First Activity in Surabaya

by Yusuke Koizumi – Japan

Today I met another intern from England, James Ogilvie. He is quite positive and so much interested in the environment. Anyway, I had a first activity here in Surabaya, which was to visit two schools SDK Santa Theresia 2 Surabaya and SMP 27 Surabaya.

I felt a little bit worried if I can’t communicate with kids at schools. But that was totally cleared up at the first school where staffs of Tunas Hijau, James and I went. They are so friendly to us though they cannot speak English well and, of course, I cannot speak Indonesian. And we played some traditional games with them for a moment.

Then, James and I made a presentation for students with powerpoint at library. James was about recycling in England and it was about water related problems for me. Students of SDK Santa Theresia 2 Surabaya were so interested in the problems that we introduced to them and had a conversation or discussion with us about those problems. That was so nice experience for me as a first activity in Surabaya.

And we moved to the second school, SMP 27 Surabaya, which was next to the sea. The things that caught our eyes at first were a lot of rubbish and the dirty landscape of the sea. We could even find a dead rat on the street, which might cause some illness. I felt it is very important and a little bit urgent to let the students know about the environment and the problems. However, the students were also cheerful and friendly to talk to us like the same as the previous school. We could not spend a lot of time with them but I could know the real and find that we have to educate children who do not notice the problems.

And finally, we went to the governmental office of East Java province. There is an office which is specializing at eco-education and we were invited to get into there. People are working for eco-education in all Jawa Timur and there I met a Japanese person working at the office. Actually, I hadn’t spoken Japanese for two weeks, so I felt like relieved somehow. And more importantly, he talked to me about the environment in Indonesia. He said that the people are getting serious about the environmental issues but people who have no chance to get information pay no attention to the environment, so that he thinks he needs to let all people care about the problems.

I had very nice day as my first activity in Surabaya. And I should know much more the problems by teaching those for children.