Pre-Departure Orientation

On Saturday, March 12, IIEF arranged a pre-departure orientation for 11 TESOLers whose grants were arranged through this foundation. The event took place in Senayan Cafe, Century Atlet Hotel, Senayan, Jakarta, from 3:30 - 9:00 PM, started with tea and coffee and ended up with dinner. RELO Assistant Kun Herrini & Mike McCoy, Senior English Language Fellow, Diana and Wahono were complementing one another as the resource persons. Kun had attended TESOL twice before and her role as RELO Assistant said much about the conference and what to prepare to travel to the States. Mike gave more cultural tips on what to do and what socially applied. Diana and Wahono discussed more about logistic and administrative arrangement.



The 11 TESOLers for the first time met one another physically (most of them had contacted each other through email and sms and phone). The excitement they felt and the fact that they finally met each other, a bit distracted the orientation. A couple of them were so busy chatting that others (even the facilitator), at times, felt disturbed. But....that's the fact dealing with teachers...people said. And as the fate of pre-departure orientation in general, most of the information did not make sense until the actual event/travel happened.

Ibu Irid Agoes, Director of IIEF, had the chance to meet and greet the TESOLers briefly, and the we made good use of the precious moment to take pictures with her.



The buffet dinner was marvellous. We chatted together to get to know each other better. Laughters were heard here and there.

Thank to Diana and Wahono who had worked hard and been so patient in arranging this trip, orientation and dinner. Thank to Bu Iried who gave moral support.