Indonesia Tour

I was lucky enough to be selected for the ACICIS 'Building Cultural Connections' education tour to Indonesia. You can read more about the opportunities offered by the Asian New Zealand Foundation here.                                 

Bali: Pre-Tour

I spent two days before the ACICIS tour at a beautiful beachfront resort on Kuta Beach in Bali. 

I like to say that it was lovely, but to be honest I was left with mixed feelings about Bali. Kuta Beach itself is nice but it throngs with people and is covered in litter. Bargaining in the endless little shops which sell the same cheap tourist items quickly becomes tiresome.

There are many resorts along the beach and each seems more opulent than the one before it.





The quest for the mighty tourist dollar is what drives Kuta Beach, Bali. I wish I had allowed myself more time here, time to get away from the beach and explore wider Bali.

I am looking forward to going back to Bali towards the end of the tour, I'll literally be seeing the other side of it. We'll be staying in Sanur, which is on the other side of the island.

Jakarta: Wednesday 15 April - Saturday 18 April

Day One

On my arrival at Jakarta airport I was met by the wonderful Dimis, the nuts and bolts organisational leader of the tour.  He organised my taxi and sent me on my way to the hotel. There I was met by David Reeve.  David provided the historical, cultural and language insights into Indonesia. I'm sure there is nothing David doesn't know about this country. He is an absolute mine of information. 

That night the group of 11 teachers and principals met for the first time and had an introduction to basic Indonesian language and culture delivered by David.

Day Two
The next day we visited Gemala Anada Secholah.

We were able to observe in some classrooms and had two seminar sessions; the first on Indonesian Language and the second on Culture, Politics and Society.'These were presented by David Reeve.

Whaea Hayley meets the Ambassador

That night we were hosted by the ambassador at New Zealand House. It was a real privilege to meet the New Zealand ambassador  to Indonesia; Dr Matheson.

Our Indonesian colllegues were also at this reception, the purpose of the meeting being to establish professional relationships between NZ and Indonesian teachers. I was really happy to meet Yenny who is the teacher in Jakarta who I will be collaborating with to establish connections between our students.



Day Three
Today teachers visited their host schools to see it for themselves and to continue to establish their connections. Unfortunately this wasn't possible for Whaea Hayley and I. The school we are partnered with were unable to host us on that day. Instead we went back to see our new friends at Gemala Anada Sechola and I have promised to send photos of our school to one of the teachers there. So even though this is not the school I was partnered with, another connection was formed. I look forward to corresponding with Sulise.

That afternoon we went to Sundak Kelapa, the old port of Jakarta. David was again able to provide fascinating insights into the historical aspects of this place and we were able to wander around and even board some of the vessels.

Day Four
Today we did a walking tour to the Jakarta National Monument. There were a number of school groups visiting the national monument at the time and for some reason we attracted a lot of attention. The children were very keen to take our photographs and to be photographed with us.

In the afternoon we travelled by bus to Springfield School in West Jakarta for our google and cultural connections workshop. This is where I was able to sit with my buddy teacher Yenny (Sekolah Dian-Harapan) and formulate our collaboration plan. I gave Yenny postcards from my students to hers and handed over some gifts from our school.  I'm very excited about the learning that our classes will be doing together which initially will consist of building relationships and sharing our cultures.

Yenny and I planning our classroom collaboration

Yogyakarta: Sunday 19 April - Wednesday 22 April

Day Five

We checked out of the hotel this morning and took a flight to Yogyakarta (also spelt Jogyakarta.) There we went on a cultural visit to a silver factory where we we able to have a go at creating our own piece of jewellery. We needed a lot of support from the nimble fingered staff.

Lunch was a traditional Javanese meal hosted by a local family.

After checking in to our hotel and having a rest we then went went to the headquarters of ACICIS for an informal pizza dinner.

Day Six

We boarded the bus at 3am today (Yes you read that right, 3am) to travel to Borobudur to watch the sun rise. Borobudur is the world's largest Buddhist monument. It was constructed in phases between the eighth and ninth century.

This was an amazing experience and a highlight of the tour

After arriving back at the hotel at about 9:30am the rest of the day was free for exploring and shopping. Many of us took advantage of this opportunity to bargain for some souvenirs and gifts.

At the NGO dinner with new friend Nabila

In the evening we went to dinner with representatives of some local NGO's (Non-government organisations.)  I was lucky enough to be seated with Nabila Prawiradirdja. She told me a lot about the work her group does to support children's literacy and some of the challenges they face in Yogyakarta. We shared email addresses and twitter handles and another connection was formed. I hope to be able  to offer Nabila and her team my support. I'm unsure as yet what this might look like.


