Help me teaching English to the children of my village and discover real Javanese hospitality in Temanggung, Indonesia

Indonesia

Favourited 125 times

Host rating
Feedback
16
Last activity
24/04/2022
Nº of Facebook friends
1598
Reply rate
100.0 %
Average reply time:
within 3 days
Badges

Map

Availability

2022

Min stay requested: at least 2 weeks

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

What's this?

Details

Description
My name is Gideon

Now, I work as a cameramen in a local television, near my house. Beside that, I'm active in social organisation based on education especially for kids.

I start it an English community based education at my village specially for kids/children. Indeed, I think that improving their English skills could help the child for their future job and also develop my village.

My village is between two mountains, Sumbing and Sindoro. We have beautiful scenery. Mostly we plants tobacco and coffee. We produce great quality of tobacco as well as coffee.

That's is me, tobacco, coffee and English based community education that I want to share with.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Farmstay help
Help with Eco Projects
Help around the house
Charity Work
Language practice
Art Projects
Teaching
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Here you can get more experiences. Knowing peoples and culture. You can learn about life, villagers life style. You can learn about Javanese culture, such as dance, language, gamelan music (traditional music), our myth, Javanese essence of life (Kejawen). Farming, specially coffee, tobacco, chili, corn, and many more.
I'm also cameraman for Temanggung TV, so I would probably bring you one or two times at my work to show you how our local TV is working.
Help
We need you who can teach English for the people in my place (village). We need someone who love to a children and hopefully can blend with them because most of our 'student' will be a children.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Indonesian: Fluent
This host offers a language exchange
This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
You can contact them directly for more information.
Accommodation
For accommodation, you can stay at my house. I have 1 room empty.

For reach market from my home we need 15 minutes by motorcycle.

I can provide the meals 3 times a day with a Javanese meals or traditional food.
What else ...
You can take the flight to Yogyakarta. And then take a bus to Magelang, the nearest city from Temanggung. And then I pick you up in Magelang.

There is no wifi in the village, but you can have internet with the sim card data.

I have a lot experiences with volunteers. My English teacher is an workaway members to. So if he have guest, sometimes I accompany the guest. Travelling or go somewhere.
A little more information
- Internet access
- Limited internet access
- We have pets
- We are smokers
- Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
We have a garage, not to big. Its already a car there, but workawayer can use in front of our garage. Not for permanently
How many Workawayers can stay?
One
Hours expected
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

Photos

Show all photos

Feedback left by and about host (16)

These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.

Accuracy of profile:
(4.8)

Cultural exchange:
(5.0)

Communication:
(4.6)

12/03/2020

Left by host for Workawayer (Helen)

Hi, everybody I want to tell about my experiences with Helen
I'm fill so blessed when Helen was here.

She stayed with me for one week. We have taught children in my village everyday. She has taught well and she is very energetic. Helen is very fond of teaching children. She loves children here. I saw it real with my eyes. She work 100%. She… read more

(Excellent )

10/03/2020

Left by Workawayer (Helen) for host

I only stayed with Gideon for one week, but had a wonderful time meeting him, his family, friends and the wider local community. Plus, I had the privilege of teaching the amazing children from his village who access the amazing space he has created for them. I taught both with Gideon and when he was at work he trusted me to teach the children… read more without him. This was slightly daunting initially, but after preparation and discussion with him about what might work best I took the plunge, wandered around the streets to canvas for takers and soon had 10+ children sing, dancing and acting out role plays in English. We laughed, smiled and generally had fun - plus they developed their English skills.

Gideon was a great host. Within 24 hours of arriving I had attended the premiere of a short film by a local artist and attended a traditional Javan wedding of one of Gideon's friends. I was also able to use the days to visit the local area and each day I enjoyed waking up early to walk up to the base of the closest volcano (at the end of his street!) to look out at the views across the farm fields, growing produce. The welcome I received from local people during my walk was very friendly. Everybody wanted to say hello and many were keen to chat, asking me where I was from and if I was enjoying my stay. Plus, I was able to witness daily life - children going to school, mothers out shopping from local vendors and farmers at work in the fields. I enjoyed building relationships with people I saw each day, such as the local fruit and vegetable seller who I often bought items from as I passed by.

