Update Part 1: VIA Conference and Travel in Bali

I think I must have underestimated my job at the Tifa Foundation because I was definitely not expecting to be as overwhelmed as I was my first week back at work.  Taking three weeks off work is never really a good idea, and as it turns out, even in Indonesia a lot can happen during that time.  I came back to a never-ending pile of translations to do, a mid-year evaluation with my Executive Director, hundreds of emails, website design work, planning needed for my next writing project and requests for me to create a work plan and new English teaching plan.  Consequently, writing about the past three weeks and what an amazing time it was, has been daunting and not prioritized until today.  But here it is, part one of my trip to Bali and Flores.  More pictures have been uploaded to Flickr for your perusal.

The primary purpose of my trip to Bali was to attend VIA’s annual conference, held in the culture-rich town of Ubud just like last year.  With a much smaller cohort of volunteers this year the actual conference was shortened and left us with a week and a half of discretionary travel.  This mid-year conference is always highly anticipated by the vols as a chance to escape the villages, speak English and eat Western food (or Cuban and sushi as it turned out) that can only be obtained in the only part of Indonesia that most tourists visit, Bali.

I began the trip by meeting up with a fellow volunteer, Derek, and we spent the long weekend before conference on Nusa Lembongan, an island off the southeast coast of Bali.  We got a room facing the ocean and then rented a motorbike to explore the island and its hidden beaches.  Our first stop was Dream Beach, which incidentally had the strongest pounding waves I have ever tried to play in.  After get tumbled around a few times and finding my hair saturated with sand, I resigned myself to the beach and the hotel’s infinity pool to test out my new waterproof camera.  Later we checked out another beach and drove around the small island to see the mangroves and the views.  The next day we went on a snorkeling trip but didn’t see anything too remarkable.  I want to come back again during late summer when the diving draws people from around the world to see the mola-mola fish.  On Monday we took a boat back to Bali and met up with the other volunteers and VIA’s Country Representative Sugi in Ubud for conference.

The five days in Ubud were spent discussing VIA’s Indonesian Program and brainstorming ways to improve the volunteer recruitment, orientation, and training processes.  We also reviewed current posts and looked at post proposals to determine the schools and NGOs we should send volunteers to next year.  Staying in Ubud was made even more relaxing as we did most of our work on our hotel’s expansive balcony that overlooked rice paddies and protected us from the drizzling rain.

We concluded conference on Friday with a group outing to a hidden white sand beach on Bali’s eastern coast.  When everyone parted ways, I got dropped off in the small port town of Padang Bai for a few days of reading, relaxing and snorkeling at its beautiful beaches while awaiting Abby’s arrival.

Update Part 2: Abby's Visit and Travels in Flores to come.