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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Erin from the Philipines spoke wonderfully of her country and many questions were asked about life in her
country.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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