Kang GURU Travels to Jakarta and Pontianak, late November 2007

As Public Affairs Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Liz O'Neill had worked extensively with both the Australian and Indonesian media to foster a better understanding of both countries through accurate and informed media coverage. He hoped the Elizabeth O'Neill Journalism Award would “help ensure that Liz’s work to strengthen the ties of friendship between Indonesia and Australia will not be forgotten”. The award is sponsored by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australia-Indonesia Institute (AII), and is open to print, radio, television and internet journalists. Each year, the program will be tailored to the journalist’s areas of expertise and reporting responsibilities in such areas as foreign and trade policy, development assistance, culture, people-to-people links, and education.

On Friday morning Kevin headed north to Pontianak to meet up with Kang Guru Champion Asep Haryono, and local English course coordinator, Anthony Lee from the Lar Tee English Course. Upon arrival in wet Pontianak, Kevin was taken to the hotel first and then onto meetings with students at SMA Santo Paulus English. Their teacher, Lenny is a keen supporter of Kang Guru and has been an active user of Kang Guru materials with her students for many months. Her students were keen to meet Kevin and the 90 minutes of activities were well received. The students performed several musical items and as per usual it all ended up with lots of photographs being taken and snacks being consumed.

To read Asep's Internet Report on the Kang Guru visit - click here

Next stop – Widya Darma University and around 75 students (plus a few lecturers) high up above Pontianak on the 5th floor of their main building. Great views. The meeting involved some questions and answers but the first highlight of the meeting was the enthusiasm and vigor shown when learning ‘G’Day G’Day’. Lots of fun had there. The second highlight, and far more musically brilliant, was a performance by Sarika playing a 'erhu' and Leo Pratama playing a 'yan ching' - two somewhat unusual Chinese musical instruments. They were obviously very good players of the instruments and the audience really enjoyed the music and the skill demonstrated.

On Saturday it was time for the much anticipated Lar Tee language event. Kevin opened the day’s activities in front of 80 or so eager SMP and SMA level students. Judging continued for the next 8 hours with two separate competitions – the SMP “Dinner Party” Competition and the SMA “Kang Guru” Competition.

The Final was held in the evening with just 4 teams for each competition presenting their final performances. Kevin assisted with judging and it was quite difficult really as all finalists were quite good and all demonstrated quite a deal of creativity and skill in English. Winners were to be announced at a later date. Congratulations to Anthony and his hard-working team and to all the contestants. It was a terrific day and a great way for students in Pontianak to use and enjoy their English language skills in a fun and rewarding way.These three students (right) were the very first entrants in the Party Section of the day long competitions and lathough they didn't win, they were terrific.

On Sunday morning Kevin presented a mini-teacher workshop for 35 members of the local MGMP under the leadership of Pak Heru at SMK 3 in Pontianak. It was really an introduction to possible workshops in 2008 and hopefully the MGMP will invite Kang Guru back to deliver more extensive workshops next year.

Kevin left Pontianak around lunchtime on Garuda to Jakarta. He had planned to meet up with Sue Rodger in Jakarta. Sue was also returning to Bali from presenting workshops in Aceh and Medan. Unfortunately Sue's flight was late coming in from Medan and so they didn' t actually meet until they were both on their Bali bound flight.

It was nice to get back to Bali and that was at about 8.30pm.