Field Trip

       Sadly, today was our final day teaching at Yayasan Widya Guna. It has been an influential three weeks that I have really enjoyed from start to finish. I have especially loved our morning special ed class which I blogged about before. They are all so enthusiastic, celebrating every right answer with multiple fist pumps and high fives around the class. They are eager to learn despite their difficulties learning and always entertaining. Our oldest student, Putu, is always amazing us with his dance moves and passion as he performs rock and roll songs up front, using the chalk as his microphone. Our afternoon class was also great, though a bit less organized. We had the kids for two hours and were told to teach anything in English. This left lots of room for creativity but was also more difficult without any guidance. The kids had okay English skills and were much more interested in games involving being chased and thrown in the air. To be fair they were arriving after real school and probably a bit burnt out on learning for the day. It's also tough as we have such limited Indonesian. None the less, I loved working with all the kids and learned a lot about teaching...I think.
        Last Friday we took the mentally/physically handicapped class to the zoo and the beach. As you can imagine this was one of my favorite days so far all trip. At the zoo they all got to hold iguanas, parrots, and even pet the deer. There was also an amazing bird show which our older kids participated in. They had eagles and hawks landing and eating food off their outstretched arms. It was so great seeing the amazement on their faces as these birds of prey swept past their faces. The lions, tigers, and even the orangutan were all very cooperative as well, and all came right up as close as they could get to the viewing areas, which made it all even more exciting for everyone. After the zoo and some lunch we all headed to the beach at Sanur. Little did we know, everyone was terrified of water deeper than 1 foot. They loooved playing in the waves though, and I took a few of them out into the deeper water with me. This ended up being a little more dangerous for myself than expected as they koala beared my neck and chest with all their might in terror/excitement. Putu only lasted about 30 seconds before panicking and almost taking us both down. One of the greatest moments for me was getting to take our two cerebral palsy kids, Ayu and Ari, out with me into the water. They could not have been happier in that water. Uncontrollable laughter and screaming accompanied their kicking and splashing. It was a really great trip.