the mudflow. As Kevin drove through Sidorajo and onto Porong, he was amazed at the extent of the mudflow and how it is just getting worse. The scenery in those affected villages is really like something out of a science fiction movie. How long will this mud continue to flow out of the ground? Volcanic experts say it could continue for years and years. There is already a high wall around the mud keeping it contained but what happens if that breaks or the mud goes over the top?

Deadly mud – trees and grass gone and maybe forever

The mud has destroyed everything on the mudflow side of the railway line in Porong

The trip to Malang took just over three hours and by 1.30pm Kevin was in his hotel and preparing to meet Malang members of Tunas Hijau, the very active and dedicated East Java environmental group. Mumtaza Noor Ashila, an SD student, was very happy and confident to be interviewed by Kevin when she visited the hotel. Nadya Noor Azalia, and SMP student, was also keen to chat and to tell Kevin all about their recent trip to Perth in Australia with Tunas Hijau. Amanda, was the older of the three young female students who met with Kevin, spoke quietly about her trip to Perth.

All three girls obviously enjoyed their trip to Western Australia and news of their trip will be used in the September 2007 KGRE magazine plus on KGRE radio during the final 3 – 4 months of this year. The girls were accompanied by a young 16 year old man called Nizam. He also went to Perth and is quite involved in the work of Tunas Hijau in Malang – tree planting, rubbish control and education in schools. Kevin really enjoyed interviewing these four young people and to hear about their enthusiasm for the environment.

On Tuesday Kevin traveled up the hills from Malang to the peaceful hilltop town called Batu. It was a time for a KGRE Teacher Workshop organized by MGMP SMP & SMA in Batu. Around 65 teachers attended and as usual, they were keen and interested in the services that KGRE has to offer them AND their students. Many of them already knew about KGRE so that was good to hear.

In the latter part of the day Kevin had a meeting with around 70 SMP students from nearby schools. They were a terrific lot of students and Kevin enjoyed the get together. The students had questions but he highlight of the day was the Music Quiz that Kevin gave them. In groups they had to listen to a short section of well-known Indonesia songs and then fill in the missing information – name of the group or singer, the number of performer in the group, the title of the song PLUS the title of the Indonesian song in English. The students loved the activity and it made Kevin think that perhaps KGRE should add a further compilation CD/cassette to the KGRE collection. It could be a collection of ‘The Best of KGRE's Quizzes, Music Tasks…’ Teachers could then use these quizzes and activities in their classes to increase student enthusiasm and to motivate them.

On Wednesday Kevin traveled to Surabaya for a meeting with Russell Keogh, Team Leader for AusAID's new teacher training project which is working with the Islamic sector of the Indonesian education system. He is based at IAIN in Surabaya and although it is early days, the project is well underway. Caroline Bentley, an old friend of KGRE's from IALF Bali, is also a part of that project as she heads the English teacher training part of the project — ELTIS, English Language Training for Islamic Schools.

After that meeting Kevin moved onto Tunas Hijau, Indonesia's premier student environmental group which is based in Surabaya. Tunas Hijau is led by Roni, an old KGRE friend. Kevin met with Diofon Kurniayati, Adetya Firmansyah, TH. Bram Azzaino and Nastiti Puspitosari in their office in Semolowaru Indah. They exchanged many, many ideas and readers of the September 2007 magazine will see a full page report about the many and varied activities that the gang from Tunas Hijau is involved in, and not just in Indonesia but in places such as Australia and Japan.

Tunas Hijau members in Surabaya

Tunas Hijau members and their fantastic environmental board game. Check it out in the September KGRE magazine.

On Thursday Kevin flew to Jakarta at 5am thanks to Yayun, Personnel and Administration Manager at IALF Jakarta, who worked her usual magic and helped Kevin to get an early (very early) flight from Surabaya. It was a rough trip through lots of heavy cloud and rain. Jakarta was wet too with heavy rain but in spite of that and the usual traffic, Kevin was in the door at IALF Jakarta by 7am.

Kevin went to the Australian Embassy at 9am to meet with Australian alumni from the LAPIS ANU Sandwich program. They were meeting there for two days to present brief reports on their various research projects. The Director of Islamic Higher Education from the Ministry of Religious, Professor Abdurrahman Mas'ud, Ph. D opened the two day program. He was very happy to get some KGRE magazines from Kevin plus a KGRE Package including a t-shirt. Hopefully KGRE will be able to interview at him at some stage in the near future. Kevin did manage to interview several of the presenters on the day and you can hear them soon on KGRE. They have some very interesting stories to tell about their individual research projects and their time in Australia.

Kevin also met with five very enthusiastic youg Australian muslims who were in Jakarta as a part of the Muslim Exchange Program between Australia and Indonesia. Kevin interviewed three of them and they will be on KGRE (radio) soon. Earlier in the week they attended an opening of a new SMP school with members of the Cultural Section at the Australian Embassy. The new school is a part of the Basic Education Pprogram (BEP) from AusAID and the Indonesian government. Check out some of the schools being built all over Indonesia — 2000 of them in fact!