Kang GURU Travels to Makassar and Gorontalo

Sue traveled to Makassar and Gorontalo to present Kang Guru teacher workshops, and attend student meetings, in collaboration with P4TK Bahasa Jakarta.

I arrived at Denpasar airport in plenty of time only to find out that the plane was delayed. As we checked in they told us it was delayed one hour but actually it was more like two and a half hours late. Luckily I had a couple of crossword puzzles, some sodoku puzzles and a book. The time passed quite quickly and as I did my puzzles I kept my ears open to hear when my flight was called. Every time a Garuda flight was announced I thought yes this must be my flight, but no. Suddenly I heard my name being called to go to the Garuda desk at gate 18. Oh no, I thought I must have missed hearing my flight. I quickly gathered up my things and raced to the desk. They asked for my boarding pass and when I gave it to them, to my surprise, they ripped it up! Then they apologized for the delay and gave me a new boarding pass. This time for business class! Wow.

The flight was great, more comfortable than economy as the seats are wider and not so crowded. Pity it was just an hour flight! We soon touched down at Makassar and after collecting my luggage I set off in a taxi to the city. Ever since I first went to Makassar many years ago a new road has been being built from the airport into the city. As this road gets longer and nears completion the traffic jams get longer too! The journey from the airport to the city took longer than the flight from Bali to Makassar! Crazy.

The next day I went to present a workshop for the SMP teachers undergoing their training with P4TK Bahasa. The teachers came from all over Sulawesi and they were a great bunch. There were a few sleepyheads – I think they had been up late watching Euro football, but most of them were keen and eager to learn from Kang Guru. The workshop continued until 6:30. As usual many of the students seemed to get a second wind when the Kang Guru quizzes took place at the end of the session!  It is great to see so many teachers who are interested in improving their teaching skills and sharing their experience with others.

The next day I was up early and back to the airport, this time for a flight to Gorontalo. This was my first time to Gorantolo and I was looking forward to meeting some of the teachers I had met earlier at the first P4TK training session for SMA teachers. As we flew in it was so exciting to see the mountains so close to the sea and the narrow string of houses clinging to the shoreline. Ibu Leiz, Ibu Selvie and Ibu Rem, English teachers were there to meet me along with a couple of other teachers from their school. I had met Ibu Leis at the P4TK training. The city is quite a long way from the city and even though we took a short cut it still took about 50 minutes. On the way we stopped at Gorintalo’s own Eiffel Tower. Built across and over the main road it provides a viewing tower and meeting rooms. Of course we had to stop and go up it! This was the first time for Ibu Leiz to go up the Gorontalo Tower! We also called in at Ibu Leiz’s school and met the headmaster and some of the other teachers. Before we reached the hotel we stopped for a late lunch of local specialities. Corn is a favourite in Gorontalo and although the orders got mixed up my corn soup was delicious. We finally arrived at the hotel about 2:00.

That evening the committee picked me up and we drove out to the coast for a lovely fish supper. It was very dark and although we could hear the waves we couldn’t see anything. They were surprised at my activities that afternoon – they though I had gone to sleep, but actually I had been out exploring the town! I didn’t take the local transport – a betor as I didn’t know where I was going but just walked.  It was very busy around the market area and I got lots of greetings of Hello Mister!

The next day was Sunday and Ibu Leiz had invited me to meet some of her students at the local hot springs. Ibu Rem joined us and we set off about 9am – via the restaurant! We bought some food for a picnic, stopped at Ibu Rem’s house for tikar and then on to Pentadio Resort (on the edge of lake Lomboto?) The hot steaming water winds through the resort which was developed by a previous governor. There are places to sit where families can gather for picnics, several large swimming pools filled with the thermal water, animal shaped sauna rooms, a boating lake where visitors can hire pedalos and of course food stalls!  I met the students – about 12 of them and they were all in good spirits. April joined me in a pedalo and we pedaled around the lake while all the local tourists watched with great interest! Ibu Leiz bought some Gorantalo pisang goring which you eat with sambal and local cakes. There was enough food for an army! Later Ibu Ratna – the organizer of tomorrow’s seminar arrived from the airport with her husband and we stayed by the lake till about one o clock. Then we went back to the hotel. I couldn’t believe it when the others went for lunch - the food at the hot springs had been enough for me!

That afternoon I spent several hours preparing material for tomorrow’s seminar as my boxes of material hadn’t arrived. I had contacted Ogi in Denpasar and she assured me the courier had sent the materials. But six o clock came, eight o clock, ten o clock still no materials. I had a few cassettes and CD s from my workshop in Makassar so I had some listening materials. That evening the committee came to the hotel and we met Ibu Kun from Relo who was also presenting at the seminar. Later we all went out for dinner near to the hotel. About 10:30 that night the reception at the hotel phoned me to say my materials had arrived! Phew.

The next morning the committee picked us up at the hotel and took us back to the Eiffal tower – the workshop was held in a large building near there. Wow what a lot of people! Almost 300 people attended the event. Unfortunately not all of them were English teachers so I’m not sure how much they understood. The opening ceremony was attended by the Rector of Gorontalo state University, Mr. Nelson Pomalingo and officially opened by Mr. David Bobihoe the Regent of Gorontalo.

Some local students, including April who  had met on Sunday performed some local dances then finally the seminar was underway.  Ibu Kun did her presentation before lunch and Kang Guru presented after lunch. There were a few glitches as the tape recorder was far away from where I was presenting – luckily Ibu Selvie operated it for me. Two teachers from local BEP schools attended along with teachers who had traveled a long way. Unfortunately a lot of the participants were not SMP or SMA English teachers so some of the materials were too difficult for them. The workshop finished about 4:30 as the hall was to be used again that evening. We traveled back to the hotel for a shower and a rest before the entire committee picked us up at  7: 30 to go for dinner. We seemed to travel a long way till we eventually reached a huge restaurant set amongst the rice fields. Fish was on the menu again as well as my favourite vegetable Bunga papaya! Although we waited quite a long time for the food to arrive, when it came it was very tasty. We chatted and swapped stories and before we knew it it was already 10:00 pm! We headed back to the hotel and I packed my bag as  had an early start in the morning.

The flight back from Gorantalo to Mahkassar went with out incident and I was able to check in my baggage as soon as I arrived in Makassar. I then spent almost 4 hours waiting for the flight back to Bali. But agian I had things to occupy my time. The flight was only 30 minutes late and by 7:00 I was back in Bali.