After over 12 months of planning, the WILTA Workshops in Bali became a reality as forty three teachers from Australia descended upon the Hotel Puri Santrian, well-situated on the southern end of Sanur, Bali. In this home-away-from-home, thirty one WILTA members together with twelve teachers from the NSW and ACT met, worked, ate, laughed, and learned together, developing useful collegiate networks and lasting friendships. The whole group came together for the first time on Sunday for a visit to Pulau Lembongan, a national park famous for its excellent diving and snorkelling as well its traditional seaweed industry. The group participated in team building games before going on a tour of the island and spending the afternoon at leisure enjoying snorkelling, the banana boat, water slide, glass bottom chamber, massages and most of all great company! Everyone certainly knew a bit more about each other by the end of this day out!

The hub of activity for the week was a conference room overlooking Sanur beach and the hotel’s main pool. At times it was a challenge to maintain concentration over the sound of the waves lapping, cocktail glasses clinking and jet skis darting across the blue waters, however our purpose was clear and exciting and everyone remained focused and participated with great enthusiasm as the days sped past. The sessions were balanced so that time was also spent engaged in language and culture based activities in locations away from the hotel.

Bapak Dendy Sugono, Kepala Pusat Bahasa Jakarta opened our week of workshops with a speech focusing on the development and use of bahasa Indonesia and the role of the Pusat Bahasa. In his speech Pak Dendy noted that he was very impressed at the enthusiasm and commitment of the workshop participants in their efforts to share Indonesian language and culture with Australian students and invited/ challenged us to organise further workshops of this kind in different locations throughout Indonesia. Pak Dendy was accompanied by his assistant Pak Mustakim and as a result of the network established at the WILTA Workshops in Bali both Pak Dendy and Pak Mustakim came to Perth recently to deliver keynote and parallel sessions at the 8^th ASILE Conference in Perth.

Following the opening Pak Andang Senior English Teacher at SMP1 Singaraja delivered an interesting session on how he and his school are implementing the new Indonesian Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi. This was followed by Pak Okin Principal and founder of Raj Yamuna School speaking on how he built his school based on Filosofi Madokin.

WILTA would like to express a deep and sincere thank you to Pak Nyoman Riasa for his support and advice in securing both Pak Dendy and Pak Andang as speakers on our opening day. The rest of the workshops during this first day were presented by Bapak Muhammad Bundhowi, artist, interpreter, translator, educator, and great friend of WILTA. Bun shared with us his excellent talent at addressing cultural understanding through a workshop using a PowerPoint cartoon he had created based on the tsunami tragedy.

Everyone then participated in a challenging grammar brain teaser session, and Pak Bun shared with us his expertise in cartooning and demonstrated how to use this as part of our LOTE classes by integrating technology through the use of Paint software.

After a late afternoon break and well-earned rest we were treated to a presentation from an inspiring man, Mr John Fawcett who spoke to us about his foundation Yayasan Kemanusiaan Indonesia (Incorporated in Australia as The John Fawcett Foundation) and the excellent projects he runs in Indonesia to assist needy people, particularly those with medical problems. The foundation offers its assistance to people in the lower socio-economic group free of charge and without religious, political or ethnic consideration. To find out more about this amazing man and his work visit http://www.humanitarianprojectsindonesia.org/. John and his assistant Penny were WILTA guests at our official opening dinner at the magnificent Mezzanine Restaurant in the grounds of Puri Santrian.

Tuesday saw some great cultural workshops in dance, painting, woodcarving, gamelan and offering-making held at Taman Harum in Mas and time spent ‘resource buying’ in Ubud and the Pasar Seni Sukawati. On Wednesday it was a day back at Puri Santrian where we were involved in a hands-on language class in which we were divided into groups depending on language competency and worked with background speakers and teachers of Indonesian (from the Indonesia-Australia Language Foundation) to assist in answering language questions and concerns. WILTA is most grateful to the staff of IALF who assisted us in this activity.

Pak Bun then led us in a handson grammar workshop. After another sumptuous lunch supplied by Puri Santrian we then jumped on the bus for a visit to Raj Yamuna School. Following on from Pak Okin’s presentation on Monday we were able to visit his school and were treated to a delightful welcome concert and wandered through classrooms chatting with teachers and students and observing this teaching philosophy at work. During the late afternoon a group travelled to Uluwatu to witness the lively Kecak dance in a sunset performance at Tanah Lot. This was yet another opportunity to gain some invaluable photo resources for the classroom.