Gideon's family were very generous with their home and time, his father often sat and chatted with me and his mum was keen to make sure I had everything I needed. Gideon's mum is also a wonderful cook and provided 3 meals a day, if required. She was also keen to cater to my preferences. She was very friendly, caring and accommodating. She was equally not offended on the days when I decided to skip lunch at the house as I was spending the day somewhere else.

A few practical things to mention: 1) The house is close to a mosque (although everywhere is in this area, so this is not unique to Gideon's home) so be prepared to hear the call to prayer throughout the day beginning at around 4:45am. I did not mind this as I often fell back to sleep or took the opportunity to get up early and enjoy sunrise. 2) Decent Wifi is not available in the house, but is available at Gideon's cafe / teaching space with internet credit which can be purchased locally. I used this to hotspot into my computer. It was fairly reliable - but not in bad weather.

Thank you Gideon - I had a wonderful time with you and hope to visit again soon!

(Excellent )

22/01/2020

Left by host for Workawayer (Sara)

Everything has reason. So as us. There are so many reasons that made us met one and another. We spent 6 weeks together, started from November 27th till january 6th 2020.

Sara is a good person. She has a good personality. She is humble, polite, cheerful and friendly. She has many friends here ( Dona, Tomi, Roni, Deny, Yoda, Puput, Fara, Cantik,… read more

(Excellent )

09/01/2020

Left by Workawayer (Sara) for host

I cryed when I left. I cryed because this was one of the best experiences in my life.

Gideon was my first Workaway Host and I stayed with him for 6 weeks.

If you decide to go there, don't look for work but for finding family and friends. His family is so kind, his mother treated me like one of her children and his father always supported me… read more when I had some health issues. I had luck to get to know his brother too (because I stayed over Christmas and New Year and i was grateful for all the warmhearted people around me as it was my first Christmas away from home) and he is also really kind and funny! I don't want to forget to mention Zizah, she takes care of the house (it's very clean!!) and helps cooking (you will gain some kilos haha the food is so yummy!! And you will never stay hungry in this house I promise) and I was grateful for her help every day. All his other relatives were so friendly too, always wanted to connect with me, took me to do some sightseeing etc.
Ahhh and his friends are the kindest!! We had so much fun playing cards, learning English, having deep conversations (even sometimes with Google translate!), recording for the TV etc.
I really enjoyed being part of the Temanggung TV there.

Gideon become a really really close friend during my stay. He is so funny, always cared about me in so many different ways, he loves his community and makes everything to lift up his village. He is the kind of person who makes a change in this world. I really enjoyed making music with him too, as he is a very good pianist and I loved to sing along! Oh and his skill to create videos and taking pictures is stunning! I had so much fun making all the photo shootings!!
At the end, I even invited him to go on holiday with me to the Karimunjawa Islands and we had an awesome stay!!

Teaching English was a pleasure and it touched me so deep to work with the children. They will have a place in my heart forever, especially Elfreda (6) and Eta (9), who taught me traditional dance, singing and paper quilling.
Teaching on Sundays was always fun and I loved to make the lessons as playful as possible. The English levels of the children (6 till 15 years old) are very different, some are already really good, some struggle a lot with the basics.
My highlight was creating a TV show about learning English!! We created the whole skript by ourselves and practiced with the children everyday until they were ready. These eight kids improved so much during this time and I feel really proud about that. The children gained a lot more confidence too.
The biggest prove (in my opinion) for this success was that Eta asked me to have a English conversation with her on a family meeting with the microphone because she was proud and confident about her skills.

To leave some words about the cultural exchange too: you will feel the real Indonesian lifestyle, I promise. Gideon took me to sooo many different traditional ceremonies and was always open to share.

To summarize: I would like to leave 10 stars.
Don't hesitate staying with Gideon!! This Workaway experience was greater than I could have ever imagined.

I hope to see you soon Gideon!!
All my love,
Sara

(Excellent )

16/09/2019

Left by Workawayer (Emiko) for host

My experience with Gideon in Temanggung was absolutely amazing. It was truly a memorable experience. His family was so welcoming; they surrounded me with love and made me feel at home. I got along well with all of his friends, neighbors and co-workers, who showed me real Temanggung hospitality. The people around the village were so warm and eager… read more

(Excellent )

07/08/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Emiko)

It's been so long I want to make feedback. I hope it's not to late

We spent 18 days together to educate children in my Village.

