Volunteer work in Bali

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Landing in Bali on November 13th was like "landing" in paradise after 4 weeks in Vietnam. We love Vietnam, but the dust, noise and traffic was getting to us. For our first few nights in Bali, we treated ourselves and stayed in a luxury villa with a peaceful garden, waterfall and swimming pool. It was a 5 min. walk to the beach in Sanur. I think it was the best sleep I've had since leaving home. When you travel on a budget, keep in mind that the beds are often low quality - either rock hard, saging in the middle, or springs poking out of the mattress. We spent our afternoons by the poolside and our evenings walking along the beach, eating seafood, looking in shops and listening to live music.

After 3 days of luxury......back to reality.....Gemma and I started our two week volunteer work at International Humanity Foundation (IHF). Check out their website: www.ihfonline.org. I love the mission statement of this non-profit organization:

"Half of IHF's mission is to educate the poor and the other half is to educate the world about the poor."

We are 10 days into our time here and we are loving it. I teach the older kids in the afternoon and Gemma usually helps with the younger kids. The youngest students are 4 years old and the oldest are 18 years old. The IHF community center is located between a Muslim village and a Hindu village. Inside the walls of the center, there are no religious barriers and people of all ages, castes, and religions are free to work, sing, and study together. The children are mostly from remote villages with little or no infrastructure.

I've become the "house mother" here as all the other volunteers and directors are in their 20's. We live at the Centre as a family taking turns cleaning, cooking, sharing the bathroom, and eating together. I feel a little like I am living in college dorms! Gemma really enjoys the young people, but still wishes she had a friend her age. She is doing an excellent job with the children - of course they love her.

Yesterday, we had a Games Day with 100 community children - you can imagine the mayhem!!!! We played musical chairs, soccer, red-rover, duck-duck-goose, and water balloons. We also did face painting with the children and taught dancing to some of the girls. It was so much fun, but I was exhausted afterwards. The main challenge here for Gemma and I is the heat. We teach in the afternoons as the children attend their local schools in the morning. Of course our classrooms aren't airconditioned so I am pouring with sweat while teaching. There is a resort next door that lets us use their pool, so that is a good way to cool down after teaching in the afternoons.

Both Gemma and I have been going to a hatha yoga class at a local Ashram (10 min. away) 3 times a week. It's amazing - we do yoga to the sound of the waves on a platform overlooking the sea. Our teacher is wonderful -balancing relaxation with various poses. The Ashram follows the teachings of Ghandi and they accept guests. I am considering going there on my own for a week while Jeff takes the kids to Lombok. I'm feeling like it's what I need right now. Gemma doesn't like the idea of me leaving her with "the boys" for a week.

Lucas and Jeff have been exploring the island of Bali by motorcycle. It's great for them to have this father-son time especially since Lucas is off to university next year. One of Lucas' friends from high school came to Bali for 4 days as he is visiting Western Australia. Lucas met up with him for a few days and experienced the "touristy" part of Bali. He had a lot of fun, but I think he's glad to be exploring the "out of the way" places with his dad. Jeff found a healer/medicine man in the mountains of Bali and got a treatment for his sore neck - it seemed to help a lot. As you can see, we are making the most of our time here........we have a large house rented for the month of January, so if anyone can come visit we would love it!

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Comments

[Lorill]

just read this part
Hi Kevi. I just read this post. Sounds amazing!!! I can relate to the sweat pouring off as that is what I experienced in the Yucatan in August, the time I went with Kali.