When we travel and feel comfortable in a new area Missy and I occasionally split up and go exploring on our own, otherwise we are pretty much together throughout our many awesome experiences. We are feeling very comfortable in Ubud, so this past Sunday I went exploring Ubud one way and Missy, another. Several hours later we planned to reconnect at Starbucks. As I was close to the destination, and could see Missy a few feet away, three young women stopped me. I say young women but they were really older girls, which we later learned are 14 and 15 years old and in 9th grade. They said that they were in Ubud on an English class assignment. The assignment was to interview tourists. They chose me. They asked if I would speak with them, I said yes and called Missy over. I said that we would love to talk with them but we planned to have a meal right next to where we were standing and we would love to treat them, if ok, and talk over the meal. There was a lot of giggles and talking back and forth before they agreed. With some more giggles and talking they chose their meals (all the same thing) and different drinks. I asked that they ordered for me. Luckily, they chose a dish (Fish) which I would have not picked myself and it was delicious.
We talked for more than an hour, over dinner. We learned that they attend a private English, after school class. The school has 350 students. Their English was really pretty good. They asked us many questions and we asked them many questions. I think a good time was had by all.
It was dusk when we said our goodbyes. The two 15-year olds had their licenses to drive a motorcycle, the third girl hopped on the back of one and off they went back to their village, 45 minutes drive away. Before leaving, they asked if we could come and speak at their class later that week. We said we would be happy to but needed to talk with their teacher. Besides the wonderful conversation Missy and I were most impressed with the table manners of these three girls. Missy also said that this was the first time, since Israel, that she had seen such confident young girls.
Soon we heard back and connected with the teacher, Cristia, and arrangements were made for us to visit the school. Our taxi driver took us to the school. A very humble but very adequate site. Classes start at 4:00pm with the last class ending at 9:00pm. We arrived at about 6:00, met the teacher and the principle/owner, and got a tour of the school. Our presentation to the class (grades 8 and 9) started at 7:00pm. Our three young friends arrived. We learned that their classmates were quite envious that these three were taken out to dinner. A boy was especially envious because he was originally supposed to have been part of their group. We spent nearly two hours answering questions and asking questions. When needed the teacher helped but that was quite infrequent. We worked to ensure that all 20 or so children were able to ask questions. It was a great night. As it was getting late we told them of the practice at the Baha’i World Center where when the evening is coming to an end, someone will ask that a group picture be taken (the idea/strategy behind this is that once everyone is on their feet for the photo, they will not be sitting back down). We asked for a group picture, said our farewells and were given a ride back to Ubud by the school owner and the teacher.
We left excited and happy, wanting to do something for our three young friends. Tuition at the school is $100/year. Could we pay their tuition through high school? Fortuitously we met the Baha’i friends of Ubud, the following night, at their Cluster Reflection Gathering. Here we met a young university student, completing her Masters degree in linguistics. Her name is Abidah. We told her our thoughts and asked for her advice. The next day we got a long and heart-felt text from her. In it she counselled that it may be wiser to either donate the money to an established non-profit or better yet to come back and volunteer our time at the school. These comments triggered remembrance of so many stories we have read saying the same thing. That we have no way to know the motives of the school either way but that there is a good way to support our desire to be of help.
Following is the link to photos related to this story:
“The earth is but one country” 