I got the early morning ferry from Gili T and waited for my driver to pick me up. Yes, my driver!! I had to get a driver as I was heading to a tiny village in the middle of Lombok as I was doing my first workaway, volunteering at a foundation for teenagers whose family can’t afford to send them to university.

The foundation is called BC Brightcourse Foundation. It was set up by “Mr Tony” because his family were not able to send him to university. The main focus is teaching English but they also have daily hospitality lessons as well. Mr Tony then uses his contacts in the hospitality business to help the students find jobs when they graduate from the foundation.

When I arrived at the foundation (which is in Mr Tony’s house) I was greeted by at least 10 of the students who came over to introduce themselves and help me with my bags. I was then offered some tea and we sat down to have a chat. Mr Tony arrived back from taking the previous volunteer to Kuta and showed me the timetable and asked if I wanted to take a nap before the afternoon lesson…well I can’t resist a nap! Two of the students grabbed my bags and led me the 5 minutes walk away to the local villagers house that I would be staying at. The volunteers used to stay in the school but after the bad earthquake in 2018 the room is no longer safe to inhabit.

I met Miss Husnul and I was shown to my room with (ManU bedding) dropped my stuff off and she showed me the rest of the rooms. The bathroom had a squatter toilet (something I’d become accustom to by this point) but the shocking thing was there was no toilet paper and no bin….I would later be told that you always have to pass things to people with your right hand – this was the reason why! You had to take care of yourself after bodily functions with your left hand!!

Then I went back to my room to do what I was recommended and have a nap!! The bed was quite uncomfortable but I found if I lay on my left side, diagonally across the bed it was ok to sleep on! One thing I noticed during my time there were the after effects of the earthquake on the room as there were cracks all around the edge of the ceiling.

After my nap, I went back to school for the 4 o’clock lesson. The big thing that I hadn’t realised was that I was teaching the lesson…not helping out, actually standing in front of this group of children and young adults to impart my wisdom upon them! As this was quite such a surprise, I had no lesson planned! I went with my gut (which was doing somersaults) and decided to do a lesson on feelings, explaining that I felt nervous so we can all talk about what we feel!

There was a long break between finishing this class and the next one at 8pm which is when the students would perform some if their chores, pray and sit and talk to me! I also had dinner during this time each night. The food was delicious, always came with rice(!) and was to be eaten with my right hand!

Each day consisted of three lessons:

• 9.00-12.00 (with a 30 minute break)
• 16.00-17.30
• 20.00-22.00

The morning was normally for hospitality related things. Then the afternoon and evening lessons were pure English lessons. Some of the afternoon lessons included children from the village who also wanted to learn English. This was great but posed a problem because it meant the abilities were wide reaching and some of the younger girls didn’t want to join in with some of the more interactive parts of my lessons!

Over the week I prepared a variety of English lessons. I used my Spanish lessons for inspiration and chose a subject and grammatical for each lesson eg household items and adjectives or daily routine and simple past tense. We also had a couple of less structured lessons like when the electricity went out we all sat in a circle around a candle and introduced ourselves and spoke about our dreams for the future. Another night (when I was super tired!) they had a debate about whether homework is a good thing or not!

Mr Tony had to go to Jakarta for a meeting with the Indonesian government as he had put in a request for funding and the application had been pre-approved. It was his first time on a plane and he was super nervous but also so excited. He showed me his presentation which explained the story so far, where he sees it going in the near future and his end goal for the program.

With Mr Tony not being there I often had to rely on the students to tell me if they were meant to be doing something in particular. One morning, a student said we had to stop the lesson and go somewhere else…I had a vague recollection of Mr Tony saying that we had to go somewhere else at some point so I jumped on the back of one of the boys bikes and off we went!

It turns out we were going to another school that is ran by one of the former BC students and his wife (they met at BC and now they have a BC baby who can already say some words in English!) It’s in a village maybe 10 minutes away. Some people from either the government or the media were coming because they wanted to take a picture!!

At the weekend, the students get some downtime so that they can visit their families. One of the students, Harist, had invited me to a celebration at his village and then wanted to take me to the nearby waterfalls for him and a couple of other students to practice being a guide.