Thursday morning began at the Conference Area in Puri Santrian with a presentation by the CEO of YKIP (Yayasan Kemanusiaan Ibu Pertiwi) and a field worker. YKIP was founded in the wake of the Bali bombings and WILTA has been an ongoing supporter of YKIP’s Kembali program. The Kembali program is designed to support children to return to school. After the bombing many children across Bali had to stop school in the wake of the economic downturn caused by the event because their families lost their regular income and could no longer afford to send them to school. We were able to witness how YKIP is assisting a broader group of people than it was originally doing with families and victims of the bombing. For information on how your school can sponsor a child through YKIP and develop ties with the child’s school visit www.ykip.org

After this session the group was on the bus again to visit the new premises of the IALF which is WILTA’s partner in our Reciprocal Teacher Visit program. We were able to catch up with previous RTV teachers and renew old friendships. It was then off for some free time catching up with the sights and sounds of Kuta. Finally came the last official day of the Workshops and a day, admitted later by some, to be somewhat dreaded. However fears were soon alleviated as participants made their way out of the hotel grounds in pairs on a variety of ‘quests’. These language quests were designed to challenge people to use Indonesian to discover some very interesting (and at times humorous!) information about the places to which they were sent. Participants worked in pairs and were given (lucky dip style) a quest which involved them obtaining specific information or realia from places and people around Sanur.

This turned out to be one of the more popular activities of the week. As people shared their experiences with the rest of the group on their return it was evident how much they had gained through this activity. People went to places such as local high and primary schools, a post office, police station, shops, a temple to interview people such as a pedagang kaki lima, manager of a large supermarket and police officers to mention a few. Two participants even got a free ride back to the hotel in a police car, though we’re not sure if it was with lights and sirens! One pair was sent to find out about the famous room 2401 in the Grand Bali Beach Hotel which is said to be suci and inhabited by the great Nyai Roro Kidul, Queen of the South Seas. They were even taken to visit this famous room which is not open to the public. Offerings are made to the room three times a day and the furniture in the room is green (Nyai Roro Kidul’s favourite colour). If you want to find out more about this then ask Cate Salom (WILTA) or Louise Gregory (NSW) as they now have first hand experience and knowledge!

There was so much learnt by the participants that it made people wish they could have been part of each quest. Thanks to everyone who undertook these language quests with such enthusiasm and for your terrific feedback.

The closing dinner was held at Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park. GWK Cultural Park as it is known is an incredible park in the centre of limestone cliffs in Jimbaran, South Bali. The landmark of this 230 hectare park will be a 146m high pedestal statue of "Garuda Wisnu Kencana", the Hindu God who gives and protects and who rides a Garuda. (See front cover.) This statue will consist of 19 floors with a total area of 88,000 m2. We were able to view the initial parts of the statue which is currently being built in Java and transported in stages to the Park. To find out more about the plans for this tourist site visit http://www.gwk-bali.com.

In closing, WILTA would like to express sincere thanks to Bundhowi who was constantly working with the committee to ensure the smooth running of the week of workshops, to Priyono for his involvement in our workshops, and to Denise Finney, Nyoman Riasa and other staff at the IALF who, despite being very busy with their commitments and moving to new premises, assisted and welcomed us with open arms. Our thanks also go to Pak Made Suardana at the Hotel Puri Santrian who assisted us immensely in organising our stay at Puri Santrian and for ensuring everything ran smoothly. To you all we say terima kasih sebesar-besarnya!

Another big thank you must go to the 43 participants who believed in the WILTA committee and entrusted us to deliver a week of ongoing useful professional learning in Bali. To each one of you we offer our thanks as you contributed to the success of the tour. And finally to the WILTA Workshops in Bali Sub Committee who spent countless hours not only in meetings but ‘getting their hands dirty’ in the follow up work required between these frequent meetings – your commitment to the teaching of Indonesian is acknowledged and appreciated, especially by the teachers who attended the 2005 WILTA Workshops in Bali Tour – an amazing professional learning opportunity for our teachers of Indonesian.

Terima kasih seribu kali kepada: Karen Bailey Lynne Bennier, Cheryl Gutmanis, Sandra Jackson, Lyn Jenkins and Kellie Plant,

We’re sorry if you missed out this time . Keep watch for details of the next WILTA Professional Learning in Indonesia!!

WILTA MENGUCAPKAN TERIMA KASIH