One Wednesday afternoon, ETA Lucy Srour and her site mate Janika had the pleasure of welcoming the great Yuta Otake to their beloved Sangatta Utara. Yuta Otake is a teacher extraordinaire and instructor from ETA orientation in July. Unfortunately, he only had two days in Sangatta, so Lucy and Janika threw on their tour guides vests and planned full days. Sangatta may be a small city, but there are many people to meet and things to be seen.

Of course, he had to grace Lucy and Bu Dian’s classroom with his presence first. Students from other classes came running to see who this mysterious tall man leading fun energizers at the front of the class was!

The next stop was Prevab, a conservation region of Taman Nasional Kutai. There they saw playful orangutans and ate rambutan fresh from the tree. Rambutan season is the perfect time to see orangutans because, much like Lucy, they are out searching for the fruit.

The adventures concluded with the initial reason that had brought Yuta to Sangatta, an English teacher workshop co-hosted by SMAN 1 Sangatta Utara and SMAN 2 Sangatta Utara. The workshop was open to English teachers in the Kutai Timur regency and the topic was encouraging student engagement in the classrooms. Thanks to Yuta’s palpable energy, teachers were on their feet demonstrating activities, laughing, and tapping into their creativity. After the workshop came to a close, Yuta said goodbye and jetted off on his motorcycle. Sangatta succeeded in beguiling yet another person.

Lucy Srour is currently teaching at SMAN 1 Sangatta Utara, East Kalimantan.