The delights of Balinese Coffee!

Each of the restaurants that serve this island delight, add different spices ... so the coffee tastes different at each location! Special, secret recipes!



Balinese coffee is an early morning treat everyone should experience at some point in their life!



The first cup .... so smooth, so flavorful, so rich .... so good! Well... actually the top half of the cup is! The bottom half, a different story...



The last half of the first cup and then the second cup? So thick and heavy, almost chewy ... I literally can eat it with a spoon! Still great! Just a different experience!




Caffeine content? I'd rather just enjoy it AND not know!

Discuss current events!

The Denpasar daily newspaper, in Indonesian, proved the ideal backdrop to begin today's lesson with the SOS teens!





Big issue ... other than sports of course.... the disagreement between Malaysia and Indonesia over an island both countries claim.

This little piggy went to market!

Given that I've developed a fun relationship with these teens, I decided today I could spring on them..... "This little piggy went to market!" I felt pretty confident that the four girls would go along with it .... but Sudi? A 20 year old boy living at the SOS teen boy's home? I was not sure!

Immediately, all five of these teens, got into the spirit of the rhyme and quickly learned it!




This little piggy went to market...



This little piggy stayed home.



This little piggy ate corned beef.



This little piggy had none. And ....



This little piggy went .... wee, wee, wee .... all the way home!

Conversaton on buying and eating fruit...

Working with these SOS teens, I'm finding that everything we do together, turns into one of those "teachable" moments.

Today when the lady selling fruit walked by the SOS teen girl's house, and the teens all rushed to the front gate .... I knew it was time to buy everyone some fruit and to talk!



The fresh ripe produce, all nicely cut into individual pieces, wrapped in little plastic bags .... all neatly balanced on the top of the lady's head.



So each of the teens got a chance to buy the fruit or veggies or breakfast drink or boiled peanuts .... whatever the lady was selling .... and of course, to talk to me about what they wanted to eat.



Then came the best part ..... eating the delicious food! Well ... except for the little pancake with the green chili which the girls swore to me was not hot .... well, it was! Very hot!

Imagination - What am I doing?

The Balinese teens I'm working with are such hams! In this "Imagination" activity, I would whisper in one of the student's ear, what kind of activity they were to pantomime. The others were then to guess who and what they were doing!




Listening to music....



A cat pouncing on a mouse!



A baby crawling....



A duck waddling...

Alphabet Ball Bouncing!

My name is "Alice" and I come from "Australia" where I sell "Apples!" And so the Alphabet Ball Bouncing game began!



The idea of the game was as the teen bounced the ball, they had to say out loud the following phrase "My name is ____________, and I come from ______________, where I sell __________________!"



I began the game with the letter "A" from the alphabet. When I bounced the ball to one of the teens, they then had to say the same phrase, now using the letter "B."



Each subsequent player had to say the phrase using the next letter in the alphabet!



The teens loved this game and helped each other out, when they got stuck! The letters "X" and "Y" were really tough ones!



The teens made it ..... from "A" all the way to "Z" with lots of bouncing laughter!

Teens teach Mr. T about Hinduism

My knowledge of Hinduism is next to nil! In Bali Hinduism is the predominant religion, so today I decided a discussion on the spiritual beliefs of the SOS teen students would be an excellent way for them to practice their English .... and for me to learn about Hinduism!



What better place to begin than with Ganesha, the elephant.



According to my students, Ganesha was sent by God to save the world from a giant. In the battle, where the giant was killed, Ganesha picked the planet up and held it in is huge tusks. Thus Ganesha is honored for being the protector of all people.



Maria then demonstrated for me ..... what an elephant looks like and how it walks!



Hanuman.... the monkey who saved the wife of Rama from the giant .... the teens acting out the monkey had me laughing so hard, I just was not quick enough to snap a picture!

Mystical smiling faces ....

The island abounds with magical mystical spirits!

Word Search and Dancing!

Word searches ..... difficult for these students! These word searches were based on quotes from famous people. After completing the word search, the teens would then read the quote to each other.




Maria, Puspa, Yutoo and Rista ...... getting ready to move into the next phase of their lives .... University studies.



Not only did I teach the teens, but they taught me too. Here, they showed me one of the traditional Balinese dances. So graceful.....

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!