A Free Tour… Is this Volunteering?

Today I was asked to take a trip to the Bali hot springs and students who were studying various tourism modules at college would be my tour guides. In exchange I would give them a chance to practice their touring skills, their English and would report back to their teacher on how they did and any thoughts for improvement. Not a bad volunteering assignment.

I expected there would be a couple of students taking me on my tour, but in fact there were seventeen. SEVENTEEN tour guides all for me … wow.

They walked me to the hot springs, asking me about myself, what I thought to Bali and then all about the springs, including the temperature, purpose, beliefs etc. They had definitely done their homework.

I had a swim in the springs… slightly awkward with seventeen teenagers looking on, but they were very polite and eager to answer any questions I had. After the springs we walked to a Hindu temple for a few more facts and then I was filmed as they asked me more questions and I quizzed them on Balinese culture.

After all the chats it was time for the compulsory 5000 photos of me with each of them and in groups… lots of smiles… my jaw is pretty much stuck in smile position right now 🙂

I hope they gained more than just a few photos from our morning together and I will be reporting back that they are an exceptional group of young people, a pleasure to be around and I wish them all well in their future careers.

The rest of my day was spent preparing for class tomorrow … Christmas crafting day and proofreading letters written by local kids to be sent to their penpals in America.

There is often always more you can do then what you originally sign up for when volunteering, so do ask and you never know what adventures you could be going on…