18-09-2017

At 9 am, I got an Indonesian lesson to learn some essentiel words like greetings.
After that, Andre -one of the organization members- and I prepared the first lesson for teaching English in an elementary school. As of today, I am going to teach English in a school nearby and since I currently am the only English teacher there, I will teach all classes from grade 3 to 6.
School is so different from what I was used to back home. At the beginning of a lesson, all the students stand up and we do a traditional balinese greeting: we fold our hands and say "om swasti astu". Then, the students greet me and ask me how I am today in a choir and I respond and ask them the same. It is so much fun to teach them and some of the students are very keen to learn and to raise their hands. After break time, the students have to pray - this is my favorite part. One child comes to the front and all the other children stand up as-well. In a choir, they sing a prayer that sounds so spiritual and is so touching that I get goose bumples. When the lesson is over, every student stands up again and by singing in a choir, they thank me for teaching them today and say goodbye. Then, one by one, they take my right hand and touch it with their forehead - a balinese formality.

Since the house owner's son is about to get married, it gets really busy here. Today, there was the pre-wedding and we went to Klungkung in the afternoon to the bride. After some rituals and -apparently- a meeting of the old family members, the pre-wedding was celebrated with food, food and food. The bride is wearing a traditional balinese outfit for this special day and I found her so beautiful! In the evening, we headed back to Ubud and the celebrations continued. I was fascinated by the ceremonies I was able to admire. Even though I didn't really understand what they were doing (like turning aroung and waving something to you body or splashing a luiquid onto their heads), I am so happy to get to see this!