Hello there friends!

So glad I am able to use this platform to share this adventure. Yesterday we volunteered at the English Speaking School in Bug Bug, Candidasa and it was everything wonderful. We helped organize an art competition that we will be doing at all of the Robin Carlson Schools throughout Bali. There were over 100 students with great big smiles on their faces and eyes wide with curiosity.

I could barely contain my excitement at getting started doing what I came here to do… work with these kids!

 

Communication runs far deeper than language and I am learning that firsthand. They spent the afternoon thinking up their art work, titling it, choosing colors, writing their names, ages, and grades in English and DRAWING! I could not believe my eyes when i saw how talented some of them were! The intricate detail in some of that work blew me away! They giggled when I clumsily attempted to say something in Balinese- I did get the hang of saying write your “Name” (Na-ma), and “Age” (Umore), and telling them how “Beautiful” (enda) their pictures looked.

Before leaving I taught them the colors of the rainbow as we put away our markers- and I realized that kids everywhere– respond to people who genuinely care. It is already pretty fascinating to notice cultural differences between the kids I am working with here and those I worked with last summer in South Africa. When we were finished for the day, all 100 kids shook all of our hands and said thank you… it was really special.

 

Last night we ate at Vincents, a local restaurant, where I am pretty sure I had one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten in my life so far… and the entire meal was 80,000 Rupiah or 8 US dollars not including Bintang (the local brew)

Today we went to Ashram Shri Mimamsa and met with a famous spiritual healer who is responsible for spearheading a program devoted to assisting elderly people in the community. Darren (my professor) and Laura ( his wife ) are facilitating a way to gain more support for this program and work alongside to assist the nearly 200 elderly people living in this area who are unable to support themselves. Most of these people are just hungry and are no longer able to work- so the support of this program is very valuable. I hope to get involved in some way during my time here.

We need to take better care of our children and our elders everywhere.

It’s pretty sad to think that a large majority of humanity has damn near forgotten that once they were children and that every day they are getting older. Well, I refuse to take part in that and I vow to care. I will continue posting when I can with a grateful heart as I venture on my journey and dive into this unknown…