I had a great experience during the AIESEC Global Volunteering program. It was in Indonesia, Yogyakarta. The specifity of the program was in educating seventh, eighth grader in local school. It was different even challenging than my expectation because of the grammatical structure of the local language. Indonesian language has no grammatical difference between present, past and future tences. That is why, the idea was not only to teach the grammar, but also to change the way of thinking when they speak English language. The school itself was really nice with kind and helpful staff and friendly children in it. I was able to use projector when I need and the teachers were providing me his/her computer. The support from the teachers was very considerable, they were assisting me in better teaching methods, were trying to explain how to take attention of the class, because there were bout 42-44 students in each class.
The interesting thing was that the school I was teaching in was a catholic one. It was unusually to observe how religion and education are taking part in their life in the same place. I did not usually spend a lot of time at school, around four hours daily, but the emotional charge and mood I got from the children let me enjoy the rest of the day.
My host family was nice, but it is fair to say that they have poor living conditions. I had only mattress and two chairs in my room, but that is not a problem. The challenging thing is that everything was dirty. I was avoiding to return school, because the whole atmosphere was embarrassing me. After I finished my classes, I supposed to go to the local plaza to eat something and just walk around to spend some time. It was also hard for me to adjust for the food. It was not tasty for me at all, but going to the restaurants every day was quite expensive. That is why my daily ration was consisted from burger in Mcdonalds or pizza from Pizzahut. Not surprisingly that I gained weight and my skin condition was terrible. What I liked most form the food was local fruits. The ones I had never tried before were absolutely tasty and so exotic for me. There are a lot of fruit street shop where one can buy any kind of fruits for a good price.
Transportation in Yogyakarta is just satisfactory. I mean it is not a problem to get from the point A to the point B. My host family suggested me to download the app called GO-JEK, where I can order bikes as alternative to the taxi and get tot the place. It was really convenient and cheap. But I was in the city with unbelievable nature: a lot of breathtaking beaches and majestic temples. But all the beauty of Yogyakarta was outside the city. Go-Jek was not able to provide a bike to get there, because they operated only within the city. If somebody wants to see the “real” nature of Yogyakarta, he has to order taxi which is quite expensive. It was also not convenient because you have to order taxi for twelve hours. The driver is waiting for you and driving the whole day. That is why me and other volunteers were usually order taxis on weekends to share the price between each other and spend a good time. However it was not possible to do that during the week after school, because of time and limited money. There are not many attractions and sightseeing in the city itself, that is why many of the free hours after school was spend for trying to entertain yourself by yourself.
It is appropriate to suggest that all the meaning of the program is in living in different conditions, to stress and challenge yourself. To see how people in other countries are living, what motivate and drive them. To see the difference in the teaching methods, to try to explain the context to the children from the different cultural background and try to conquer their trust and respect. I have seen a lot of new people, were trying to communicate with them even with the language barriers and what I can say that Indonesia is all about people. They know how to enjoy life in spite of external conditions and appreciate the importance of relationship between people.