Day Seven - 21 April

Today we checked out of the hotel early and were on the bus by 8:30am.

We were off to visit an Islamic school,  SD MuhammadiyahSapen The staff and students here were very gracious and generous hosts. We were surprised and delighted to be welcomed by Islamic children waving New Zealand  and Indonesian flags. After a warm welcome by the principal and a cultural dance performance by some of the students we went on a tour of part of the school. We were even instructed in the use traditional musical instruments, although I'm not sure that our symphony was very tuneful!

That afternoon we were back in the bus and off to Turgo village on the slopes of Mt Merapi.

This was a magic part of the trip.  We were greeted with a magnificent thunderstorm which I felt  enhanced the experience.  It is a very beautiful place surrounded by tropical plantings including bananas, coffee and various fruits and herbs.

By NZ standards the village of Turgo is quite primitive. Our  tour group bunked together in one very basic (think squat toilet and no kitchen) house. There were bedrooms but the team had to be flexible enough to doss down together, sometimes sharing beds. Fortunately by then we were all very comfortable in each other's company.

The really special part of the evening was when we broke into smaller groups, each with an interpreter and visited pre-arranged homes in the village for our evening meal. I went with two others and Indonesian expert David. We were welcomed warmly into a dirt floor, 2 room house where our hostess was preparing our meal over her indoor cooking fire, (no chimney.) What an amazing time we had. Our hostess whom we called 'ibu' (a respectful term for an older woman, literal translation = mother) was absolutely delightful. She had no English and we only knew a few words of Indonesian. However through David we had conversations which resulted in gales of laughter on both sides and we learnt a huge amount.  I left her home with enormous respect for the women of the village who work so hard in physically demanding labours as well as running their homes. You might be interested to know that our meal that night consisted of rice and a 'stew' of tofu. silverbeet-type greens and chilli. It was washed down with lots of very sweet tea. You might also be interested to know that it was delicious!

Day Eight - 28 April

Today we explored Mt Merapi by jeep.

Mt Merapi has a dramatic and tragic history with frequent volcanic eruptions. During the most recent event in 2010 Over 350,000 people were evacuated from the area. However, many remained behind or returned to their homes as eruptions continued. More than 300 people were killed. The mountain had also erupted in 1994 and 1996.

We were able to travel by jeep up one of the lava flows to where material from the last eruption is being quarried for use in the building industry.  The volcanic matter is still steaming from the 2010 eruption!

Then we visited another school. This one, a small Catholic school on the slopes of the volcano. I was surprised to find out that a number of Islamic children attend this school. It seemed to be a feature of the schools we visited that the communities were very accepting and accommodating towards religious difference.

That afternoon we were back on the bus heading for the Jogyakarta airport and a flight to Bali.

What an amazing couple of days!

Days Nine / Ten 

Back in Bali! We stayed in the very beautiful Oasis Lagoon Hotel in Sanur.

Today we visited Dyatmika bi-lingual school. Like the other schools we have visited in Indonesia it is a private school,  the children are from reasonably privileged backgrounds. The current principal of the school is an ex-pat kiwi. She gave us a comprehensive tour and I loved this school. It had a really good feel about it. The staff:student ratio is a lot higher than our NZ schools with 2 teachers and a teacher aide in some of the classes of 25 children. The school was well resourced but even so I was yet to see real integration of of computers or use of  GAFE tools for education.

Our final school visit was to a local school in Bali, where once again we were welcomed warmly.

That night we had our final dinner and official closing ceremony. It was a very beautiful buffet dinner on the sand at a beachfront restaurant with thunder rumbling in the distance. Magic.

Day 10 - 30 April

The last official event was a visit to  Bali turtle sanctuary. We learnt about the efforts of experts and volunteers to boost the population of sea turtles in the area. We also observed some of the rescued turtles and learnt about some of the cultural challenges of the enterprise.

There were no baby turtles ready for us to release, so instead we took a short glass bottom boat ride out to the reef were coral is being regenerated by being planted on frames.

That afternoon we said goodbye as one by one, or two by two, members of the team left for the airport to catch flights home. I felt especially lucky to be staying for one more night.  Because of the timing of our NZ domestic flights, Whaea Hayley and I had one more day for last minute bargain hunting,  restaurant visits and a final dip in the pool.

Conclusion: Should you get an opportunity to visit Indonesia I recommend you don't hesitate to go. I had an amazing time on this tour and learnt such a lot. It was the type of learning that will stay with me even as the 'holiday feeling' wears off and I look forward to building on the connections I formed while there.

Thanks for reading this post.


- Karen