The Cat is Under the Chair

Last Sunday, I went to Pulau Rempang, Indonesia. Rempang is one of the Riau islands in Indonesia. My aunt has been coordinating a regular group of volunteers to go to Rempang once a fortnight for about 2 hours to teach English to primary school students. This was the first time I had gone with the group.


The group convened at 7am+ at the Harbourfront ferry terminal. We took the ferry to Batam, and then a bus took us overland to Rempang. Batam is connected to the neighbouring islands by a series of bridges and it is about an hour from Batam to the mission on Rempang. The two islands are quite different. Batam's economy is manufacturing-dominated; there is a modern shopping mall on Batam (just next to the ferry terminal). The mall has a huge hypermart, a number of food outlets (including an A&W!) and many other shops. It is full of Singaporeans buying cheap groceries and donuts from J Co. (We spent some time there on the way back.)


Rempang, on the other hand, is an agricultural community. Houses are further apart, and are simple wooden and attap structures. On either side of the road, there are fields, but these are also spread out. Not much other development in sight. But the highway through the island is good.

The mission is just off the highway. It is a large compound, dominated by the chapel on one side and the school on the other. There are six classes, from Pr 1 to 6. According to my aunt, it is a popular school on the island, with students coming from all over the island and even from Batam. A few children walk to school, some take the bus, but a number stay on the school premises as their families live too far away for them to walk and as there are not enough buses to cater to the group. The compound itself is well maintained. But there is no running water or electricity. So, the life here is not so easy.

We broke into groups and went for our classes. It is a little too much like rote learning, I think. The children are able to recite the sentences after the volunteer reads them out but later on, when we go through the exercise I realise some of them did not understand. The exercise is one of sentence completion (eg, the cat is __________). We went through once orally with them and after that, they were supposed to write out the answers on their own. But when we went round checking on their progress, I found that whilst some are able to complete the work, others can't really spell and a few have problems getting started. But for those who completed the paper, I just stamped a star on. They really liked that!

During the break and after the session, I took some photos. The children loved to pose. In fact, unless I stand far away and zoom in on the scene, I can't take a candid shot at all! I think about our Singapore kids, their comfortable lives, the cosseting they get from their careful parents. It is such a contrast with these kids here. The boys here play marbles - once a common childhood game in Singapore but I suspect most young boys won't even possess marbles any more. But at least these boys are playing with each other and not with a computer.

Whilst waiting for the group to reconvene, we watched some of the children sing and dance. Here's a short video of some of the boys in action:

After the session, we went back to Batam to take the ferry back to Singapore. One hour out by ferry, another by bus, and another 2 hours to get back. Excludes waiting time at either end and the drive to and from Harbourfront. We got home at 7pm, so it was a 12 hour effort to give a 2 hour lesson. I am impressed by the volunteers who actually do this fortnightly!

Some other photos of the trip can be found on my flickr page.