Sekolah!

Selamat Datang! Hey guys! Today was our first official FULL day of classes here in Bali. Let me tell you, we are EXHAUSTED, but inspired and amazed at the spirit of our students.

So first off, let me tell you a little bit about our school. It's located in a small village about half an hour's drive outside of Ubud, so we have to take a taxi there every day. It's a very remote place, and the locals don't see very many foreigners. We definitely turn some heads when we show up to teach every day. The building itself is a lot more than we had expected; while it is definitely still fairly primitive and lacking in everything an average western school would have, it has 4 walls, a roof, electricity, a whiteboard and some wooden desks. There are about 4 or 5 classrooms in total, and they all open up onto a large courtyard area in the middle.

The school operates as a regular government-operated Indonesian school during the mornings, and then it becomes an extra-carricular English school in the afternoon & evening. The children are not required to go to English school, but many of them choose to as it is free for them because of the volunteers through IVHQ and Green Lion. I know I certainly wouldn't be showing up to second language school every afternoon during my free time when I was 9 years old, but the children in Bali are so eager to learn; they show up prepared, optimistic, and overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

The volunteer work day starts at 9am and goes until we arrive back home around 5:30pm. We spend our mornings preparing our lessons and our afternoons in the classroom with the kids. Our total class has 24 students, but the numbers are different every day depending on who shows up. Today we had 13.

Our class is actually fairly advanced considering that they've only just started learning English this year. Some are definitely more advanced than others, but it's so cool to see their eyes light up with recognition when we connect with them, or teach them something new.  Today we reviewed numbers 1-10, taught them the names of 26 different animals, played games like hangman, Rock Paper Scissors and Duck Duck Goose. We also did a few introduction activities to get to know them. Tomorrow we will be able to delve in much deeper now that we know where they're at in their English lessons.

The children can sometimes be loud, challenging, and energetic to the point of being out of control, but overall they really are a bunch of incredibly sweet, lovely kids. They're patient with us when we struggle with the language barrier, and they love teaching us, too. After today, I wholeheartedly believe that we will learn just as much from them as they will from us. What a beautiful experience this has been so far.

Sampai Nanti (Until Next Time)

Xo Ashley

Bali, Day 3

Hello from beautiful Bali, Indonesia! Ashley here.

We made it safe and sound and we are heading into our second night here in Ubud. To say that we (especially me) are experiencing a bit of culture shock would be a complete understatement. But now that we've been away from the creature comforts of Canada for 3 full days, I think that I am slowly but surely beginning to adjust.

We traveled for 20 hours from Calgary to Hong Kong, where we spent our night in a high-rise hotel in the centre of downtown. It was incredibly overwhelming, but also very cool, to walk around Causeway Bay and experience the craziness of Hong Kong.

We only spent 17 hours in China before we were up and on our way to Bali. Upon arriving, we were taken to our accommodation, which we have since switched in order to be closer to the main volunteer house.  Instead of the private accommodation that Sean and I had originally opted to pay extra for, we have decided to be housed in gender-separate dormitory-style rooms, bunk beds and all. It will definitely an experience.

Speaking of experience, Sean managed to kill 3 spiders, 1 beetle and a cockroach the size of an iPhone in our room last night. (and those are only the bugs that we saw...) I have been politely told to 'grow a pair' as this is just how life in Bali goes, as well as the rest of Asia. But no matter how prepared you think you are for a trip, culture shock seems to always get the best of you. I don't know how long it will take for me to get used to sleeping with open windows and sections of the roof knowing that critters can come and go as they please, or the roosters crowing nonstop, or the hundreds of mopeds whizzing around with a family of 5 on them, hardly missing each other on the road by less than an inch.

All in all though, Bali really is lovely. The people are friendly and helpful, and the other volunteers are all very nice.  I cannot put the shades of green into words that exist here, and even pictures don't do it justice.

We are spending the next few days doing an 'orientation' of Bali with our program coordinators (exploring the surrounding area, being introduced to customs & language, etc) and then we will begin teaching in a few days.

Tonight we are off to a Balinese dance show, and tomorrow we have language lessons and a bit more of an orientation to the surrounding area. We are both still adjusting to the 15 hour time difference and the strange food and water, but I'm sure that in a few day's time we will be feeling much more chipper :) talk soon!

xo Ashley

72 Hours to Go

I truly cannot comprehend the title of this post.  We will be on a plane in 72 hours.  3 Days.  We have been planning this trip for over 9 months...I remember starting the countdown somewhere around 265 days.

We are both feeling a wide range of emotions right now.  We are mostly excited, but also anxious, even nervous - we don't know what to expect.  All we can hope is that we are prepared well enough for whatever this Journey may throw at us.

Last minute preparations are keeping us very, very busy - our apartment looks like a bomb went off, our spare bedroom is full of clothes, shoes, travel size toiletries and school supplies, and our fridge is empty.  We are completely finished with our vaccinations (Dukoral is nasty by the way) and we have a fully stocked medical kit all packed up.  What else can we do, really?  Just wait...wait to see what volunteering in Bali has in store for us.

