Island of the Gods

So, the reason why I haven’t been posting about my adventure in Bali was because I never really had the time to sit down and type something up on my laptop.

The presentations went very well, that was about a week ago, I believe. Wayan, Mona and other members of the Campuhan College attended our presentations, which was great. The two days before the presentations were very stressful. Our group found out that Putu couldn’t join us on the day of our presentation due to family and university issues, so we were all very upset. He was supposed to do the Indonesian part of the presentation, but that didn’t work out, so I had to jump in for him in the last minute. The presentation though went surprisingly well and I was very proud about what our group accomplished in a matter of 3-weeks.

After leaving Ubud to go to Pemuteran, we experienced a whole other side of Bali. Pemuteran is located in the north-west of Bali, very close to the beach. We had the opportunity to snorkel and observe corals, go on a sunrise cruise with dolphins, play in the water balls, pick strawberries and pet turtles. Those were 4 very exciting days.

After Pemuteran we left to go to Sudaji village. A very remote, eco-friendly village close to Singaraja, which is well-known for its irrigation system and preserving its jungle and surrounding environment. We met Sansan again, who was our guide over the 2 days. We got to meet his 3 children (one is currently attending the Green School) and his wife and relatives. Something that impressed me the most was how open and welcoming they were to us. We were allowed to experience a 3-bulanan (3-month, baby name giving ceremony) which is actually very personal and is attended only by the close-knit community. The baby girl was named Kadek Arlin Ayu Lestari, which means 3rd child, April born child, Beauty and Preservation.

We also got to bathe in the damn and the river near the paddies with the children, who were fun to play with..,.

——->sorry, I need to continue writing later, its beach&dinner time.

+its the last night we all get to spend together. The group is leaving Bali tomorrow morning at 5a.m. (T_T) ,whereas I am going to stay here with my family and enjoy the sun for a bit longer, before I start my Fall Co-op in Germany.

Today we started off with eating sweets. Denise and the TA’s provided us with Sugus, Kopiko, Caramel bonbons, Mentos and other sweets, which made my morning so much better. We immediately started preparing our PR Presentations on which we had worked on yesterday afternoon. Everyone liked our T-Shirt idea, so I hope that I can get those organized as soon as possible. A lot of groups are preparing flyers and brochures in Indonesian and English to hand out during their presentations, which is a great idea. Some are considering to spread the word via radio and television, which will be expensive I would imagine, but worth a try. We mainly focused on talking to the community leaders such as the Banjars and spreading the word through local organizations. After our presentations we were almost done with class. The TA’s surprised us with our 15 seconds sound bytes clips. They made a small movie clip from the whole class which was amusing to watch. So before we all went to go off to do some research we had something to laugh about. Now it is research time and two of our group members are in Denpasar interviewing Dr. Wirawan who founded the Yayasan Kerti Praja, I hope that their interview was helpful. I cannot wait for them to come back to tell us about their day. Some Indonesian words I learned today: Volunteer – Relawan Sore – Radang Fulfill – Mencapai A Balinese phrase I learned: Punapi Gatre? – How are you?

Today was our first day with the translator. Hurray! It was great to have her translate everything so that the Balinese students could understand the lectures and know what was going on. She was a great help to our group too because I was able to focus on what I wanted to contribute to the group and Putu too. In our class we talked about talking points, our public relations plan, the media and how to verbalize our thoughts in 15-second sound bites. We were also given some instructions for our packets and our final presentations, which was helpful and made us realize how much we still had to do. Going back to the sound bites; they were really funny. Our groups were given the name Chewtang, and had to present to the rest what our product was, where one could purchase it and how much it costs. Our product was medicinal chewing gum that boosted your immune system. Another assignment we had to do was prepare ourselves with a 15-second sound bite about our organization and then get interviewed by the TA’s, who asked random questions about HIV: Positif, Kita Bisa Rubah. I was so nervous about this interview and practiced what I was going to say the entire time. I always messed it up and felt a bit frustrated. To tell the truth, practicing the whole time made me more confused about what my organization was actually about. I only pressured myself, which was not effective. So I just took a deep breathe and thought for a while about what I was talking about and realized that I knew a lot about my organization and that it was not necessary to memorize everything word for word. When it was my turn to get up and get interviewed I realized how comfortable the TA’s made it. Although I did get nervous about this whole interview and question session, I felt that this exercise allowed me to practice something that I am not confident in; talking and presenting to people about what I know. Now its research time. Sampai Besok.

Saturday was Kuta day. Nothing really special I believe. The highlight was seeing everyone have fun and spending time with my aunt and cousin. I also got a foot reflexology in the morning, which hurt a lot (100x), and did not help my swelling at all. I felt so exhausted after the massage that I just wanted to jump into bed and sleep the pain away. On Sunday we went to Campuhan College where we receive more information about the college as well as testimonials from the students. It was great to have two perspectives of the college, not only from the co-founders. We watched several short-movies about the different programs that the Karuna Bali Foundation offers which were quite entertaining and enlightening. Before the Question & Answer session we all stood up and sang The Moose song, which was a part of the Teacher Training Program. Teachers would implement this song into their school curriculum to help the children learn English in a more fun and interactive way. The Teacher Training program gives teachers advice on how to make their classes more enjoyable for the children, since English is a subject that most of them do not like. I liked how Wayan said that you should surround yourself with the people who see the Golden You. It is important that people always motivate and support you, even if you make mistakes. The Teacher Training Program even teaches the teachers that it is ok to make mistakes because it is a way of learning. After visiting the Campuhan College we went back to the hotel. I will soon start research again and cannot wait for the week to begin.

