Teach -N- Learn Indonesia
Mollie Hand
Published January 17, 2026
10 Minute Read
longer than I anticipated
On January 9, I left Bali to head to Jambi. My flight was scheduled to change in Jojakarta. Unfortunately, a delay caused me to fly next to Jakarta where I spent one night in a hotel to arrive in Jambi on January 10. Suci told me that the airline I was using often has such cancelations or delays. The first night in an Indonesian hotel was nice. The room had no bath tub, and you have to put your room card in a holder for the electricity to work. The hotel in Jambi and the second one in Jakarta later were similar in these regards. I love to bathe, so I missed my tub. I didn't get to enjoy the comfortable bed for long because I had to leave the hotel at 2:30 am for my 5:20 am flight.
Upon arrival in Jambi, Suci and her cousin, Ulfa, met me at the airport. We checked me into the hotel for breakfast and a rest. At the breakfast, another team member from Teach -n- Learn Indonesia (TNLID) met us, Iqbal. His role was to document the experience, so he was always taking pictures. I stopped taking them so often since I knew he'd share his files. Check them out on this Instagram site:
The sharing begins
After the weekend of planning and fun, our first official event was held Sunday. It was a casual discussion with social education volunteers and youth activists about YSEALI opportunities and experiences of university life at UW. There I met a student whose dream is to come to America. He showed me his phone's homescreen with the Statue of Liberty and the US flag.
Public and private schools
On Monday morning, we were greeted by a literal parade of students at a public junior high school, where I was presented with a batik sash. Two young students demonstrated the traditional martial arts for my visit, and we took pictures galore. I enjoyed attending an English class where the teacher's active methods helped get her class speaking on the topic of up-cycling. I gave a workshop to some of the teachers about using active lessons to promote confidence.
The afternoon was spent at a private school, and my workshop was similar to the one I presented in the morning. This school includes teaching in Indonesian, English, and Mandarin languages.
From Post-Secondary to Pre-School
Monday evening I found out that the Islamic State University, Jambi would ask me to sign an MOU as a representative of UW. I quickly emailed my colleague Margaret McElligott who granted me permission to do so in an honorary ceremony to be held Tuesday morning. We will follow up with an official MOU signed digitally by the Director of International Students and Scholars, Jill Johnson. After a campus tour, we headed to a Kindergym Pre-K to 3rd Grade school where I dug into my past experience with the Wyoming Family Literacy Program to cater my presentation for the approriate ages. It was fun and interactive.
Workshop for Teachers
About 50 teachers from across Jambi joined the TNLID Team for another workshop Wednesday morning. Even though it was a larger group, we were still able to fit in a lot of interactive work as the teachers experienced some great activities such as "Running Dictations," "Swat the Word," "Whisper Lines" and "World Cafe." For details on this and all of the workshops, all of my slides can be found using the link below:
Lessons from a Writing Center
Back at the Indonesian State University, I gave a different workshop to help this institution start up a Writing Center. It was well received, and I learned they are working on the details of how to make this happen. In the same vein, my final workshop helped select high school students use sensory words and elements of place to improve their writing skills. Both of these workshops are included in the link above. The image below shows the fresh fruit and delicious baked and cooked goods that were present at every workshop. I plan to dedicate an entire blog to the food and the hospitality of the Indonesian people. The last image was taken outside of the final workshop location, and the four team members are showcasing the traditional Jambi house style.
