Alphabet Game: My name is Alice.. and I come from..

The House Mothers at SOS Village (as well as the children) had fun with this game! "My name is Alice and I come from Australia where I sell apples." And then it was on to each subsequent letter of the alphabet as the ball got tossed to a new player and they then too had to keeping bouncing the ball as they found the words to fill in the blanks!

Having a "ball" with the House Mothers!

Everyday, the House Mothers would meet with me from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. to learn and practice conversational English. From talking with these Mothers, I came to understand the incredible responsibility of each Mother as they take care of children from infant to teens all the while managing some very large households!



Fun was a big part of our "conversational" English classes. Here Mothers touch their nose with their left hand, as they would toss brightly colored green, red, blue, yellow and gold balls ... based on my calling out a certain color!



The one finger on the nose was too easy..... so I added having them balance on one foot! Talk about concentration as they waited to hear which color I'd call out so they could toss the ball!




On the first day of class, I asked the mothers what they wanted me to teach them.... "Teach us how to talk with a guest who comes to SOS Village" they all said.



Based on the Mother's request, I wrote out a roll play between a Mother and a guest from another country. The Mothers copied the roll play in their book. I taught them the roll play, paying particular attention to their pronunciation of key words. I practiced the roll play with them throughout the week, and then had two Mothers do the roll play in front of the class.



Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker's Man.... Bake me a cake as fast as you can.... Just as I taught this to the children .... I also taught it to the Mothers. First the words to the nursery rhyme, then as a whole class, the hand movements...






Then sitting across from each other.... the real thing! Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake!



At the end of the week, Sonny, a Family Services Counselor commented to me that the House Mothers had enjoyed their week with me, learning English.

As for my teaching style...., personally I think I had the Mothers laughing so much, they did not even realize they were in class .... learning English!

Vibrant color everywhere at SOS Village

Little flowers so rich in colors, adorned the front yards of the children homes in the Village.



A cactus blooms in the tropical, jungle like gardens of the Village.



The bright orange of a bamboo palm tree...



Red flowers reaching up into the blue sky!



Orchids appear to grow naturally everywhere.... and their colors .... so brilliant!



The bamboo palm tree .... with the most fascinating colors

Fun Conversations at SOS Teen House

"Mama YaYa," her 12th grade girls, and Mr. T.... These 12th graders will be moving out of the SOS teen girl's house in Denpasar in July so they can continue their education at the university.



I brought along a few bags with the cut out alphabet which turned into a great manipulative to use with these teens.



With the letters all laid out on the floor, I gave each teen a long word, such as Denpasar or California. They were then to first spell this word using the cut out letters. Then... they were to build as many words off this one word as they could.




To build their words, I gave the teens about ten minutes. Then the real fun began with this exercise.



Such a serious ... at this point these students did not know what I was going to ask them to do!





After they had built as many words onto the root word in that 10 minute period...



I then asked them to tell a story, in English of course! But it was I who gave them a character around which to base their story!





The first go around, for one teen their character was an elephant, another a monkey and yet another a snake!



As the story was being told, one of the teens was asked to face away from the group and only listen to story. Once the story was finished, the teen with their back to the group had to retell it!



The retelling was based totally on auditory recall... and these young ladies did terrific jobs!



YaYa became the "Mother" of this SOS teen girl's house in Denpasar about a month ago. Looking at her face, as well as the faces of the girls ... this is a perfect arrangement!

Living in Bali & Volunteering

I am thoroughly enjoying my stay here in Bali! I have been fortunate to be able to make an excellent volunteer connection both with the SOS "Village" and with the Handicapped Children Home.




There are many ways to get around Bali, including renting a motorbike, but I chose to hire a driver .... Iyou. It costs me between $20 and $40 per day for Iyou to take me to one of the volunteer sites. Sometimes I'd also pay for the gas, so it got to be a little more. SOS Village in Tabanan is the furthest, takes the longest time, and hence costs the most too! Iyou is a very safe driver, which one needs here.... since traffic has an ebb and flow to it that I'm not sure I'm willing to flow with on my own just yet!



Since my arrival in Bali, I've been staying in the south in the town of Legian which is right next to Kuta. The red points to Legian on the map. SOS Village in Tabanan is indicated by the white pointer. Although not that far .... the roads here are narrow .... what we would think of as a single lane road, has two way traffic, with parked vehicles on the sides and motorcycles that continually are zipping in and out of traffic.

Add a funeral procession and the traffic can be a nightmare!








I'm staying in a "surfer" hotel ... so am within easy walking distance of the beach. My little room is on the third floor. Really basic, but it suits me just fine. It has a fan, and since the nights do cool off a bit, that is comfortable for me. I've been staying at different hotels .... all of them very delightful... the staff very helpful.



The room is costing me about $20 per day, so with the cost of the hotel room, food, water (must buy bottled water!) and transportation, I seem to be spending between $40 and $70 per day. Not bad for staying on the "Island of the gods!"