Bina Antarbudaya

Currently 4 YES Alumni are in Ghana and participate in the Training of Trainer Workshop.
Namigeri, Nur Fadilah, Dessy and Waskito show us what is happening:

Day 1: December 9, 2011

Namigeri
Africa. The word appeared in my mind as soon as the Emirates landed in Accra, Ghana. I breath
the air of Ghana for the first time in my life. Many questions and statements popped up in my
mind: what are the people like, are they nice, what would the weather be like, what will happen
in TOT. After the ‘long’ journey at the airport, due to the problem with the visa, I finally got
to the hotel with other TOT participants and the trainers. Just several coffee talk with others
that I have done since I got to Ghana. The talks, however, already lightened up my perspective
about the world and Ghana in particular. The first day I arrived, I knew that Ghana is similar to
Indonesia in terms of the traffic, people selling things in the traffic lights, and the weather as
well. The process of getting knowledge did not end there, it continued to the second day which
was the first session of TOT.
The opening of the TOT was wonderful. The warmth of the AFS Ghana welcomed and comforted
us. It was really nice to know how glad they were to host this TOT, it seemed that they felt
appreciated by our willingness to come to Ghana and follow the TOT enthusiastically. After
the warm welcoming, then the first session of TOT began. The first ice breaking was fun: Trust
Walking. In this ice breaking, we learn how to trust new people and at the same time engage
new people to put their trust on us. This ice breaking in fact had something to do with training:
when we are going to design a training or do the training, the first thing that is need to keep
in mind is we as a trainer need to gain trust from the audience. Therefore, the material that is
been given will be effectively remembered and applied. Then, the second session was talking
about “The Recipe of The Training”. Not only food has a recipe, but also the training. The recipe
are: Problem, Topic, Assessment, Goals, Objectives, Content, Methodology, Practice, Evaluation,
Application, and Follow-Up. There is nothing wrong if we do not use the exact recipe in making
certain food, but still the ‘unexpected’ ingredients or techniques become a recipe as well.
Furthermore, when I got to know the recipe of the training, I kind of got the general idea about
what is behind a training, what steps should be done in designing a training, and what aspects
could be affect a training.
The details of the recipe would be discussed in the following days of TOT which I am excited
about. These first two days in Ghana, and TOT in particular, not only taught and gave me the
general ideas about what training is and what expected from this TOT, but also the skill in
getting engage in new surrounding, listening to each others, sharing different opinions, and
most importantly hold back a judgment on something that is totally new until knowing what
exactly the thing is. Ghana taught me not to underestimate different things.

Day 2: December 10, 2011

Waskito
The second day started a little but earlier. The breakfast start at 7 am and the first agenda of the
second day started at 9am. After a very bad jetlag last night, today I woke up with excitement
and curiosity.
The first session we were talking about today was about the first two steps of making a good
training which are problem and topic. The trainers taught us about this theory buy giving us
two different games. The first game was called zoom game. The trainer divided all of us into two
teams and gave us many pages of paper with pictures in it and we have to arrange the picture
correctly. This game was pretty chaotic because we were in a big group and we all just screamed
and wanted to be heard. Even though at the end, we did finish the tasks. The second game was
much more fun and enjoyable. We have to build a construction using only straws, marshmallow,
and some playdoh. It has to be as tall as possible and as strong as possible. My team win, big
time. From the two games we learn that in order to solve a problem, we need to create an
environment that could support the dynamic of the group.
The second session after we had lunch with our trainer was how to set goals and objectives
and also what are the differences between both terms. This activity is very important because I
personally never realize how important it is to have goals and objectives.
The last session was about multiple intelligences. It’s about how people have many different
way of learning or understand something. We were given a questioner that could show us what
our way of understanding something is. From the questions I found out that I’m very logical-
mathematical people who believe in most everything that has a rational explanation and I feel
more comfortable when something is measured and organized.
After we know our character of studying, we were also asked to identify our least score from
the questionnaire. I was a person who is not “kinesthetic” at all. Kinesthetic means that a person
could understand something better when they actually do something like a demonstration or
a game. In order for me and my team, to be able to increase what we lack in, they asked us to
create a small methodology to deliver knowledge. There were who make a song about the topic,
there are also other participant who make drama about it. My team we made a very good and
fun game in order to make student not do hitchhiking.
The day ended in high note. We were taken to a big restaurant. The food was good, but the
portion of Ghanian people to eat is very different than us. It’s a lot.
Ps: im sorry I messed up my English, because I’m very tired.

Day 3: December 11, 2011

Dessy
This day began with session about methodologies. They explain to us what methodology is and describe the type of the methodology with games and it was really fun. After that we learn how to handle if we face difficult situation in the training and also reviewing the recipe from very beginning, problem, topic, assessments, etc. Those session was really important to make our train back session go easily. With those session, finally I know how to do training and do it in the fun way. Usually I just do presentation in the boring way, explain something with power point. But now everything change. I just know that I can do a lot of methodology like games, story telling, etc to make it more fun! After that, we back to the train back group to discuss little bit about our topic and goals and also deciding the turn who go first for train back in Tuesday.  I’m so nervous to do train back. Am I be able do it right? Am I be able to do it in the fun way? Those question like flying in my heady and I’m a bit scared of it.

We have independent work to planning our train back session for four hours. I talk with carolyn, my supervisor to discuss about my topic. Waskito also help me think to do my content in the fun way. Thanks to him now I had a picture to make my training fun.  After that we had daily feedback and we go to afs office to have dinner and cultural performance. That was awesome! We experience the public transportation called trotro and also walk to AFS Ghana office.it was thrilling because we sit with Ghanaian people and we experience the Ghanaian life for a moment. I’m so surprise when I saw a huge Indomie billboard. I ask Sani (my friend from Ghana) if they have Indomie here and he said yes and Indomie also quiet popular among Ghanaian. We met yes abroad in the dinner and having chit chat with them. The best session in this day was cultural performance! Ghana rock!!! We saw Ghana traditional music and dance. And also we dancing along with them!! Such an unforgettable moment!