On the 12th of January 2015, a group of youths came from Bunburry Cathedral Grammar School in Australia to Nusa Penida to spend a few days with us. There were 10 of them along with Peter Schulze and Sue Devereaux, their wonderful teachers. Our CEO, Drh. I Gede Nyoman Bayu Wirayudha himself took them around the island.
He showed them the beauty of this island, from traditional textile making, weaving lessons to tasting the Balinese delicacies. They weren’t just touring the island, they were also involved in the volunteering activities, such as seaweed farming, making signs for our organic farm, and planting Gmelina saplings around our new site. That day we planted more than 100 hundreds saplings in just under two hours. What a troop!
They also got to visit a bat cave, called Goa Kentung, near by our new site, playing soccer with the local kids, and learn how to make coconut oil.
According to these young troops, their favorite activity of the whole trip was seaweed farming. In this activity, we combined working and playing. We took them through the whole process, taught them how to do the complete course of doing seaweed farming. During this course; they got to swim, snorkel, and play around with one another in the water.
We took them to have lunch at our new site. Ketut, our chef, cooked an array of Balinese foods, such as Indonesian style fried chicken, stir fried vegetables, and sambal – Indonesian chili paste. They loved the fried chicken, or, as we Indonesians call it, ayam goreng.
The other activity that caught their attention was the weaving class. We brought a few local people of Nusa Penida to show them how to do traditional weaving like Kira or a chicken basket and Tipat, which means a rice cake container, and few others. They were eager to learn this and practice the weaving themselves.
“On normal summer days, I’d be at home watching TV or playing the Xbox, never thought I’d be doing seaweed farming,” Luc, one of the young gentlemen told us. Peter Schulze also told us that the teens would come home with plenty of lessons and stories to tell.
Our volunteer program has been recognized all over the world. Every year we welcome hundreds of people of all ages to come volunteering with us. They can choose to volunteer at three of our work sites, which is located in Nusa Penida, Central Borneo, and Tabanan in central Bali.
