Kang GURU
Travels to Trenggalek and Tuban — March, 2007
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by Sue and Cheryl
Sue and Cheryl visited Trenggalek and Tuban to meet with KGCC members, present
KGRE Teacher Workshops and participate in student speech competition
activities.
Sue's Report
I have been to East Java many times and always enjoy it. The scenery is so
pretty and the food delicious! The sun was shining when Cheryl and I landed in
Surabaya and Pak Yudi was there to meet us and take us to Trenggalek for a KGRE
Teacher Workshop. The drive was anticipated to take about 4 hours, giving us a
chance to rest before our first meeting. However, the residents of villages
submerged under the Lapindo Brantas Inc mudflow were continuing their action of
blocking roads and train lines to Sidoarjo. This made our journey much longer.
In fact it took three hours just to get out of Surabaya, despite Pak Yudi
taking every Jalan Tikus he knew!
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For the next three and a half hours we travelled through the countryside of
East Java and after stopping for a late lunch of nasi pecel, finally arrived in
Trenggalek about six in the evening. I had already sent an SMS to Nurul, from
Gazebo English Course, to advise her of our late arrival and so Cheryl and I
were able to rest for a short time before meeting Nurul, and her team of
assistants at 7:00. We sat in the lobby of the hotel and chatted for an hour or
so before heading off, by becak in the rain, to Radio ADS. Presenters Nurul and
Wawan have begun an interactive show which airs after the Kang Guru show.
Despite the fact that this was only their 6th interactive show there were five
callers. They all tried really hard to practise their English and asked Cheryl
and I lots of questions. Before we left Monique from Radio ADS asked Cheryl and
I to record some jingles. We were happy to agree only to find out they were in
Bahasa Jawa!! I hope the listeners can understand us! It was still raining when
we left Radio ADS at about 9:45 but the becak had returned to take us back to
the hotel. Unfortunately the hotel dining room had closed and as there were no
nearby warungs Cheryl and I had to be happy with tea and biscuits for dinner.
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Sue and Pak Achmadi, Deputy
Head of Education, Trenggalek
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Pak Yudi was at the hotel at 7:00am to take us to the workshop venue, which was
quite close to the hotel. The room was set up ready and a few of the
participants had already arrived. The workshop was opened by Pak Achmadi from
the Department of Education and was underway by 8:30.
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There were about 35 participants mostly from the Trenggalek area but one lady
had come all the way from Tuban! She had attended the first workshop last year
and didn't want to miss the second! The workshop ran quite smoothly and the
participants got livelier as the day progressed. Unfortunately Cheryl was ill
during the afternoon session but she soldiered on and completed her sessions.
The committee did a very good job of organizing this event and the English
Olympiad which was to be held at SMAN 1 the following day. Unfortunately after
the workshop I had to leave straight away to return to Surabaya. It was a shame
as I would have liked to have visited some of the beautiful tourist attractions
in the area that Wawan had told me about. In fact I didn't even visit the town
of Trenggalek itself! That's what often happens on KGRE trips. We are so busy
conducting workshops, visiting radio stations and attending other events the
sightseeing has to be saved for holiday time! Thank you Nurul, Wawan and the
team for another great workshop.
Cheryl's Report
Sue has written about the teacher workshop we did together in Trenggalek. All I
would like to add is a big ‘Thank you’ to the
committee and to the group of teachers who explained ‘masuk
angin’ to me and gave me eucalyptus oil when I was sick. After
Sue left on Saturday evening I stayed in my hotel room listening to the rain.
Until recently it hasn't rained very much in Bali and I enjoyed the rainy
weather for a change.
On Sunday morning I went to SMAN 1 Trenggalek for a speech contest, carrying
lots of KGRE giveaways. I went by becak and on the way saw some beautiful
scenery. The green of the ricefields and blue of the mountains were very bright
after a night of rain.
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There were crowds of students at the school when I arrived. In the office I
spoke with some of the visiting English teachers and gave them KGRE magazines.
Later I sat at the back of the ‘Bupati's Cup’ contest
and was impressed by the courage of the students who were participating. It's
not easy to deliver a speech in English, especially with a native speaker in
the audience, but these students were really making a great effort.
