April was an incredibly busy month for ETA Greg Sutton. He had met with his local WORDS competition winner Sherlia Faramida nearly every day in March, and accompanied her to Jakarta in the beginning of April to participate in the National WORDS Competition. He was thrilled when she won first place, after competing with 18 other incredibly smart and talented students from all over Indonesia. Upon his return to Gondanglegi, Greg helped Sherlia apply for the YES scholarship, a scholarship for high school students of Muslim majority nations to study abroad for one year in the United States.

Greg also hosted his parents in Gondanglegi and Malang. His parents helped him teach two lessons at school, and spent a few nights at his kost (dorm-style apartment) with his host family. He was happy to have his parents in his community, as they had the opportunity to meet his co-teachers and friends. His counterpart even hosted them at her house and cooked them bakso (Indonesian meatballs)!

Greg also continued facilitating a pen pal exchange between his English club students and those of ETA Katia Oltmann’s, and their students will meet each other virtually via video chat in early May. He is looking forward to seeing all of their hard work pay off, and facilitating their English conversations with Katia.

Finally, Greg went to Labuan Bajo with Sherlia as the prize for winning first place in the WORDS competition, along with the second and third place students and their respective ETAs, as well as other AMINEF staff. A great way to wrap up an incredible year!

Greg Sutton is currently teaching at SMK Muhammadiyah 7, Gondanglengi Malang, East Java