Last night I picked up an amazing donatinon from the Gymtastics Play-It-Forward Program.  They donated a 12-ft parachute for us to bring to the school.  I'm sure you remember the parachute games you use to play  in Elementary school?  So exciting!  We are incredibly grateful and excited to share this gift with the kids in Bali.

I don't have much else to report, which seems crazy, because it has been over 2 months since my last post.  But really, these last few weeks have just been a "Hurry-Up-And-Wait" sort of thing.  I will be updating this blog mostly while volunteering in Bali, as its sole purpose was to help all of our readers connect with our experience there.  So many of you have helped us to get to this point, through your support, your donations, and your love and passion for what we're doing.  So please keep informed and subscribe via e-mail to receive updates while we're on the road.

You may also want to check out www.adventuretoanywhere.com, which is my (Ashley's) personal travel blog.  It includes posts from past travels and adventures, product reviews, and practical travel advice, and I will be writing in much more detail on there about our experiences on our days off in Bali, as well as our time in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Japan.

Thank you all again SO much for all that you have done to make this dream a reality.  Next time I post on this blog, I will be either en-route, or in Bali.

Love!

xoxo A

25 Days & $295 To Go

Good morning my beautiful friends & family!  These are the never-resting hands of Ashley typing.  I hope this Monday morning finds you well, and hopefully not hurting too badly (mentally or physically) from last night's Super Bowl…I wasn't watching (and honestly can't be bothered to, sorry Robinsons!!  Bad niece / cousin award!!) but from what my social media feed tells me, many of you Broncos fans (again, sorry Robinsons) will be mending broken hearts today.

But, let's talk about something that doesn't hurt!  WE LEAVE FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA IN 25 DAYS!  It's the craziest feeling…it feels like it's so incredibly soon.  And, even though we have been preparing for this thing for MONTHS (8, exactly), I still can't help but feel a little bit underprepared.  But I think that's how things like this are supposed to feel.

Let me start off by sending out a massive, heartfelt thank you to all of our recent donors.  We are overwhelmed by all of your love and support.  We have been touched by all of you, and even surprised at where some of these donations came from…as they came from the people who we would have least expected (ie. clients at work, old friends from high school, a friend of my parents' whom I haven't seen in years)…  When we originally started on this adventure 8 months ago, we shot high and set our fundraising goal at $6,000.00 to help offset the costs of the volunteer portion of our trip, and also to help provide us with the opportunity to purchase and bring gifts and supplies to the school in which we will be working.  One of the major costs we were concerned about were vaccinations, which would have rung in at over $1,000.00 all by themselves, and we were absolutely ecstatic to learn that these were, in fact, covered by our health insurance (aside from the administration & consultation fees).  This was a HUGE help.

After some realistic re-evaluation, we have reset our fundraising goal to $4,500.00.  This is still enough to help offset costs and provide supplies to our students.  We still don't know the ages of these students, but we will let you know as soon as we find out.

This brings me to my next point, which is the figure of how much we have currently raised.  My heart is fluttering just typing this.  Through our hard work and the incredible support and generosity of our donors, we have managed to raise $4,205.00.  I repeat, $4,205.00.  THAT IS UNBELIEVABLE.  We are only $295.00 away from our goal and we still have 25 days to achieve it.

We cannot even conceptualize the types of challenges, lessons, and opportunities that await us in Bali, but we are positive about one thing; we will definitely be able to make a difference in the lives of these incredible little people, partly because of our own passions and generosity, and also (mostly) because of the passion and generosity of all of you amazing people.  "Thank You" does not even begin to cover how we feel.  We wish we could pack you all into our (tiny) backpacks so you could come to Bali and experience this with us.  But, for now, this blog will have to suffice in helping you to feel the way we do, and the way we will once we arrive.

A Small Start!  The supplies I have purchased so far.

I have been in touch with our volunteer coordinator over the past few days, and we have sent over all of our flight details, arranged for our airport pickup in Denpasar, Indonesia, and paid our final program fees.  We received a big fat orientation booklet from IVHQ to study in the next few weeks before departure, and we're brushing up on our Bahasa Indonesia language lessons.  I even went out and purchased our first round of school supplies.  We plan to pick up a few more things before we leave, but also to buy a lot of things for the kids once we're in Bali.  

I'm not sure when exactly the reality of what we are doing will hit us, but I can tell you that it hasn't quite hit us yet.  What an incredible adventure ahead.

Again, I'd like to thank you all from the bottom of my (and Sean's) heart.  You are all amazing, and we wouldn't be getting on that plane at the end of this month if it weren't for each and every one of you.

If you'd still like to make a donation, you can do so at http://gofundme.com/ashleyandsean

Also, please SUBSCRIBE to this blog by entering your e-mail address at the top left hand corner of this page!  An e-mail will be sent to you for confirmation (which I believe includes a link that you have to click to confirm that you did in fact subscribe) and then, you will begin receiving e-mail updates every time we post something new to this blog, which will include text posts and photos while we are in Southeast Asia.

We love you guys so much.  Words fail.

xoxo Ashley

Look at our weird currency!  From the top we have Hong Kong Dollars, Thai Baht, Indonesian Rupiah, and Japanese Yen.