Monday - Sekolah Nusa Alam, Montong, Lombok

After a very quick breakfast, we stood by the road outside Windy's waiting for a bemo. When one didn't arrive, we walked up the road more to escape the smoke from the rubbish being burnt in the roadside ditch and discovered just around the corner a bunch of taxi's in what looked like a rest area.
Unfortunately we arrived at school
just as the whole school assembly finished and felt terrible when Derek said he'd hoped to introduce us to everyone!
We headed straight to Febi and Dianne's room where the 6's were seated at tables and the 5's were on the floor. There are about 12 students of each.
Interestingly though, it was the boys who contributed the most in class and the girls who looked unconnected. One girl in particular was off in her own world and when Dianne talked later about how difficult it is to teach science using an inquiry approach because some students are so passive, i could see what she meant.
Before we knew, it was recess. After recess Dianne worked with the 6's and Febi did a civics lesson with the 5's. Once she had introduced what they'd be doing this term, she handed the students over to us and we each took a couple to do some filming with them. I tried my keluarga dialogue hoping to show Aussie students how multicultural Nusa Alam student backgrounds are. Sharon did a school tour while Ann focused on personal pronouns.
Afterwards on the way to observe Febi teaching a ICT lesson, we fluked an opportunity to speak a little more with Derek. He reiterated how keen he is to utilise skype as a means for both his and our students to communicate. It is wonderful that he is so interested in continuing the links between our schools.
During the ICT lesson i showed the students the "lupa, lupa ingat" video that is on the PEPS website. They loved even though there was no sound available in the ICT room yet. Hopefully they'll download it again at home and enjoy it more completely after school.
Then it was lunch time already! The morning had gone by so quickly. We stopped by a warung where Sharon and Annie enjoyed a veg nasi campur for lunch. I was very tempted as it included gudeg (jackfruit curry) but had felt queasy all morning so didn't want to risk eating. Apparently it was delicious but i think we were charged the tourist price: Rp9,000 ($1.20).
We came back to Windy's via bemo - which we all agreed is the best way to travel. Not only is it significantly cheaper than taxi (Rp5,000 vs Rp30,000), but it is also a great way to talk to people. When we hopped on, the bemo was choker block full of SMP kids going home from school. Soon afterwards all but 1 hopped off and we then had fun talking and filming him and the old fellow that remained on the bemo. Luckily for us, the bemo driver stopped at a bengkel to pump up the tires, change a tire and fill up with fuel, so we had the perfect window in which to film.
All up, it was a great day and reinforced for me just how I miss living and working in Indonesia. So much opportunity to collect resources for Australian students studying Indonesian.