Volunteering Programs by Volunteer Programs Bali

I love - the fact that the supervisor is always there to guide the volunteer and that the supervisor are both as a friend and supervisor, that we have gatherings/ dinner when volunteer leaves, the fact that one of the focus of the class attitude is to combine fun & learning,the fact that the kids are eager to learn.

my experience - It was really fun and one of the awesome thing about this teaching program is that I ended up learning too! about the culture of Bali, about these kids, their daily lives, and the way they think. To experience the peaceful and healthy lifestyle of Bali. Its a good feeling when after you teach for a while you notice the progress and improvements that these kids have. I feel attached to these kids even after a week of teaching, once you get to know their personalities and how clever they are. Now I feel that I would love to stay more than 2 weeks, however, I cant, as I was not prepared to do so.

One major difficulty was the fact that we were teaching English, a subject with many exceptions to its general rules. Also, explaining the logic behind our sentence construction was difficult. However, we managed to teach them using examples and physical interactions, such as asking them to find the contrast between hard and soft by pinching their table and hand and seeing which hurt more. We were also able to lighten the atmosphere of the class by bring cheeky.

I really enjoyed the programme and the children are just brilliant. Teaching them and seeing them smile was the hightlight of my day.

An example of my day to day teaching would be starting with the alphabet song and asking them to pronouce the letters, then what day it is?, then working on 2 letters a day with 3 categories (food,place and animal). So we started with the letter 'A' and split them into 2 teams and we gave them 10 minutes to find as any words as they can. It was really great to see them working as a team and funny to see how competitive they are. After time was up we would go through each word and get them to pronounce it and ask them if they know what it is and then later announce the winner :)

We also went through body parts and played Simon says with them - they are really bright.

With the older class we also did all the above but went more advanced on the body parts and also went into vowels which they picked up very quickly.

We sang heads shoulders knees and toes which they really enjoyed.

All the children's are very creative and amazing. On our first day we gave them some plain paper to write their names on so we can call them by their names. I just expected them to write their name on it but they got really creative and started writing in bubble hand writing and adding all these special affects.

I never encountered any difficulties, the children are just brilliant and I wish I could have spent more time with them.

Just continue what you doing and make sure these kids get the best out of it.

It's very good that we stayed in the same homestay with all volunteers since it's easy to meet others. I liked teaching children, as they were very enthusiastic and excited about everything we did. It was difficult sometimes to feel that the classes really reached the goal of the organization. Some issues were that there were a lot of children in one class or we had to repeat lessons because some did not come to school everyday.

Like I said, during the moments I was teaching, I really enjoyed my experience and it's so nice to feel the appreciation of the children. So glad that I have the experience of volunteering!

I have no complaints about working with VP Bali. From the beginning I knew exactly where my money was going and saw the passion of the coordinators myself. Kimberley, Hosé and Novia eat, sleep and breathe VPB and are very inspirational people.

As one of the first volunteers to contribute to this program (I started two weeks into the program) one of the most important things we had to focus on was establishing the level of the students English. By creating fun ways to assess this, myself and my teaching partner never got bored and smiled and laughed our ways through the lessons. The students are so eager to learn and so bright. When we initially started teaching we had nothing by a blackboard to aid our teaching which was such a shame because the students are so creative. We gained some coloured pencils and paper at the beginning of our second week however, which really made a difference and the students really enjoyed using these. As we provide free after school English lessons its important we created a fun learning environment and them showing up every day was incredibly rewarding for me as their teacher.

The home stay the volunteers were allocated is fantastic. The family are warm and welcoming and it has a fantastic location - the centre of Jalan Goodamer. Living with the other four volunteers was really special and I have made some really good friends through this program.

I worked at VPB for two weeks and was warned that I may want to stay longer at the end. I really wish I could! All of us volunteering have said that we would stay longer if we could. At the end of my second week I was very comfortable with the class and really enjoying watching their English grow and wish I could stay on longer to watch it develop even further. I suppose I will just have to return!

During my whole time traveling, I wanted to do some voluntary work to give something back to people who aren't as lucky as I am and I'm so glad I decided to do this with VP Bali. My two weeks in Ubud were over way too soon and it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip!

We were the first volunteers of this program, so in the beginning it was new for everyone, the coordinators and us. Because it was the first time for me teaching English, it was definitely a challenge, but the coordinators helped us and we were two volunteers teaching a class, so it was more fun every day. We could really see how the students get better and better every day, they are so motivated to learn English!

A highlight was the last week was when there was a big ceremony in the temple next to the school, so we were wearing sarongs while we were teaching, and we could see a cockfight and we were even invited to watch a perfomance by the people living in the village!
These are things you would never see as a tourist.

To sum it up: I'm a bit sad that my two weeks volunteering in Ubud passed so fast, and although I needed one or two days to really feel comfortable in front of the class, it was a great experience and a great way to experience the Balinese culture as well as helping to give the children a chance to learn English. I'll miss them!

LOCAL CONDITIONS

Most of the students of the program attended a full day of public school before-hand each day, except the few disabled children who are not eligible for public school.

The public school system includes 1 English class per week so the program provides an incredible opportunity to learn and practice English.

The students appeared well-rested and nourished and generally ready to learn - mentally and emotionally.

Student attendance is not required. Those who come most often are either there for personal or familial interest which makes teaching easier. Some students with genuine interest to learn also have family/religious obligations competing for their attention. The inconsistent attendance day to day makes planning lessons a challenge.

CULTURE SHOCK

Anyone from the developing world is susceptible to mild culture shock of small town Asia.

There are smiles and friendly faces, but English is not common outside of the program and tourist locations.

Independent, analytical thinkers are best served to treat 'suggestions' from locals as genuine demands and to monitor themselves rather than waiting for anyone to correct potentially offensive behavior (disobedience to rules / mores, relatively provocative clothing styles, personal space, personal property etc...) . Asian locals likely won't make their desires or demands as obvious as a Westerner.

My location was 6km from a medium sized town with good shopping, good internet cafes, and myriad eating options; basically everything except a mall and movie-theater.

IMPACT

The program beneficiaries (students, families of students, and community) are genuinely thankful and appreciative for the effort of the volunteers.

The students of my class paid attention during lessons and participated in activities. However my experience was with older students and may not represent the norm.

Without provided curriculum each volunteer is unfortunately prone to 'fly blind', repeat redundant lessons and skip important other lessons. The top improvement to my experience would have been to teach within a well designed curriculum. However, in place of a 'well designed' program, I'm happy to have the flexibility to design my own system. Many students will not fair so well with the improvisation required in the lesson-planning.

SUPPORT

The support from program facilitators was adequate. They are all social, energetic, and helpful.

There was little/no teaching plan available for teaching volunteers. This allows for great flexibility for the volunteers, but likely provides an often-reduntant curriculum

ADVICE

The largest variables to the enjoyment of the program are job-fit and volunteer-volunteer dynamics. Aligning the teaching job position (including age of students and subjects to cover) are a match for the personality of the volunteer, and volunteering with a group of like minded (language, mood, & interest) people are both strongly recommended and can be considered before accepting the position.

Due to spotty student attendance, one-day, standalone lessons are recommended.

I really liked this program, the children are very sweet, it is very safe and the people in the village are nice. If you have any problems you can talk about it with the people from the program, they are very helpful and nice. The children of the morning class really appreciate everything you do. I am very happy I could work with them. You have to prepare lessons for the children in the afternoon every day. They already go to normal school in the morning, so it's nice to do something active. The accommodation is very good.