​A Day in the Life of a BLT Volunteer

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07:00 - Breakfast

I am staying in off-site accommodation, so I arrive at the Trust around 07:30 and prepare my breakfast of Indomie noodles with a fried egg and a mug of fresh coffee. The Trust does provide breakfast essentials, but most volunteers buy their own and store it in the shared kitchen.

 

08:20 - First Lesson

I have been assigned to the EFL programme and my first lesson today is at a high school in Bohorok which is 15 minutes away. Arya drives the bike while I sit on the back. The lesson starts at 08:40 and our students are 16-17 years old. After a brief warm up and energizer we provide the lesson that we planned in the Trust office the previous day. The students are well behaved and engaged throughout the lesson and we play a fun game for the last 10 minutes. The lesson finishes at 09:30 and after buying some fresh snacks from the school tuck shop we head back to the Trust.

 

10:00 - Office Time

Back at the Trust, Arya and I will discuss the lesson and offer each other feedback. I then have the rest of the morning to work on my Hub Project. There are lots of things that need doing at the Trust and I have volunteered to update the website. Formatting and optimizing the site for mobile devices occupies me for the rest of the morning.

 

12:00 - Lunch

At noon everyone heads down to the kitchen where Ka Wati, the Trust cook, has lunch laid out on the table. Lunch is different every day but it is always excellent. Today there are four dishes to choose from, pineapple curry, fish in sambal, tempe goreng, some boiled greens and of course, all the rice you could ever want. I like to eat my lunch sat on one of the benches by the front door. The afternoon session doesn’t start until 14:00 so after I have eaten and washed by plate I collect my dry laundry from the roof terrace and walk back to my home stay to relax outside my room with an ice tea and my Kindle.

 

14:00 - Lesson Planning

After lunch I return feeling refreshed and Arya and I begin to plan our lesson for later that afternoon. The lesson is for adults who have a low level of English. The planning and preparation of resources takes around an hour.

 

16:00 - Second Lesson

The adult English lesson is held in the Trust library, so Arya and I take our laptops and whiteboard markers downstairs and check that the library is tidy. We then wait outside for our students to arrive. With adult lessons you never know who is going to turn up and this week we have four regular plus two new students. They are all young women from the local community. We start the lesson with a quick energetic game which the students always enjoy. We then sit down and do the lesson.

 

17:00 - End of Work Day

It was a hot day with no rain, so six of us went into Bukit Lawang on three bikes to cool off in the river. The river was flowing quite fast but this didn’t stop the local kids, Trust staff and younger volunteers diving into the water from a large rock. I am not a strong swimmer so I just sat near the edge and let the fresh flowing water cool me down. 

 

19:00 - Dinner

After drying and changing in my room I met with a few volunteers and staff to go for dinner. Juma Juma is a lovely restaurant situated in the rice fields and is a short walk from the Trust. My meal and fresh juice cost around 50k IDR (£2.50). We chatted, played cards and enjoyed our food while admiring the evening light over the rice fields and jungle mountains.

 

21:00 - Relax

After dinner I returned to my room to relax with some music and to send some messages to my friends and family at home. I then went to bed looking forward to my next day as a volunteer at the Trust.