Even the tiniest person, can change the course of the future

On April 22nd of 2018, with a cup of coffee in hand, a 19 year old girl opened her laptop, logged in IVHQ and chose Bali as her destination. It’s not a big deal, right? She just clicked a few buttons and typed a few words. However, just like every epic movie has an ordinary beginning, that is how a marvelous brand-new journey began.

Yep. That girl is me. And I feel so glad that I choose this path, the right one. Volunteering with IVHQ in Bali is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life because I’ve learned a lot from this trip and I also surpassed myself again and again. Responsibility, friendship, love, courage, trust…How could I forget all these things Bali has taught me?

I love animals. Watching more and more species become endangered due to human’s greedy or environmental pollution always hurt me a lot. And knowing that except writing some words online to appeal to people to protect animals, I can’t do any practical things to help them hurts more. I hate this sense of powerlessness. Luckily, I found IVHQ, which provides me with a chance to do the thing I dreamed of: to protect the animals with my real actions instead of words. And that’s why I choose to sign up for the four-week turtle conservation program. Honestly speaking, the fee for the four-week program is not a small sum of money for my family because dollar is much more expensive than RMB and both of my parents are normal workers. So, at first, they don’t want me to sign up for it. But this is my dream, how could I give up. Finally, I persuaded them. And my experience has proved that it is worthwhile. Everything is worthwhile. Thanks to IVHQ, you realize my dream.

With the help of coordinators and other foreign friends, I succeeded in doing a lot of things. I fed the turtles, brushed them, caught the crabs for them, cleaned their tanks, changed the water and took care of them with my body and soul. I felt so happy every time I saw them swim to me and ate the food I prepared for them. I can still remember clearly that I jumped out of joy when I found Cindy (Yep I named every turtle) gained weight after my three-week care. I should admit that it has been a while since my last time do one thing with all my body and soul for such a long time. Some of my friends complained about the monotony of our tasks because they were always the same. But I never thought like that. I love the turtles. I love Nusa Penida. I love the things I am doing and I’m proud of what I am doing. Before I came to Bali, I always hate myself for doing so little and I always want to do more. I want to save all the animals and to make a great contribution to the protection of animals. However, I know that’s beyond my ability. At least, for the 19-year-old me, that’s impossible. Thus, I’m a bit negative because of it. But after I came to Bali, everything changed. Except taking care of the turtles, sometimes we also cleaned the streets and the beaches. All of the tasks were not change-the-world-greatly type. But I knew we were changing it. It was during one of those simple days I realized that, it doesn’t matter whether you can make a great contribution or not, what matters most is that you are doing something for the animals, for the environment, for the world. What matters most is that you are taking actions. I can’t save all of the turtles. But I swear I will save as many as I can. One person’s power is limited. Maybe one person can only pick up 3 plastic bottles from the beach and throw them into the rubbish bin. Nevertheless, what if everyone is doing the same thing? What if everyone does a bit for our world? Never underestimate yourself. Even the tiniest person, can change the course of the world.

In addition, I also made a lot of friends from all over the world. Ben, Lauren, David, Martin, Emma, Giacoma, Jenny, Sam, Grace, Sichen, Janelle, Fawn…There are so many people I can never forget. We helped each other. We learned from each other. And I never felt lonely when I was with them. They made me feel like I was at home and we were a big family.

I will never forget that scary Sunday night.
On August 5th, Lombok was hit by the earthquake. Even if I was in Bali at that time, I could still feel the ground shaking and I could hardly stand on my feet. At that time, I was spending my second weekend in Canggu with my good friend Sichen. We walked a lot during the day time and we were exhausted. But after the earthquake happened, we didn’t dare to go into the hotel to sleep. Everyone was outside the hotel. The little kids were crying and there were people hugging each other. Everything was in such a mess. Canggu is near the ocean, as a result, we were also afraid of the tsunami besides of the earthquake. Finally we decided to go back to Greenlion, Ubud because at least, we had friends there and we had coordinators there. So we took a taxi and went back to Ubud directly.

We arrived at Ubud at 12:30, exhausted and scary, and I didn’t have a bed to sleep because I supposed to stay on Nusa Penida Island at that time. And that’s when Dwita, the coordinator, showed up, at the time we needed someone most. I was really surprised that she was still awake. It was a bit contradictory. On one hand, I felt so happy I found someone. On the other hand, I didn’t know whether I could stay here because I didn’t belong here at that time. I should be on Nusa Penida Island. But I didn’t have other choices. So I told her what happened. And before I could ask her whether I could stay here, she said “Ok I got you. You must be tired now. I will find a bed for you. Stay here, have a good rest and we can figure it out tomorrow. DON’T WORRY. YOU ARE SAFE HERE.” Her words just hit me right through my heart and I almost burst into tears. At that time, for a person as scary as me, nothing was more powerful than “You are safe here.” Thanks Dwita a lot. Thanks every coordinator in Bali. They are so kind, nice, responsible, helpful and considerate. After so many twist and turns, finally, I got a bed and decided to sleep. However, before I entered my room, I felt another earthquake. I stopped. All my faiths of falling asleep collapsed in front of the earthquake. YOU NEED TO GO TO BED. I told myself. Because I was so exhausted and I could feel my body was shaking because of tiredness. But I did’t dare to sleep. What if I fall asleep and never have a chance to wake up? Then my roommates came out. They felt the earthquake, too. And that’s the first time they met me, covered in a pink blanket, with bloodshot eyes, pale face and a shaking body. I knew I looked so bad. “Are you alright? Sweetie?” I felt too weak to answer them. So I shook my head. “Do you want to come in? I think you belong to this room?” I shook my head again. “Why?” I knew that I must say something. But the moment I begin to talk, I couldn’t help crying. It’s hard for me to recall what I said at that night because I was already on the edge of breakdown. But I can remember clearly how my roommates helped me. They hugged me, tried to comfort me, brought my luggage into their room, made the bed for me and told me to go to bed. “Have some rest, Zillah. All of us will be here with you, ok? Don’t worry, all of us will be awake, if something happens, we will wake you up, is that ok?” And I did what they told me. I fell asleep, immediately. And I have a nice sleep. It’s a bit weird to call a place you just arrived at one hour ago home. But I should say, I did feel back home. And my roommates, though we only knew each other for 10 minutes, are my families. This is the first time for me to experience an earthquake and I was in another country, without the company of my parents and friends, so no doubt I was so terrified. However, I felt lucky that during the darkest time, I can still have coordinators and friends to stand by my side and give me support.

I've never protected the turtles with my own hands.
I’ve never felt I was so close to my dream.
I've never seen such blue ocean and such bright stars.
I've never known what life will be like on the other side of the earth.
I've never made friends from so many different countries and I've never talked so much and laughed so hard.
Thanks to IVHQ. It makes everything become different.

And maybe, that's the meaning of traveling and volunteering. Meeting new people, enjoying different views, changing the world into a better place and surpassing yourself again and again.

Never stop pursuing your dream.
Never stop exploring the world.
Never stop doing good things even if it is small.

I want to say something to those who have been a volunteer and who are going to be a volunteer: “Guys don’t stop doing that. Because the world needs more people like you.”

Even the tiniest person, can change the course of the future.