Today we learned about Goals and Metrics, where each of the groups had to determine what their short, mid and long-term goals were. We had to create a chart and fill in all the sections that included ‘Resources & Networks’, ‘Constituents, Allies & Opponents’, ‘Targets’ and ‘Tactics’. This made us think more in depth about our project and what we really wanted to accomplish. We figured out that we really had to get in contact with two organizations because their focus was strictly on HIV/AIDS. Zach got us an appointment today with the professor we wanted to talk to in Udayana University, which is great news; I am excited to meet him on Tuesday. After identifying our goals we moved on to create our mission and vision statements in English and in Indonesian. We did fairly well on our statements. I hope that our group can accomplish our mission. Today we were given time to do more field research for our project, which was necessary. We have not really thought through our project yet and I feel like there are still a lot of things we need to work on. I hope that at the end of the week we will get everything together and make it all work. Enough for today, and more tomorrow! ☺ Have a lovely weekend.

**Saturday & Sunday has come**

Right now I am sitting outside, in front of the rice paddies, listening to the rain that is falling on the green grass. I am trying to reflect on my day whilst enjoying the tranquility and fresh breeze from the winds. Today we started to present our revamped project ideas in class. We did receive some criticism and will try to work on finding a solution to the questions that were asked. I hoped that by having half a day of field research would allow us to get more insight on our project, but this turned out to be a failure. We decided to rent a car and a driver to take us to Denpasar for the afternoon. Our first stop was the Udayana University where we were referred to Dr. Wirawan, who taught in the Udayana University but was busy teaching a class during our visit. The lady was kind enough to give us his contacts and the organization that he leads, which was also on our TO VISIT LIST. I then called the organization to ask if they were still open, but they had just closed, which was too bad. Whilst we were on our way to the Prodia Laboratory Clinic I made a call to the Department of Health, who told us that without a written permission we could not make any appointments. Since I was on the phone anyways I decided to call another NGO to ask if they were still open; they were, but needed an email stating our reason for our visit. So the trip to Denpasar basically consisted of the Udayana University and the Prodia Laboratory Clinic, which was not of any help either because they just cross-referred us to Dr. Wirawan and his organization. So I believe that Dr. Wirawan is the man. I will get in contact with him as soon as possible and hope that we will be able to meet him. What a gloomy day.

Today I had to miss some class because Zach and I had an appointment with the Head of the SMAN I Ubud School. The interview was very informative, we had the possibility to talk to the leaders of the KPAN club, as well as two of the Biology teachers. In my opinion the opinions of the 3 girls that we talked to (10th grader, 11th grader, 12th grader) was the most helpful. They told us about what the problems were they were facing as a group and what information they received from other organizations. I was surprised that the students were informed about HIV/AIDS and took the initiative to start an extracurricular group to share what they know with other students. After our interview, we went back to class and learned about budgeting, resources and networks. We then had to present our project budgets and explain how we would reduce the cost of each specific detail that would make our project be a success. After our creative presentation we were given time to do more research and think about our projects.

Today we visited the Rotary Club who warmly welcomed us. The President of the Club Mary K. introduced the new members as well as the board to us and made us introduce ourselves to the others. The highlight of the night was the guest speaker Daniel Elber who established the Future for Children in Muntigunung. He explained the beginning processes of his association and talked about how he raised the funds in Switzerland and managed his project on the field here in Bali. After his presentation there was a raffle round and also a woman who explained the Bali calendar to us. The Bali calender only has 210 days in the year and 36 days per month. In the earlier days this calendar was used to predict the rain cycles, however due to climate change the calendar is no longer precise. The majority of the women and men in the Rotary Club were from Switzerland, Germany, United States and Australia. I talked to a man named David about his waste-management program he started up and he invited some of us to visit his site. All of the members were very open and welcoming us to their meeting, and want us to meet their younger Rotary Club members next Thursday. I hope that this is possible.

Today was a fieldwork day. We split our group into two in order to get as many interviews as possible in the Ubud area. Zach, Katie and Putu were in charge of visiting the Campuhan College as well as public schools, and Anna and I were in charge of visiting hospitals, organizations and clinics. Since everything was so far from one another we decided to rent a motorbike for the day, so we could travel efficiently and not waste time, since most of the places here close at either 1pm or 5pm (it varies). Our first stop was the Klinik in Pengosekan, where we talked to I.G.A.N.P. Paramarta who was the head of the clinic. He was very open and told us his opinions about the issues that the local people are facing with HIV/AIDS. He provided us with other contacts and doctors we should talk to which was very helpful. After visiting that clinic we went to Puskesmas, which was a government run hospital in Ubud. However, the doctors did not want to provide us with any information because we needed the permission from the Department of Health in order for them to release anything. They gave us the phone number and the address of the department in Gianyar, which is not too far away from Ubud. We will call them today and see if they give us the permission. After going to Puskesmas we wanted to visit the organization Bumi Sehat, which is located here in Ubud. Nevertheless, after driving around for half an hour trying to find it we just got lost and had no idea where we were, so we decided to checkout other clinics instead. It is really difficult to find your way around if you don’t know the area. The streets all look the same and the roads are not the best to drive on. At 3 p.m. we all met at Panorama and exchanged our information. The other group went to several organizations and found a lot of resources as well as ideas of what we could do with our project. One thing we found in common was that the people all told us to go to Denpasar, where the central centers and programs are, so we are now planning on going there on our next fieldwork research day. Our day has not ended yet though, tonight we have the opportunity to attend a meeting with the Rotary Club in Casa Luna here in Ubud. A story I wanted to share: As we interviewed the head doctor of the clinic he told us how his friend wanted antibiotics prescribed to him before he met and had relations with sexual workers because he was convinced that it would prevent him from getting HIV/AIDS. “HIV POSITIF: KITA BISA RUBAH” ~ “HIV POSITIVE: WE CAN CHANGE”