Emiko is a very sociable, friendly, respectful, have a good responsibility.

She really helped me in educating children in my village.
She really likes children, also people around. Good in teaching English and… read more

(Excellent )

20/08/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Thibaud)

Thank you Thibaud for coming in the early of August,

He stayed with me in 10 days. He helped me to teach kids in my village. Not for whole days, just many times. But he very helpful.

He is so kind. And he can adapt well here, well I saw that hard to adapt in the different culture. But he tried .

I'm very appreciate with his work.

Over here,… read more

(Excellent )

21/05/2019

Left by Workawayer (Tetiana) for host

Many thanks for Gideon, his family and friends!
Gideon is doing a great project. He opened Sunday English School. So, any child from his village can now learn English for free. The project helps children to speak and understand English without learning rocket science grammar and doing boring exercises. They can ask questions, play and sing songs… read more

(Excellent )

20/05/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Tetiana)

to Tetiana,

I am very grateful for your help in my project. You are very petrified in the teaching process here. What you teach children here is very good. I hope the children here will be open minded and increasingly interested in learning English. What you convey motivates children to be brave and have big dreams.

Tetiana or we call her Tana.… read more

(Excellent )

30/04/2019

Left by Workawayer (cristina) for host

I did this workaway with my friend Sanne and we spent two weeks at Gideon’s house. Gideon is super friendly and nice and we had very nice time together!
He is involved in many activities with the community so you can join him in any of them.
His family was also super kind and nice, his mum cooked delicious food everyday for us and we were… read more

(Excellent )

02/04/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (cristina)

10 days with wonderful experiences

Cristina was so kind, detail and friendly. She helped me a lot. We did a lot of activities around 10 days. We made English class, cooking class, movie screening, walked around and much more.

She is helpful and easy to adaptation with peoples here.

She liked to shared, educating other peoples and warm with… read more

(Excellent )

02/03/2019

Left by Workawayer (Stefano) for host

My 2 weeks at Gideon's place have been a mix of irreplaceable moments and unforgettable experiences.

I felt straight away an amazing connection with the whole family and whoever was around.
I can say that today I have a new family and a new place to call home, my heart got stolen by the genuine people who let me live wonderful days there.

If… read more

(Excellent )

04/02/2019

Left by host for Workawayer (Stefano)

What should I say?

Fratello...
This man it's so incredible. Incredible? Absolutely Yes.

Stefano is very friendly person, easy to adapt with new people, love animal, have good respect with other people and very clearly to teach about English and coffee.

So grateful he can be volunteer and stayed here for 2 weeks. Unfortunately he just stayed… read more

(Excellent )

04/12/2018

Left by Workawayer (Nathan) for host

This was definitely an amazing experience ! Gideon is an amazing guy who want to spend his free time helping others. Today, he wants to give additional English lessons to children of his village, depending on other activities, it can be everyday or every other day. But why it is the place to volunteer is that there are between 30 and 40 - lovely -… read more

(Excellent )

12/09/2018

Left by host for Workawayer (Nathan)

Nathan is a passionate and creative person. He helped me a lot in teaching English. Give me lots of ideas for teaching. In addition, he is also a social friendly person. Familiar with many people around my house. He is familiar with children and many children like him.

Nathan had good manners, polite with older people. He gave a lot of help in… read more

(Excellent )

15/10/2018

Left by Workawayer (Pieric) for host

I stayed at Gideon’s place in october 2018, and it was by far one of the best experience I had while traveling !
Gideon is a very kind person who made me discover his life and project, as well as the Javanese culture and the area of Temanggung, where there is lots of things to do and to see.
His project of teaching english to the kids of his… read more

(Excellent )

To leave feedback make sure you are logged in & your account is online

Website Safety

Host ref number: 823181775696

Homestays, Volunteering & Working Holidays in Indonesia Homestays, Volunteering & Working Holidays in Asia Individual Indonesia Last minute Homestays, Volunteering & Working Holidays in Indonesia

To contact a host, please login with your username and password or register with workaway.info.

My host list0

Give the gift of Workaway