Beautiful, Beautiful Nusa Penida

A sneak-peak into my school visits on Nusa Penida. Sent by Stella's Child to meet

with teachers and students there, I was faced with educational disadvantage far

different to anything I've been exposed to in the past...

Having travelled to Europe to do some outreach work, Tim has left me behind in Bali to hold the fort and work on a few projects for Stella’s Child. One of the things he asked me to do was visit the island of Nusa Penida with some Rotarians from Seminyak Rotary club who were visiting some of the children to whom they’ve given a scholarship. Tim is keen to set up another educational programme on Nusa Penida similar to the Entrepreneurship Programme already in place at Widhya Asih Orphanage. If successful, his hope is to involve an element of distance learning through the use of apps on smartphones and tablets that he hopes to be able to provide. However, some of the Rotarians believe that there may be a little kick-back from teachers who perhaps aren’t best pleased with the thought of outsiders interfering with their teaching. When I heard this, I could completely understand and empathise with such frustrations. Thus, I was sent to the island with the objective of speaking to teachers, learning more about the schools there and coming up with some ideas for how the programme might begin.

Just over a year ago a few companies started a fast-boat service between Nusa Penida and its far richer neighbour, Bali: the journey time between the two has been reduced significantly to only 30 minutes. Despite such a short journey, the differences between the islands are striking. Tourism has yet to arrive on Nusa Penida. Lagging significantly behind neighbouring Nusa Lembongan (just a few minutes away by boat) in this industry, Nusa Penida has only two hotels and a handful of guesthouses. A measly number of tourists mainly show up for brief, one-day scuba diving trips. It is famous for delicious seaweed, this apparently being the island’s biggest export.

With all of this in mind, it is unsurprising that the island feels somewhat removed from the hustle and bustle of a tropical touristic island like Bali. Instead, you are greeted by friendly yet comparatively suspicious locals who have not had much to do with ‘bulé’ (oft-used Indonesian word meaning foreigners). We had a driver and also a guide, Angee, for the day. Angee, originally from Jakarta and a graduate of Aukland University, works for the Friends of the National Park Foundation (FNPF). He taught us a lot about Nusa Penida and its history. A few fun facts from him: Nusa Penida is ‘the Australia of Indonesia’ (!!!) in that criminals and general trouble makers were exiled to this island hundreds of years ago. Mainly the descendants of noblemen who had lost whatever battle they had started, the inhabitants of Nusa Penida now live an isolated life far from the rich heritage their ancestry would have normally entitled them to. Nusa Penida is also a bird sanctuary, home now to the Bali Starling. In 2005, only 10 of these birds remained but now, thanks to the FNPF, there are close to 100.

Waking up early on Nusa Penida and watching the locals at work is a

reminder that life could be very different

We were to visit four schools, the Rotarians having a list of students with whom they wanted to meet, take a photograph (to display on a Rotary Club Christmas tree), and establish more about their future plans. They are keen to provide a number of university scholarships but only to those who intend to return to the island following their studies, bringing their new knowledge and skills home with them. Fishery and live-stock farming are the university courses the Rotarians would prefer to sponsor, these being big industries on the island even though knowledge and skills in these areas are extremely outdated. The students however are very drawn to careers and further studies in tourism for obvious reasons. Since tourism has yet to arrive here, they would be unlikely to ever return from Bali if they secured a university place to study tourism or hospitality.

Speaking with the students was a very interesting experience. While they were very aware that they were receiving a scholarship to enable them to attend school, they had never heard of the Rotary Club and were, frankly, extremely nervous and anxious to have been removed from class to talk to these bulé. Their English was limited, they were incredibly shy and we couldn’t get much out of them, even when a teacher translated the questions. It was an odd experience in general and I found it very impersonal. I was more of an observer than a participator in the conversations - my job merely being to take each child’s photo and attempt to make them smile - and this was extremely different to any interactions I have had with children of this age in the past, where I’ve almost always been able to bring them out of their shell in some way.

Rice, fried egg and green-bean lunch at one of the school canteens

Nusa Penida is impoverished, there’s no doubting it. This will no doubt sound odd, out of context and perhaps rather inappropriate, but I had made preparations for my 24 hours on Nusa Penida island in much the same way as my friend Sara and I had made preparations for our visit to Europe’s most famous Nazi concentration camp, Aushwitz, in January. Not wanting to have anything at all to complain about when we arrived (you can hardly do a tour of Aushwitz and start complaining about the cold or your rumbling stomach, no matter the time of year and no matter the last meal you ate), Sara and I had dressed for the ski-field (much to the amusement of our colleagues - our ski-pants swishing as we walked) and raided the breakfast buffet at the hotel, packing bagfuls of extra croissants and sandwiches in attempts to avoid ‘hunger’ and therefore any complaints that could possibly escape our mouths. Similarly, on this trip to Nusa Penida, I didn’t know when I might next eat so had brought a bag of bananas and nuts to keep me going for the day. Eventually, I managed to grab a quick school lunch at one of the school canteens: rice, three green beans, some chili and about a quarter of a fried egg wrapped in brown paper.

Dusty, bumpy roads on Nusa Penida

The roads we travelled on were bumpy to say the least and, with it being the end of the dry season, extremely dusty. I was torn between wanting to guzzle water to quench my thirst and ease my dry, dusty throat, and not wanting to drink any more for fear of needing the toilet without having access to one. One of the schools we visited had no toilet: “We have toilet but no water so… clos-ed now. Until water,” said one teacher. Unable to hold it any longer and not wanting to head off for a nature-wee (we were too much of a novelty here, children’s eyes following us everywhere we went), I finally caved at the last school and headed to the toilet which was open for use, empty buckets at the side an indicator that there would be no water to flush it today.

