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Kevin traveled to the East Java town of Lumajang. The Australia Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP) participants
for 2008-9 arrived in Lumajang last week and Kevin met them all at Pondok Pesantren Al Fauzan school, an Australia
Indonesia Basic Education Program (AIBEP) school. The day was a cross-cultural extravaganza with school
and community members keen to meet the visitors.
It was 9.30 m flight to Surabaya which began this final trip for me for 2008. But before I left the lounge
at Denpasar airport to board my flight I bumped into someone who looked quite familiar. He turned out to
be Dewa Budjana from GiGi. I interviewed all members of GiGi many years ago and I knew that I knew the face
as he sat checking his mobile phone messages. I said hello and indeed it was Budjana. We chatted briefly
and he commented that he still wears the old-styled KGRE t-shirt that I gave him way back then – good
quality Kang Guru t-shirts. Many people are still wearing our t-shirts from many, many years ago.
The flight to Surabaya was excellent and Pak Mardi, my driver from Surabaya, met me at the airport for the
4 hour drive to Lumajang. Of course I had to make him stop at the famous nasi rawon warung in Pasuruan
(quite near the Probolinggo border) for delicious rawon, one of my favorite Indonesian meals. It
was delicious indeed.
Lumajang has to be one of the most attractive towns that I have been to in all of Indonesia over the past
few years. It’s main street is long and wide with tall tress all the way along. It is a colorful street
with signs, brightly painted buildings and shop fronts. A very interesting aspect is the special becak, bicycle
and parking lane running down the side of this basically one way main street. I have never seen this before
in Indonesia. It works well and makes the street less congested. The street is lined with rubbish bins and
the street is very clean. People are obviously very proud of their town
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The Pondok Pesantren Al Fauzan school is just one of 2000 schools built by the Australian
government in cooperation with the Indonesia government and AIBEP.
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The day at Al Fauzan started at 8.00am when I had an informal meeting with Pak Muammad As’ad, the
English teacher at the school.
This AIBEP school was opened on August 2007 by the
Indonesian Minister for Religion and the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr. Bill Farmer. The school
looks great and from what we saw on the day of the AIYEP visit, it is going to grow and develop into an
excellent school.
The school grounds are fantastic with lovely gardens all maintained by the students. Classrooms are full
of childrens' work including many examples of their English language skills talking about their lives
and their brand-new school.
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The school teaches not only English and Indonesian but like many other similar pondok pesantren schools
in Indonesia, Arabic is taught too.
Kang Guru gave the school a wide selection of merchandise and materials plus Pak Muhammad was keen to hear
how Kang Guru can continue to send magazines and materials to them in the near future. Pak Mahammad was
also surprised to hear that KGI can be heard on radio in Lumajang - Radio EZTHA FM
every Monday at 15.00 wib on 103.90 MHz.
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The 36 Australian and Indonesian AIYEP participants started to arrive around 9am and the day’s activities
began almost immediately. The day was filled with music and songs, dancing and even some sporting activities.
The 36 visitors entertained and educated the students and parents of this new school with both Indonesian
and Australian songs and lyrics.
Everyone enjoyed the variety of activities and although it was hot and humid, the activities continued on
until 3pm. The community was enthusiastic in their responses to the visitors and the students in particular
were a little sad when the visitors finally began finishing up the day’s activities. I am sure the
audience of parents, students and teachers learnt quite a lot from the cultural performance they saw from
the Australian AND the Indonesian visitors.
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I interviewed many of the AIYEP visitors for KGI plus Pak Muhammad and a wonderfully talented
young student, Alan who was one of the main MCs for the day. A great job Alan, well done!
In the March 2009 KGI magazine Kang Guru will tell you about Life Down Under (in Australia) from
the perspective of the Indonesian AIYEPs who have recently spent two months working and ‘living’ in
Australia as AIYEP participants 2008 – 9.
Be sure you are registered for the KGI maagzines thru 2009, okay?
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