Kang GURU Travels
to Musi Rawas in Sumatra
Cheryl Reid visited Musi Rawas in Sumatra to conduct a KGRE Teacher Workshop and to meet
with teachers and students and even to enjoy the local durian delights.
by Cheryl Reid
When I heard that I was going to Lubuk Linggau in Musi Rawas, South Sumatra, I didn't really know where it was.
I wasn't worried however as I'd been told I just needed to get myself to Bengkulu airport and the rest would
be taken care of by the Musi Rawas Department of Education. Sure enough, Mr Hartoyo was waiting with a car and
driver when my flight arrived.
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I expected to be using my Indonesian but in fact Mr Hartoyo speaks very good English. He said it would take
about three hours from Bengkulu to Lubuk Linggau if we drove fast, but when he mentioned hills and winding
roads I suggested a slower trip. After leaving Bengkulu the road went past a beautiful blue lake, then up
into the hills and through a national park. It would be impossible to do this trip if you were the kind of
person who gets ‘car sick’ as there must have been hundreds of hills and bends in
the road.
Apart from the beautiful scenery I soon discovered that this part of Indonesia has a special attraction — durian.
The local people collect the fruit after they fall from the trees in the forest and sell them by the side
of the road. Mr Hartoyo asked if I'd like to try one and soon we were sitting not far from a durian tree,
looking at durian, eating durian and talking about durian.
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The road also passes through a number of small towns and villages. The houses varied a lot in style, colour
and size but the most interesting were the traditional unpainted wooden houses. The people in this area seem
to have ‘green thumbs’. Many houses had flower gardens, and most had pot plants
on balconies and steps. We stopped for lunch at a Padang restaurant in Kepahiang and it was served the traditional
way, with lots of small bowls on the table.
I had expected Lubuk Linggau to be a small town so I was very surprised when we arrived there. It has a population
of about 200,000 and the Hotel Abadi had a ballroom, swimming pool and karaoke. I didn't have time to enjoy
these facilities but I did have a really good sleep after preparing for the workshop the next day.
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When I arrived at the kabupaten office the next morning my first task was to set up for the workshop in the
beautiful auditorium. Then I met Ibu Haji Ratnawati Ibnu Amin, Deputy Bupati of Musi Rawas, and Pak Zaini
Amin, Kepala Dinas Pendidikan. They both speak English too, and are very keen to do whatever they can to
promote English in their schools. Ibu opened the workshop with a short speech and then we started.
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KGRE workshops don't always go strictly according to plan, for one reason or another. Sometimes the reason
is ‘jam karet’, with the result that we can't do as many activities as we'd like
to. However, the participants at Lubuk Linggau really impressed me with their attitude. Almost everyone was
back in their seats on time after both breaks and the result was we had more time to spend on listening skills
activities.
At lunch time we enjoyed delicious local food, and I had a special treat. Because they knew by now that I
love durian the committee provided one just for me, which I shared with Mr Bambang Santoso, an English teacher
who's currently working in the local Department of Education office. It was too much for us but a lot of
people volunteered to help. It was the best durian I've ever tasted, and he told me it was from the Rupit
area.
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I was surprised to see that the skin was still green. During the lunch break I had my photo taken many times
with different groups, then I took a photo of Mr Fitryanto and his students from SMAN Surulangun. He's been
a KGRE magazine reader for a long time and uses the Listening and Reading Class Sets. I also met Mr Heru
Irawan from Radio Papesa in Lubuk Linggau which is very interested in broadcasting Kang GURU Radio
English.
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Once again the participants came back on time and so we finished right on time at two o'clock. Then I spent
an hour with a group of very keen students from different junior and senior high schools in the area. It
was the first time most of them had spoken with a native speaker of English. They showed that they were willing
to take risks and use their English, even though it might mean making mistakes, and it succeeded. Most of
the time they were able to communicate very well and we had a great conversation. Quite few of them said
they'd like to be English teachers in their villages one day, but there were others who wanted to be doctors
and nurses too.
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That night I had dinner in a local fish restaurant with some of the committee who'd taken such good care of
me. The next day Mr Hartoyo was there to pick me up at seven o'clock and we drove back to the airport at
Bengkulu. This time we followed a convoy of six buses and two police vehicles traveling from Padang to Bengkulu.
They were a group returning from the haj and everywhere along the road people came out to wave.
It meant that we had to slow down a lot on hills and going through towns so I was able to take some great
photos of houses and gardens and people as we passed.
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After I said goodbye to Mr Hartoyo at the airport I had a long wait, as the flight to Jakarta was delayed by
two and a half hours. That meant I couldn't catch my flight from Jakarta to Denpasar. After a few SMS messages
and phone calls Ogi and Tjok were able to get me the last seat on the last flight to Denpasar that day. One
good thing however was that I had a window seat and had a great view of Jakarta at night. Monas was beautiful.
I finally arrived home at 1.30am the following morning but I was happy as I was carrying a heavy package of oleh
oleh from the Department of Education in Musi Rawas. Can you guess what it was? That's right — ‘lempok
durian asli’ from Lubuk Linggau!
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