Now one thing I haven’t mentioned until now is how much they tried to feed me! I kept having to apologise because I just can’t eat a whole pasta-bowl sized bowl of rice plus all the extra tasty accoutrements! Well this Saturday morning was the worst for it…when we arrived at Harist’s village we went straight to his grandparents house. We sat down on the porch and they brought us tea, coffee and a tray of four different types of snacks. To be polite, I tried one of each.

Next, we went to his mums house. Before we sat down, Harist asked if I had a small note of rupiah and I did so he said to follow him. I followed him into a dark room where a small boy (his cousin) was lay on the floor sleeping…with no trousers on – it was at this point I realised that I was at a circumcision celebration!! I had to put the money into his hand without waking him up (as if he wakes up he’ll cry, I was told!) then we retired to the porch and out came another tray of the four different snacks. I managed a small piece of the cake, whispering to Harist and the other students that I was already full!

Well, if only I’d have known!

Five minutes later lunch was brought out! Three different bowls of food, one chicken, one Jack fruit and one beef (all traditionally served on special occasions) with of course rice! I whispered to Harist that I didn’t think I could eat it but he said I had to as if not it would be rude…so there I was at 10.15 in the morning trying to shovel down this celebratory lunch. I’d been awake for only a little over two hours and in that time had eaten noodles and fried egg for breakfast, all of those bloody snacks and now this! Well I managed half a bowl and nobody noticed that I didn’t eat much so I think I got away with it!

Then we continued onto the waterfalls. We walked up and down for a long time through a forest until we got to the most beautiful waterfalls. We stayed there all afternoon hanging around in and out of the water

On the way back, I took a video on the back of the bike which just shows how beautiful the area is. Also, it made me realise how different these teenage boys seemed to those back home- if someone told me to get on the back of an English, 17 year old boys motorbike I would literally laugh in their face but here it felt safe and normal!!

The day after, another of my students wanted me to go to his village as his brother was getting married! I was have only white person to have been to the village and I have never felt more like a famous person! People were queuing up for selfies and if I was talking to a group I’d turn around and a group of children would have gathered behind me! To celebrate the wedding they had hired a band and dancers. They came with a literal wall of speakers and the volume was turned up so loud that you could feel the bass! The girls do a dance and then men go up with money and try and dance with them while the women try to grab the money – it wasn’t really what I was expecting within such a strict Muslim country! Then the bride and groom wanted to have a picture with me before they left for a procession with the band and the dancers through the local villages

After we left the wedding, Mr Tony took me to where they’re building a replacement school where one day he also hopes to have some cabins for tourists so that the students can practice their hospitality skills on site! They also have a lot of fruit and vegetables growing in the area and one of the students, Dan, shimmied up a palm tree to pick some fresh coconuts!

My last day started off with sad news, one of the teachers from the other foundation had lost her father that night. All of the students, Mr Tony’s family and myself went to pay our respects and take some gifts (which is the custom there) The girls in the class took the opportunity of me wearing a headscarf for a quick selfie when noone was looking!

Afterwards, as it was my last day, some of the students took me to a lake in the middle of nowhere. The journey there can only be described as off reading – there was one point where we were going along a dirt track where we hit a bump and I actually bounced off the seat for a second! It was completely worth it! We arrived at the lake and there was only us and a group of three locals (all jumping into the lake from a random tree – something that I was not brave enough to do!) It was absolutely stunning and we stayed there for a few hours before we had to go back for the boys to pray before lessons.

Then I was off to Kuta in the south of Lombok. A driver from the village was taking me and one of the students,  Anto, came with me to practice being a tour guide as we stopped at a traditional village on the way. They dressed me in a traditional costume and I had a go at weaving on one of the traditional looms!

When I arrived at my hostel in Kuta, I said goodbye to Anto and the driver and made full use of the modern facilities (toilet paper and a shower!!!)

The next day I rented my very first scooter and went down to the beach. It turns out driving a scooter isn’t too difficult however what was difficult was following directions.. so I got to see a lot more of Kuta than I’d planned!

What followed was a couple of drama free days…except when it was time to leave. I got an uber to the airport and went through to check in my bag…only to find out that I was a day early!! Better to be a day early than a day late I suppose! Luckily my hostel had space so I headed back and spent one more day in Indonesia before trying again (more successfully) the next day!