Kang GURU
Travels to Musi Rawas in Sumatra
Cheryl Reid visited Musi Rawas in Sumatra to conduct a KGRE
Teacher Workshop and to meet with teachers and students and even to enjoy
the local durian delights.
by Cheryl Reid
When I heard that I was going to Lubuk Linggau in Musi Rawas, South Sumatra, I
didn't really know where it was. I wasn't worried however as I'd been told I
just needed to get myself to Bengkulu airport and the rest would be taken care
of by the Musi Rawas Department of Education. Sure enough, Mr Hartoyo was
waiting with a car and driver when my flight arrived.
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I expected to be using my Indonesian but in fact Mr Hartoyo speaks very good
English. He said it would take about three hours from Bengkulu to Lubuk Linggau
if we drove fast, but when he mentioned hills and winding roads I suggested a
slower trip. After leaving Bengkulu the road went past a beautiful blue lake,
then up into the hills and through a national park. It would be impossible to
do this trip if you were the kind of person who gets ‘car
sick’ as there must have been hundreds of hills and bends in the
road.
Apart from the beautiful scenery I soon discovered that this part of Indonesia
has a special attraction — durian. The local people
collect the fruit after they fall from the trees in the forest and sell them by
the side of the road. Mr Hartoyo asked if I'd like to try one and soon we were
sitting not far from a durian tree, looking at durian, eating durian and
talking about durian.
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The road also passes through a number of small towns and villages. The houses
varied a lot in style, colour and size but the most interesting were the
traditional unpainted wooden houses. The people in this area seem to have ‘green
thumbs’. Many houses had flower gardens, and most had pot plants
on balconies and steps. We stopped for lunch at a Padang restaurant in
Kepahiang and it was served the traditional way, with lots of small bowls on
the table.
I had expected Lubuk Linggau to be a small town so I was very surprised when we
arrived there. It has a population of about 200,000 and the Hotel Abadi had a
ballroom, swimming pool and karaoke. I didn't have time to enjoy these
facilities but I did have a really good sleep after preparing for the workshop
the next day.
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When I arrived at the kabupaten office the next morning my first task was to
set up for the workshop in the beautiful auditorium. Then I met Ibu Haji
Ratnawati Ibnu Amin, Deputy Bupati of Musi Rawas, and Pak Zaini Amin, Kepala
Dinas Pendidikan. They both speak English too, and are very keen to do whatever
they can to promote English in their schools. Ibu opened the workshop with a
short speech and then we started.
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KGRE workshops don't always go strictly according to plan, for one reason or
another. Sometimes the reason is ‘jam karet’, with the
result that we can't do as many activities as we'd like to. However, the
participants at Lubuk Linggau really impressed me with their attitude. Almost
everyone was back in their seats on time after both breaks and the result was
we had more time to spend on listening skills activities.
At lunch time we enjoyed delicious local food, and I had a special treat.
Because they knew by now that I love durian the committee provided one just for
me, which I shared with Mr Bambang Santoso, an English teacher who's currently
working in the local Department of Education office. It was too much for us but
a lot of people volunteered to help. It was the best durian I've ever tasted,
and he told me it was from the Rupit area.
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I was surprised to see that the skin was still green. During the lunch break I
had my photo taken many times with different groups, then I took a photo of Mr
Fitryanto and his students from SMAN Surulangun. He's been a KGRE magazine
reader for a long time and uses the Listening and Reading Class Sets. I also
met Mr Heru Irawan from Radio Papesa in Lubuk Linggau which is very interested
in broadcasting
Kang GURU
Radio English.
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Once again the participants came back on time and so we finished right on time
at two o'clock. Then I spent an hour with a group of very keen students from
different junior and senior high schools in the area. It was the first time
most of them had spoken with a native speaker of English. They showed that they
were willing to take risks and use their English, even though it might mean
making mistakes, and it succeeded. Most of the time they were able to
communicate very well and we had a great conversation. Quite few of them said
they'd like to be English teachers in their villages one day, but there were
others who wanted to be doctors and nurses too.
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That night I had dinner in a local fish restaurant with some of the committee
who'd taken such good care of me. The next day Mr Hartoyo was there to pick me
up at seven o'clock and we drove back to the airport at Bengkulu. This time we
followed a convoy of six buses and two police vehicles traveling from Padang to
Bengkulu. They were a group returning from the haj and everywhere
along the road people came out to wave. It meant that we had to slow down a lot
on hills and going through towns so I was able to take some great photos of
houses and gardens and people as we passed.
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After I said goodbye to Mr Hartoyo at the airport I had a long wait, as the
flight to Jakarta was delayed by two and a half hours. That meant I couldn't
catch my flight from Jakarta to Denpasar. After a few SMS messages and phone
calls Ogi and Tjok were able to get me the last seat on the last flight to
Denpasar that day. One good thing however was that I had a window seat and had
a great view of Jakarta at night. Monas was beautiful. I finally arrived home
at 1.30am the following morning but I was happy as I was carrying a heavy
package of oleh oleh from the Department of Education in Musi Rawas.
Can you guess what it was? That's right — ‘lempok durian
asli’ from Lubuk Linggau!
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