Symposium in Jakarta, & Educational Rombongan to Semarang, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya

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I know, I know. I promised Kathleen and Charis I wouldn’t open my laptop during my train ride back to Semarang from Surabaya, the capital of the province of East Java, and Indonesia’s second largest city. Right now I’m sitting in my eksekutif class seat, rolling past farmers working at varying stages in rice fields ringed by rows of bananas, corn, and cassava—plowing, planting, thinning, harvesting, threshing. With immense respect to those farmers whose dedicated labor feeds a nation, I’ll humbly state that I’ve worked hard too, in my own very different way. And I feel a certain contentment that my work has completed a cycle too; a reaping and preparing grounds for the next season.

My last post was two weeks ago, about the CCFA Symposium in Jakarta with alumni from our two years of educational and professional exchange with Indonesian educators from across this vast and diverse country. We’re happy to say it was a great success, with 26 of our Indonesian colleagues joining our American delegation from HCC and KCC, plus our guest presenter from Humber College in Toronto. My thanks to all who participated and presented, especially those who made long journeys to meet us.

The Indonesian word for a traveling group like our HCC/KCC delegation is “rombongan” , which is my new favorite word, perfectly evoking our rambling, rumbling herd of cats. From Jakarta our rombongan added a few new members and headed to Semarang, where I’ve been since April, where we were warmly welcomed by Director Totok and other leaders at Polines. As well, we met Rector Suko and others at Unisbank (Bayu and Juilius’ institution), the Mayor of Semarang, two high schools, and the Superintendent for K-12 education, Mr. Bunyamin. Our visit to the Mayor’s office and to Unisbak were covered in a few local and national newspapers and on local radio stations. Google Translate can help non-Indonesian speakers with this story (and picture!) from the June 26th Suara Merdeka. Here’s another article from June 25th.

Special thanks to all who helped make this leg a success. At Polines: Totok, Lusia, Garup, Fatchun, Ani, and many more. At Unisbank Bayu, Julius, and Pak Suko.
In Semarang, with our friends and partners from Polines:

With our friends and colleagues from Unisbank, as well as Diponegoro University, the Mayor of Semarang, and the Head of Semarang K-12 Education:

And the Rombongan hits the road to Yogyakarta!

In Yogyakarta there were visits to Atma Jaya University and Edwin and Adi’s school, ASMI Santa Maria, plus 3 high schools. A very big Terim kasih to our friends Edwin, Ani, Adi, Lusiana, and Airlanga (from BSI) for their help in making possible this action packed, exhausting, and productive day (just 24 hours!)

After Yogyakarta, our rombongan split up, some continuing to Medan, others to Jakarta and home, while Kathleen, Charis and I had one more round of intense meetings in Surabaya. They’re home by now, recovering from jet lag, and I’m wrapping up my time at Semarang. Just two more weeks at Polines til it’s time for me to move on. More about that next week.

Thanks again. Everybody!

RIP Pak Martin

RIP Pak Martin

One response to “Symposium in Jakarta, & Educational Rombongan to Semarang, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya”

  1. Thanks Chris–what a wonderful description of our rombongan–and what a great new word for our Bahasa Indonesia vocabulary.

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