School fees are often too much of a burden for many families and, with sometimes six or seven children to pay for, it’s no surprise that parents can’t afford it. The schools we visited varied from 1-200,000 Rupiah per month (£5-10/ 50-100kr), with books and uniforms being added on top of that. At the last school, teachers and Rotary scholarship students had stayed late to wait for us. The teachers had kept one more student behind that they wanted us to meet. Siska, one of seven children, is four months behind in her school-fee payments (400,000Rupiah or £20/200Dkr), hasn’t bought the books for the next six months (200,000Rupiah or £10/100Dkr) and needs a new set of uniforms (1 million Rupiah, £50/500Dkr). Ranked second in her class, the teachers are keen for her to be granted a scholarship so she can stay in school. Her mother is dead and her father is in Bali, working as a builder. Siska now lives alone with her brothers and sisters. Stories like this are heart-breaking and, knowing that such a small amount of money for us could make such a huge difference to this child’s life made us all want to reach for our wallets immediately and sort this situation out. Angee advised that we go through the proper channels rather than making direct payments to the teachers. Later, we visited the bird sanctuary headquarters and spoke to the head of the FNPF: the Rotarians were sure to provide a full scholarship for Siska until the end of this school year at least.

Walking round the schools, it was obvious that the education is lacking in so many ways. Teachers complained about a lack of books and lack of teaching materials. It was torture for me to be standing in the school grounds and in classrooms with children waiting for lessons to begin and not be able to jump in and teach! Having taught humanities in a school where textbooks have become almost redundant in this subject for years now and being used to teaching without them, I was ready to jump in and start some English language games… textbooks or no! I was very close to doing so on a number of occasions as anyone who knows me can no doubt imagine, but a lack of knowledge about cultural appropriate-ness stopped me each time.

One of the most interesting things to watch during my school visits was an example of some of the hospitality training the students are given. The first school was a vocational school - similar to a technical college in the UK, I assume - and offers subjects such as mechanics, digital media and hospitality training. It was very impressive in many ways. During a tour, the headmaster proudly took us round to see the mechanics classroom, filled with old (VERY very old) car engines, the computer lab (the students all staring at blank screens waiting for Google to load, a scene reminiscent of an HBO episode of Vice documenting life in North Korea) and finally, the ‘hotel’ that had been set up for the hospitality students to practice in. I was amazed by this - what a great idea! There was a reception area for greeting customers, a bedroom so they could practice making the hotel bed (an A4 print-out that read ‘air conditioner’ on the wall to make it all the more realistic) and also a bathroom. When we arrived, around seven students were taking part in some sort of cleaning examination in the bathroom, a young teacher making notes on their polishing skills. I was so intrigued and spent a long time reflecting on all of this as a learning experience. Afterwards, they stood in neat rows, military style, to hear the verdict from the teachers while the next set of students waited nervously outside for their own test. Another teacher who greeted us there told us that he was trying to acquire funding for a mini-bar to put in the hotel room and also a safe to put in the wardrobe to give the students a more life-like experience. Well... While I can see the benefits of this sort of realism, I can’t help but think of a hundred and one different and more relevant ways to teach the hospitality students about tourism and customer relations. Hence my proposal...

I was so moved by my experiences on Nusa Penida, my desire to teach and make some (any!) kind of difference there that, within a few days of leaving, I had formulated a plan. It would be so easy, I thought, to give a donation, to sponsor a child for a year of school. However, there are foundations and organisations such as the Rotary Club already doing this and what I don’t have right now (considering the context: my year-long career-break deeming me very much unemployed at this moment in time) is too much money to give out. What I DO have are skills. Skills to teach. Skills to make a difference in these children’s lives. I thus jumped into action and spent hours writing a proposal in which I laid out my plan and objectives. I thought that, if I could extend my trip by 3-4 weeks (I’d need to foot the pretty hefty bill to pay for a couple of flight changes), if I could then find funding for my living expenses while on Nusa Penida and some big poster paper and markers needed for my activites, I’d be able to spend three -four weeks doing some intensive teaching there.

My idea is to work six-day weeks to deliver four workshops to as many children as possible at each of the schools. The workshops (which I’ve of course already planned!) will be a pre-cursor to anything that Tim would bring in with Stella’s Child afterwards. I’ll be able to establish a positive relationship with the teachers and students and set the tone and pace for the learning to take place in the later Entrepreneurship Programme, as well as identify which schools and which students will be the most appropriate choices for his programme. I was on a complete mission with this proposal and ready to send it out to all of the contacts I’ve made since being here to seek out funding until… Tim pointed out that there are likely to be visa issues and it might not be the most sensible idea to do any kind of ‘illegal' visa work in governmental institutions in Indonesia :( Having recently finished the terrifying book Hotel K that describes life in Bali's famous Kerobokan jail, I'm not one to argue. Tim remains positive however that he can learn more about this and find a workaround. Perhaps I can return early next year to put my plan into place - by then, Tim may be able to find funding for my stay and will also be ready to launch his own programme immediately afterwards. This would also mean that the two go hand in hand without a break; my workshops really could supplement his programme.

Fingers crossed then that this works out… One can dream. Seriously, I was ready to change flights and book my boat back to Nusa Penida - once I get a plan in my head I’m all go, go, GO!

What this experience has taught me more than anything is that I miss teaching so much. I've only been out of the classroom for three months and it's almost as though I'm missing a limb. Teaching (and learning from) children brings me so much joy and... it was no wonder I was so powerfully drawn to wanting to stay here for longer and work with the wonderful children I met in Nusa Penida.