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Turtle Conservation for Bali Sea Turtles, My Voluntary Work Story
"Volunteered in the turtle program was such an impressive experience. To work with wonderful people on the island learn about the sea turtle species, natural habitat, the conservation's mission and why they are conserving the turtles" Maryse, Gymnasium Miesbach, Germany
Chaotic start to only great days awaited for me.
I had quite chaotic first day arriving in Bali due to my 10 hours delayed flight that kind of upset me, but after I arrived in Bali, everything seemed to only get better.
I was picked up by Bali Internships’ driver, Samuel and drive to the Sanur house. In the house, I was welcomed by a group of easy going and warm-hearted people and from the first second of meeting them, I considered them as my new family. We enjoyed our weekend together by going to a lot of nice trips. What I am mostly grateful about is, that I felt welcomed by my new friends although they have already knew each other for a couple of weeks, I was immediately being included into all of their plans and we made many nice experiences together. The house was great, it feels like home, I also loved my new room. The volunteer house is beautiful, we had our own little garden and a spacious green terrace where we could sit together and have long conversations.
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On the first day, I immediately fell in love with my work in the Turtle Conservation Center. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful, they would assist me when there were problems or questions. The conservation staff also introduced me to some of their friends as well and I worked together with some students from Java who at that time interning in the turtle center. It was really interesting to talk to them about their culture and the current situation in Indonesia from their point of views.
I loved the work!
The work in the Turtle Conservation Center was very chilled, in the morning we cleaned the tanks, after that we gave tour guiding to the visitors. My day to day schedule as a volunteer was the morning shift from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm so I had enough time to surf or visit some temples or other cities in the afternoon.
Between my volunteering hour, there was always still enough time for us volunteers and staffs to sit down and drink some tea and talk to each other. My most favorite tasks of it all as a volunteer is definitely tour guiding, it allowed me to be in direct contact with so many interesting people from all over the world whose interest are similar to ours especially on marine life ans especially turtle life.
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Saying goodbye got harder every time somebody had to leave
I will miss my fellow volunteers in Sanur house, the Turtle Conservation Center, and of course the turtles. Enrolling the voluntary work program was such an impressive experience, mainly for me to work with the wonderful people in Serangan island and the turtles. To learn so much about the sea turtle species, their natural habitat, the turtle conservation center's mission and why they are keeping and releasing the turtles. Other than having assigned to support the turtle conservation site, I also joined numbers of beach-cleanup projects while my volunteering time in Bali because plastic waste pollution is one of the most dangerous things for sea turtles and for the whole sea life. It was a great experience for me to part-take in this opportunities to join projects such as turtle conservationist as well as the activities around the line with marine life conservation and rehabilitation.
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This was my first solo trip in my life
This voluntary work travel was my first solo trip to a foreign country that was far away from my home in Germany. I was scared at first because I had no idea about what I should expect from this trip, but it turns out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I have gained more self-confidence, also it taught me more to deal with uncomfortable situations.
I learned so much about myself during my time in Bali, it leaves me with this thinking, of no matter where you go you are never alone and if you are confident and being an open-minded person, you will always get to know new people and they will be your friends very quickly.
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