Travel to Teach: Bali Volunteer Story

Elmar, Holland

First T2T Bali Volunteer

Today I found myself standing in front of a group of more then twenty teenagers passionately singing ‘my heart will go on' from Celine Dion. You might wonder how a 24 year old Dutch guy ends up singing the Titanic song somewhere in the periphery of Bali, the most unlikely place ever to be surprised by an iceberg. Well, my story begins somewhere in the east of Holland on a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon in the middle of December, where I was deeply emerged in the catacombs of the Internet, randomly clicking my way through yet another boring and useless day of my life. More precise, it actually begins not so many bites away from the digital location your browser is pointed to right now! Travel-to-Teach would be my opportunity to explore a beautiful part of the world while simultaneously making myself useful to others.

Right, as being honored by the status of the very first volunteer for T2T on Bali I feel I have an important obligation to tell you about my experienced frustrations, setbacks, disillusions and disappointments. Fortunately for both your time and mine I can summarize these as being non-existent. The time I spent here was absolutely fantastic, one of the best in my life. T2T in Bali has by far exceeded my most daring expectations about how it should be and how it could be.

Considering the likely fact of you being someone that is thinking about maybe, perhaps, possibly, somewhere in a distant future, doing something that may or may not slightly resemble volunteering with T2T on Bali, I will keep this report short and focused on the quality of living, the quality of teaching and the things you might want to consider that are specifically linked to the T2T-program. The readers that can understand Dutch among you are hereby welcomed to read a more personal journal of my time here on http://www.elmarhaker.waarbenjij.nu.

I can hereby confirm that the description of the Bali-house as given on the T2T-website is accurate. It has everything that you need and reasonably can expect. The beds are comfortable and the view is wonderful. From the location in Gianyar you can reach every part of the island by scooter or car within at most four hours, the Kuta-beach and party area is one hour away and hotels are cheap (approximately 4 US-dollar). During my stay here I surfed a lot and had a few parties with Henning and others in this Walhalla for mostly Australian tourists.

The afternoons are free to explore the island, its spectacular nature and the vast amount of cultural heritage. I think it is impossible to get bored here, especially if you rent your own scooter (first time for me, scary at first – driving left – but definitely worth it!). Teaching (mostly in the morning) was a world opening up for me (my background: just finished a masters in Human Geography, no experience with teaching and nervous as hell). The children are extremely enthusiastic and fun to teach, here you really have the feeling of considerably contributing to their English (which is at a low level) and consequently their economic chances later in life on this island which is poor and mainly relies on tourists for its economic growth.

Henning has already made many local friends here that greatly increases the feeling of being at home, learning Indonesian (which is fun and easy) and getting absorbed in the normal everyday life of the Hindu-society. Together with Henning and the first volunteers after me (Rebecca and Bonnie) I have had the honor of attending many ceremonies and contributing my part to both scare the bad demons away with the gambalang and praying to the Hindu god and it's parliament. It's parliament? Yes, at least that is how the (sub)gods are explained by Topan, a good friend of Henning and very nice person that can and will teach you everything that you ever wanted to know about the Indonesian culture and language.

Next to Topan there are so many more fantastic characters that I have met here that it would take me two more days to write this story. For now I can only advise you to see the pictures that I have made of my time here and with that encourage everyone that reads this to just make that daring step, take on the bold shoes and come out here to Bali and T2T to experience what I've experienced for yourself.

Life is either a big adventure or nothing. This slogan, standing on a building of one of the last touristic outposts of the southern part of Bali before entering the region of Gianyar, pretty much says it all. Life on Bali definitely has been nothing less then one big adventure for me and it is with great regret that I am already at the point of reflection and soon will have to say goodbye to all the fantastic people I've met here, not in the least ‘mister coordinator' Henning, who has done a great job making me feel at home and becoming both a good mentor and a friend in the process.

Good life!

Elmar ‘Volunteer Number One' Haker.

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