One Great Class

I live in a small city called Jambi, located in Jambi Province,  Sumatera, Indonesia. Jambi is a less traveled and visited province in my opinion because there are not many tourist objects that can be explored here. Despite all those facts, I confidently say that Jambi is still a safe and good place to visit or  to live in. There is not much traffic jam and people from different races and religions can live in harmony. There are some interesting spots that can be explored in Jambi. We have the longest beautiful river in Sumatera called Batanghari river, cutting Jambi city into two. We also have Muarojambi temple Complex which is categorized as one of the largest Temple Areas in Southeast Asia and is being processed to be one the world heritage by UNICEF. Another  interesting thing is that you can enjoy in Jambi is the amazing varieties of Jambi traditional food that can be found in luxurious restaurants, small cafes along the Batanghari river bank or small vendors along the streets in the city which offer amazing kinds of food and healthy herbal drinks to warm up your body in the evening.

In the first part of my writing, I share some stories about Jambi city, but actually I want to share more about my one special kind of class.  I live in an area where I can still meet some children who must work hard to survive. They generally go to school in the morning and finish their school activities at 1 PM. After they arrive at home, they mostly do things to help their parents. Some will go to the rice field to deal with rice, vegetables, or and fruits. Some stronger boys will choose to join their fathers building houses. Some just stay at home spending their times for nothing. When they are asked why they should work to help their parents and why they don’t do things they like such as doing sports, having extra lessons in private courses or just hanging out with their friends, they give me the answer that I think I already know. They just don’t have much time and money to do them. There are other better things to do to support their parents to earn more money to be able to fulfill their daily needs called ‘food’. We all know that food is something that human beings like us need consistently in order to survive. This is the challenge that many families have in my area. They have to buy rice as their main food and other kinds of food. Their daily income is just not enough to buy all of them  sometimes. This is the main reason why they mostly work harder spending their time trying to get extra income to support their families.

One challenging fact that I see from the children’s situation is that they are just able to finish their basic education, senior high school or even junior high school. They mostly cannot continue their study to the higher level because of the ‘cliché’ reason, no money. It is just too much for their parents, they need to focus more on how to provide food to survive. For me, this phenomenon is not good. If they are not able to continue their study to the higher level, they will not have many options to get proper jobs with proper payment after they graduate. In my place, getting proper jobs is not an easy thing. Education is still something that many employers consider a lot. They may still get a job of course, but their jobs may not be able to give them a life that they want, which is to be able to live better economically. In other words, they will mostly end up living in the same condition as their father and mother. This is what generally happens here in my surroundings.

One simple thing that I and some good friends of mine can do for these children is motivating them to learn English in a special class in my house. I and friends coming from different educational background, establish an informal English class where all the children coming from different ages can study and practice their English together. They don’t pay anything to join this class.  So far we have about 25 children who come to study twice a week every Tuesday and Friday Evening. Why English? because it is important for them. They may have learned English in school, but the fact says that in my place, even though English is taught in schools, students are still not able to use English as it should be, which is to speak English or to write in English. It happens in many schools in Indonesia. We simply hope that by helping them to know more about English, they can improve their self-quality that maybe useful for their future. Beside English, we also discuss many simple things with the children. We can talk about the importance of keeping their house environment clean, the danger of drugs, the positive use of internet. To support us, We also invite couchsurfing friends from many countries who are interested to teach them to be guest teachers. The children will love it if they meet with new teachers in the class. So, if you happen to be in Jambi and you are interested to teach or share experiences with the class, feel free to contact us. They will love it.  One simple thing can be meaningful for other people who may need it. LT