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10 Weeks Tutor-volunteer in Boys Children Home in Denpasar
"Started as a tutor & ended in friendships. I am thankful for the new experiences & the incredible time I could share with them" Lukas, Hochschule Bochum, Germany
It is my hope to do something valuable with my time is to collect new experiences outside of my known surroundings
Since I finished my business administration studies in Germany, it was my plan to find some time to take a break from my monotonous daily life routine. My aim is traveling and doing something valuable with my time is to collect new experiences outside of my known surroundings. Under the requirement to experience new cultures and do something helpful as for how I have never done before, Bali was my decision.
I found a program that met my interests: A children home in Denpasar Volunteer Tutor Program, where it consists of boys from the age about 8 to 15 years old. After several talks and emails with Bali Internships, I set the time frame of 10 weeks in this project as an English teacher. Bali Internships helped me to organize and prepare everything for my arrival.
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My impressions, the cultural shock and the warm welcome
As a first timer to South East Asia and first time engaging with the local community in an island, I faced some cultural barriers, especially during the first days. Fortunately, the warm welcome of the Indonesian people I met made my stay uncomplicated and left me a positive first impression of the people and culture after my first week.
On my first day, I was very excited to meet the boys, my future students. Turned out that they were at much more curious about me than as I was about them. After being introduced shortly to everyone, we started immediately to get to know each other. To break the ice, I told them some stories about Germany, football and my family. The boys were very smart and interested, some were a bit shy in the beginning, but as time went by, we connected eventually and naturally.
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My daily tutoring routine
Every beginning is hard, so was when I was started to get into this tutor volunteering going. It was quite a challenge to adjust the boys of English level, the main difficulty was to get them to concentrate. When this happened, I always try to add fun activities such as playing basketball or football for the breaks, which I think allowed them be a bit more relaxed between the lessons. Other than physical activities, I filled in also other games, such as hangman or Simons say. Essentially, I figured out that volunteers need to prepare more for the materials and lesson plan to be able to handle unexpected events when it is necessary.
It does not really end when friendships are created
So to sum it up, I had an amazing time in Bali. My time with the boys started as a teacher and ended in friendships with several young and clever mates. I am thankful for the new experiences and the incredible time I could share with them.
I lived in a private homestay and with a warm-hearted Balinese family owner, I was introduced to Balinese traditions, celebrations and way of life. Because of this, my time staying in this homestay and in general in Bali was more colorful every day! I enjoyed embracing Balinese culture, I also had fun driving my scooter over the sunset road, swimming into the blue ocean or exploring this lovely landscape. I will definitely come back to Bali!
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