Having Fun with Pabelan Pesantren Big Family

January 14th, RELO Damon Anderson and Assistant Kun Herrini went to attend Microscholarship Certificate Awarding Ceremony marking the ending of the Microscholarship program in Pabelan Pesantren, about 20 kilometres north of Yogyakarta.

It was a different situation of a pesantren, where the kids can make friends more openly and there is even a freedom of wearing headdress or not for the female kids. The Kiai was a real moderate and wisely open figure, very knowledgeable and also value knowledge highly.

After a series of speech reminding the students that now the challenge was in their hands, since the course have ended, the Kids were awarded with their certificates. Then, as a token of gratitude, the kids performed a very simple but touching choir singing He Raised Me Up.

The program we had there was collaborated with the United Nations Development Program who introduced community technology and so RELO equipped them with the language. The Microsholarship program in Pabelan Pesantren reached 60 students and they studied English with two special teachers coming to Pesantren for 2 years.

The next morning the kids were taken to a picnic, but too bad, Damon and I could not join them. But we heard that they enjoyed the picnic very much, especially when they were taken to Pizza Hut. It was their first experience eating pizza, some of them even saved the small parts of theirs to be brought home to share with their parents.

Thank you to Kang Azul, the point of contact there, Itje Chodidjah, the Academic COnsultant and Teacher Trainer, and Giartina the enthusiastic and caring teacher.