Kang GURU
Travels to Yogyakarta and Surabaya
Kevin went to Yogyakarta on Feb 10th to join in with a wonderful idea developed
by members of KGCCs in Semarang and Yogyakarta. Keyko from KGCC #010 —
English Society Club in Semerang and Adi from KGCC #032 —
Student English Activity UMY (SEA-UMY) Yogyakarta got together to develop
an idea about sharing culture. It took just a few weeks to organize but proved
to be very successful.
|
|
It began when Reza from SEA-UMY introduced Eka who performed the the first
dance — the Tek Tok Dance from Java. Then Reza went on to introduced the
president of the hosting club, Adi, from the SEA-UMY, to welcome everyone.
They had invited international students studying in Yogyakarta to participate
in a Cross Cultural Forum and Cultural Tour Event. Seventeen international
students joined in this morning's activity at UMY. They were from Bangladesh,
Slovakia, South Africa and the Philippines. They were lively and full of fun
AND the 50 or so members of the two organizing clubs were treated to great
cultural information and entertainment.
These students are all studying under a scheme called
Dharma Siswa from the Indonesian Department of Education. These
scholarships are avilable to students in Australia and many other countries
such as Bangladesh and South Africa.
|
|
The international students then began giving information about life in their
countries and accepting questions from the audience. A few of them even sang
traditional songs from their own countries. Sabbir from Bangladesh began the
session with two songs — one was a love song and the other a religious
song from his home country of Bangladesh. He was terrific. Three of his friends
then joined him to answer questions. They certainly informed everyone about
life in their home country.
|
Keyko (far left), the newest KGRE Champion, and leader for the English Society
Club in Semerang, then talked about traditional food from Semarang and in
particular, lumpia made with baby bamboo shoots — a Semarang delight she
said.
Keyko brought her two young relatives from Semarang and they delighted the
audience with their dance especially the one where they were
‘riding’ horses.
The two clubs are now very interested in repeating the event, maybe a little
more expanded, next year.
There were also cultural performance from the Indonesian participants including
dances, role plays and vocal performances.
|
|
|
Erin from the Philipines spoke wonderfully of her country and many questions
were asked about life in her country.
|
Three visitors from South Africa also spoke about life in their country. That
was fascinating as they were very keen to explain that the view of South Africa
s being full of elephants and lions was not quite true. In fact it became
obvious as people listened to the visitors that other countries are not always
as we think.
Stereotyped impressions of other cultures and other people are generally wrong
or at the least, misleading. Information about lifestyle and culture of other
countries is revealed when different cultures get together and discuss, compare
and enjoy their differences.
|
|
|
In the meantime, Bonnie Serong, a wonderful
Australian Volunteer International (AVI) currently working at
Universitas Islam in Yogyakarta, is already planning some sort of
cooperation between her students and those at UMY — the KGCC in
particular. Bonnie has been in Yogya for 18 months and is originally from the
north-east area of the Australian state of Victoria. She was very happy to
accompany Kevin to the event.
Bonnie was amazed by the level of interest generally but also by the wonderful
information that the international visitors gave to the audience. It was
terrific.
After the morning events at university, the club members and the international
students went to Jl. Marliboro to collect money on the roadside for the flood
victims in Jakarta. They raised RP219,000 which they have sent to the vicitms
via Metro TVs charity collection activities.
|
|
Kevin stayed at the historic Natour
Hotel in Yogyakarta. What a magnificent old hotel. It is right at the
northern end of the famous Jl. Marliboro. Once again, what an amazing street.
Kevin met with members of the organizing committee at the hotel on the night
before the cultural event and discussed the event.
On Sunday afternoon Kevin flew to Surabaya to attend an Australian Alumni event
organized by the Australia Education Center in Surabaya.
|
|
|
On Sunday afternoon Kevin flew to Surabaya to attend an Australian Alumni event
organized by the
Australian Education Centre (AEC) in Surabaya. Josephine Ratna and her
Surabaya AEC team, with great support from Dr. Shannon Smith and his team from
Australian Education International (AEI) in Jakarta, presented a wonderful
night at the Marrriot Hotel.
Shannon is the Counsellor of Education, Science and Training at the Australian
Embassy in Jakarta.
|
|
|
Over 250 Aussie alumni were in attendance. Not only Australian Development
Scholarship (ADS) alumni but also a significant number of private students, in
fact around 70% organizers told KGRE.
|
The Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr. Bill Farmer, was there too
representing the Australian government. Mr Farmer told a wonderful story about
the time when he graduated from Sydney university. Maybe we can get him to tell
KGRE that story one day soon. We'll try. The evening was also to launch the new
website from AEI called OZMATE — a website for all types Aussie alumni
— www.ozmate.org The site is brand
new so within a few weeks it should be fully up and running.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the 'Study
in Australia' exhibition was held in Surabaya.
|
|
Highly renowned Indonesian
artist, Balawan, was special guest at the alumni event. He is also an
Aussie alumni. He played several songs to his fellow alumni and everyone was
very impressed at his skill with his guitar. KGRE is planning to interview him
soon and ask him to talk about his time in Australia, his music and his career.
|
|
|
|
|
