Kang GURU Travels to Mojokerto - October 2008

As the KGCC network winds down and finally closes in December 2008, Sue and Ayu traveled to Mojokerto to visit one of the most active schools and clubs of all the Kang Guru's Connection Clubs. Students at SMP 1 Ngoro have been connected to Kang Guru for many years and this isn't the first time that KGI has visited them. SMP 5 Mojokerto The reason why we visited SMP 5 Mojoketo and SMP 2 Kutorejo was because the two schools have been constantly keep in touch with Kang Guru. I had a one hour activity with Rose English Club at SMP 5 Mojokerto. They were all actively involved in the game. At the end the teacher gave me whole lot of onde-onde, typical snack from Mojokerto. Yummy. Photo : SMP 2 Kutorejo The next trip was to SMP 2 Kutorejo. SMP 2 Kutorejo is half an hour away from Mojokerto. The school is located in the village. It was not easy to find the school because there were not many signs along the road so the driver had to stop all the time and asked people around. We eventually found the school. The school looked green and very clean from outside. I met with the English teacher, Ibu Nurul, who then took me to the meeting room where 40 impatience students were waiting for me. As soon as I entered the room the students stood up and said their “yell-yell” with gesture. It was great! And they have prepared a series of performances such as a short “Cinderella” drama, a poem reading and a story telling. Then we did games and quizzes not only with the students but also with the teachers and… the principle. I had a great time at SMP 2 Kutorejo and met brilliant English Club members. Great welcome guys!

I was heading to SMP 1 Ngoro straight away. I asked the driver to drive faster because we were running little bit late, lucky the road wasn’t that busy. When I arrived at SMP 1 Ngoro, I was welcomed by Ms. Alifah and a few other teachers. She then took me around the school. SMP 1 Ngoro is such a big school with around 700 students. The school is surrounded by big trees – beautiful.

Ms. Alifah took me to the back of the school to see the ‘wall mags’ display made by students. The school was holding several competitions to commemorate Bulan Bahasa one of them was a creative wall mag design. I was impressed to see the creation of the wall mags, students are so creative. My favourite one was the one with a shape of a house with different kind of information stick around it. So people have to go around the house to read all the information. Isn’t that great?

The students were gathered at the open theatre in front of the school. As to my surprised they were all dressed up if colorful traditional clothes. They look great! The theme of the Get Together was Majapahit Culture. Unfortunately only the club members wore traditional clothes not the teacher and neither myself. I should have brought my traditional clothes with me.

The Ngoro final Get Together was impressive. The students were definitely well prepared for this. The event began with a beautiful choir , then two dramas. This time the drama was about teenage life and environment. I was glad that they didn’t perform the same ‘Cinderella’ story or ‘Bawang Merah” and “Bawang Putih” etc. Beside dramas there were a few other great performances like. My favourite performance was the fashion show. Three talented students from the school designed the clothing and painted it as well. The hand painted clothing was beautiful.

Sue arrived at around 3.30pm from the workshop in Mojokerto. We continued the activities with more games and quizzes and more prizes. Before the final GTG finished, four students performed a duet. Two boys sang a song from Linkin’ Park and two girls sang “Ooh Baby” from Cinta Laura. Of course they got something from Kang Guru for their courage to sing in front of lots of people! Overall the final GTG was impressive and colorful, they had different performances prepared for this special event. Grrreat guys! And thanks to Ms. Alifah and all the committee who organized the Get Together.

29th October - Kang Guru to SMP Unggulan Darul Ulum 1, Peteronga, Jombang

We had to catch a plane at 2.15 that afternoon. Our plan in the morning was to visit SMP Darul Ulum in Peterongan and SMK Budi Utomo in Jombang. On the way to SMP Darul Ulum we saw banners at the main entrance of the school. We were warmly welcomed by the school Principal, the English teachers and other teachers. After having a chat at the main room we went to meet the students who were already gathered under the tar roof outside the school. They put a beautiful banner in front that said The Friendship - Kang Guru Indonesia and SMP Unggulan Darul Ulum 1. The activities went well lots of students were still little bit shy. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long, we had to go to our next destination.

Kang Guru to SMK Budi Utomo, Jombang

SMK Budi Utomo is located in the middle of rice field, in the village. But once you are in the area you would be amazed to see the striking buildings. The school is HUGE almost like a palace to me. When we got there students were already gathered in the main hall. But first Pak Aziz and Pak Ben took us to the Principal’s room. In the main hall there were about 200 students gathered, both male and female. They looked happy and excited to see us. We had half an hour interactive activity before the Azhar. We had to stop everything and waited until the Azhar period finished. Students speaks very good English, they were very fluent and brave enough to speak - that is always the most important thing.

After the interactive meeting with KGI they took us back to the principal’s room for lunch. While waiting I interviewed the English Club leader together with two members. The lunch provided was very nice. We had chicken satay, meatball soup , rice cake and fish. Oops, we didn’t realize that it was time for us to leave. We said goodbye and rushed into the car. As soon as we left Sue and I saw a boy holding a piece of paper and he was waving at us. We waved back but then he ran and tried to chase our car. We didn’t know what was the boy doing but actually he just wanted to give us a letter. The boy’s name is William. So Kang Guru is going to send William some merchandise for that…! Thanks William for your wonderful letter.

Unfortunately our story didn’t end there. When we got to the airport we had already missed the plane. YES, missed the plane! The worst was that there were no plane tickets available for that day so we had to stay overnight at the hotel near the airport.