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The final stage of the contest, for the top ten students, was held after lunch.
They all spoke on the same topic — the importance of science and
technology for the young generation of Indonesians. I wasn't surprised to hear
mobile phones (HP) and television mentioned a lot, but I was surprised to hear
an SMP student talk about nuclear power. Finally the top three SMP and SMA
winners received their trophies and KGRE prize packs.
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The members of the committee set to work cleaning the room and before long the
next activity was underway — a meeting of
Gazebo English Club, KGCC #007. It was a special occasion as they had lots
of entertainment for us, starting with a fashion show and then some dancing.
The last act was a very funny play involving a young man, the devil, a
magician, a bottle of magic perfume, an old man in traditional Javanese costume
and six girls! Monic from Radio ADS Trenggalek also conducted a very
entertaining interactive discussion with the audience and gave away prizes from
local sponsors.
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Finally it was KGRE's turn. The club members were very enthusiastic, although I
noticed that the girls were far more confident in using their English than the
boys were. We enjoyed a couple of quizzes and I invited one girl and one boy to
tell the audience all about themselves. This was to give everyone an idea of
what they could write in a letter to KGRE. The speakers did very well and
received special prizes for volunteering.
By 5.00pm I was saying goodbye to Nurul, Alin, Monic and Wawan. Soon Pak Yudi
was driving out of Trenggalek yet again, but this time with me and lots of
keripik tempe. It started to rain heavily again and before long it was dark. We
passed through Tulungagung, Kediri, Jombang and Lamongan before arriving in
Tuban just before 8 o'clock. You may think that it's easy sitting in a car
while Pak Yudi does all the driving. He's an excellent driver but I saw too
many motorcycles, bicycles and becaks without lights to relax. The final part
of the road to Tuban was very busy with lines of large trucks and buses making
their way from Jakarta towards Surabaya and beyond, and going the opposite way
too.
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The next morning Pak Muin and Ibu Christina met me at the hotel. Pak Muin
teaches at SMPN 5 Tuban, helps to run the
Five Conversation Club (KGCC #006) and also has an interactive radio show
on Radio Pradya Suara in Tuban following the KGRE program. Ibu Christina is a
lecturer and Head of the English Department at IKIP PGRI Tuban and sometimes
helps the IKIP Conversation Club (KGCC
#074). After the opening of the ‘English Competence Competition
2007’ at the radio station they took me back to my hotel for a
couple of hours while 150 students completed the written part of the
competition.
The top 21 students competed in the speech competition. Ten SMA students and 11
SMP students took turns to speak about a topic taken from a box. (Numbers 10
and 11 had the same score on the SMP written test.) The topics ranged from
corruption to discipline in schools to early marriages. Although the students
are probably familiar with the type of topics encountered in competitions it's
very difficult to speak ‘off the cuff’ like that in a
foreign language. Not surprisingly, some of them found it difficult but they
all tried very hard and did their best. I was very impressed, especially with
the younger students who perhaps hadn't done this before.
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After the presentations of trophies and KGRE prizes the next item on the agenda
for the day was a club meeting. Members of the Five Conversation Club and the
IKIP Conversation Club arrived as the sky was getting darker. (photo 6) One of
the IKIP students was David who used to phone the interactive show I was
involved with on Persada FM in Paciran, Lamongan.
Pak Muin was first on the agenda with a talk and then some of the club members
entertained us. However, before we had a chance to do much more the rain and
wind started and then the electricity went off. Imagine a club meeting without
a microphone! It actually went quite well but we had to finish earlier than
planned because it was so dark in the hall and Pak Muin thought it best that
everyone went home.
After saying good bye I set off for Surabaya with another very good driver and
some keripik gayam from Tuban. Like the day before it rained and was soon dark,
and the road all the way to Surabaya was very busy. Once we stopped for petrol
and a young man was sitting next to a petrol pump smoking a cigarette despite
several very large ‘Dilarang merokok’ signs. Another
time we passed a truck without lights driving along the road.
By the time I got to the Hotel Novotel I had decided that I would not leave the
hotel until it was time to go to the airport in the evening the following day.
I'd had enough rainy season road travel in East Java to last me for quite a
while!
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