Tutor Volunteering in a Sustainable Tourism NGO Vocational High School in Bali

I have been in Bali as a volunteer for a month and a half in total, through an amazing organization called Bali Internships. Bali Internships has made my travel experience as a volunteer came out great and meaningful, with them I felt like I was well taken care of, their support and guidance were clearly informative and the team was friendly and was always available for any need or problem.

I volunteered in Bali with two friends of mine from the same university in London. We decided to rent a private house in Ubud, 20 minutes drive to the NGO School where we spent our 6 weeks supporting as volunteers. The vocational school is established for students at the age of 14-17 years old to introduce and get them prepared for hospitality and tourism industries. The NGO vocational high school train the students from food and beverage, housekeeping, to front office work, knowledge and professional training.

Our class started at 8.30 am and ended around 12.30 pm, the class hold more or less 20 students. My main daily tasks are getting the students to speak more and practice their English through life experiences sharing and humor sometimes. The student's level of English was rather different from one person to the other. Therefore it was not easy for co-volunteer friends and I to begin the lecture, however, after several meetings we managed to get their attentions by sharing about their interests and passions.

The majority of the students are from the village of Payangan, where the school is located. I was told by some of my students that they came from small villages that has no access to electricity or hot water, therefore, my co volunteer-friends and I, we appreciate everything we have shared with the students because they show us a high level of gratitude in everything that they have in life.

In the beginning most of the students were shy and were not easy converse with, but through more conversation, games, and activities we created we eventually managed to build a good relationship with them and finally got to know each other on more personal levels.

Overall, my experience in Bali has been awesome, the island is beautiful, the local people is beyond friendly and open to tourism. During the weekend my friends and I always tried to visit new places and things. The island had many to offer and fun activities like surfing, scuba diving, rafting, and so on

We have visited several nearby islands from Bali, islands like to the Gilis and Nusa Penida, we also visited different parts of south Bali such as Seminyak, Kuta, Uluwatu. Unfortunately, 6 weeks is too short, we did not have enough time to explore more.