PROGRAM PHOTO ALBUM
Thanks for the checking out the blog for this Global Leadership Adventures program!
Here are a few things to know and expect:
- Blog posts are written by onsite program staff and/or students and sent to our Headquarters team who will post the blog on this page.
- We typically receive 2-3 blog updates per week from each program, so please don’t be alarmed if you don’t see a blog post every day – that’s totally normal.
- Blog updates received late in the evening or overnight will be posted the following day.
- Blog updates received on weekends may not be posted until Monday.
- Due to many factors such as internet accessibility, program staff aren’t always able to send photos, so some blog posts may contain text only.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we hope you enjoy following along on these unforgettable adventures.
For frequently asked questions about the blogs, please visit our Program Blog FAQ page.
-The Global Leadership Adventures HQ Team
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BLOG POST FOR JULY 26
Om swastiastu from Bali! We are so excited to start our second session of Bali Health Expedition!
Today, our students made their way to Denpasar airport to jump into their adventures and learning opportunities that are coming along! We hope that you will enjoy using this blog as a way to experience this journey with us!
Our group has safely arrived and is getting comfortable in our homestay in Ubud. Most of the students shared that long hours of traveling were tiring, but they are all super enthusiastic and looking forward to the adventure and service days to come!
We had a smooth pick up day, everyone arrived without any issues and we are so grateful for that! We had a dinner together in our homestay with most students. Students got to meet the team: Mag, Kristin, Richie-our international director and mentors and Beni, Dilla and Billy-our local director and mentors. We will be with the group during this whole trip, facilitating the experience, supporting the learning and making sure we all have a lot of FUN! We also met the homestay family we are staying with: Nyoman, Tik, Gina and Kadek. They are all very welcoming and the students were thrilled to meet them and have opportunity to learn their first words in Indonesian.
We are all looking forward to service learning , making lifelong memories, and friendships that await for us.
Tomorrow onwards the Leaders of the day will be writing the blog entries to keep the parents and loved ones updated about our adventures.
Hope you will enjoy our blog!
Mag & Beni (International and Local director)
Dilla, Kristen, Billy, Richie (mentors)
BLOG POST FOR JULY 27
Om Swastiastu,
Today we woke up to a true Balinese breakfast before an introduction to Balinese culture, norms, and laws. We learned that smiling is a large part of your day, and how to interact with wildlife and the local people. Following our program orientation, we had a fashion show put on by staff about dress code, and an immersive Indonesian language class with hints of the Balinese language sprinkled in. We then completed a “Know Your Neighborhood” activity where we applied the information received during the language class and orientation to talk to locals about Balinese culture.
We learned that each home has a temple facing north-east toward Agung mountain because the Balinese believe it is sacred. Later in the day, we partook in the Sisya Upanayana ceremony in our host family’s temple. For the sake of blessing students, we were each showered with holy water. We finally ended the day with a group dinner and activities, including a performance from a professional Legong dancer. The first two days have gotten us extremely excited for the rest of the trip.
Om-shanti-shanti-shanti-om
-Jack
BLOG POST FOR JULY 28
Salamat sore!
We started the day with a relaxing herbal walk. A little shower of rain didn’t stop us from learning all about plants. Tumeric, coconut, rice, and ylang ylang. We topped the herbal walk off with a delicious breakfast of Nasi Kuning (Tumeric Rice) and traditional Balinese food. Then we walked to a local herbal shop tasted tea and bought holistic, locally grown goods.
We drove to Tirta Empul Temple, a local water temple, wearing our sarong and sash that was gifted to us by Bali Institute. We then went to Kintamani region to a restaurant overlooking the Mt. Batur volcano. The buffet was delicious and we filled up before our coffee tasting. We visited a Coffee Plantation and tasted a variety of teas and coffees. We learned about a variety of plants that make coffee and also a cat that poops coffee beans and makes a very expensive coffee. We shopped some more at the gift shop and bought teas and oils. We came back to our home base for rest time, then prepared our sash and sarang again for dinner with the princess.
We arrived at the palace and were greeted with coconut cake and a welcome drink. The tour guide began to show us the palace and then the princess decided to take over and show us her home. Which might have been her first time doing that. Then we had a dinner meant for special guests at the palace. We asked her various questions about her life. She is 16, the lead guitarist of her band, captain of the debate club, and totally gen z. We drove back to home base, sang Taylor Swift on the way, and then had our daily temple circle. Goodnight!
Fianna and Sofia
BLOG POST FOR JULY 29
Halo! Om Swastiastu!
Today we started off the day with 8am breakfast followed by multiple leadership activities and games. After leadership activities, we got dressed in our sarongs and sashes and headed to the Banjar for a workshop. In the workshop we learned how to make a traditional Balinese offering, learned wood carving, a traditional dance, and played Balinese instruments. Then we came home to a delicious lunch of white and red sauce pasta!! Following lunch, we headed to the Bali Institute office and had a presentation about public health, specifically global warming, tourism effects, and the healthcare system in Bali. After the presentation, we met the medical students that we will be working with during these next few days of service. We practiced taking blood pressure and height. Then we came home for dinner and then the leaders of the day (us!) taught yoga for our evening activity.
Selamat tidur!
Charlotte and Anna Lee
BLOG POST FOR JULY 30
Halo!
Today was a very busy day, but it was an amazing experience. We started with breakfast, as always it was delicous. After breakfast we did leadership activities, involving doing skits about different types of leadership, and we did a trust activity using blindfolds. Afterwards, we were served a great meal of chicken katsu. Then we started our first day of service, which was an eduational experience. We worked with local nursing and medical students to take blood pressure, blood sugar, height, and weight of patients in their homes. After visiting and checking the health of many families, we came back to homebase for a great dinner. For the last ativity of the day, we headed off to an incredible fire show of dance and chanting. They ate fire! We came back to homebase, feeling very tired. It was a good day.
Salamat Tidur!
Myels
BLOG POST FOR JULY 31
Om Swastiastu!
Today is our sixth day in Bali and we are still full of energy and excitement! We started our day with a breakfast of sweetbread, vegetable omelet, and tofu. We started preparing to teach kids about hygiene, nutrition, and exercise by brainstorming activities. After, we headed to Bumi Sehat- a natural birth clinic. There we learned about all the work and service Bumi Sehat has done for communities in Indonesia and the Phillipines. Ibu Robin, founder of Bumi Sehat, shared with us her beliefs on the importance of a peaceful birth and the importance of taking care of the placenta. We watched a video of a soothing natural birth and of a water birth. We toured their clinic- which was a picturesque view of waterfalls and plants to aid the birthing process. We then headed back to the homestead to have food from a local restaurant. Which consisted of sweet and sour chicken and a few other dishes. We then headed out for our second day of service- where we visited many family compounds. Compounds can consist of an entire family living together grandparents, uncles, aunts, grandchildren, etc. We would also give them vitamins and look in their water to see if any mosquito larve had infested it. Communicating in bahasa to the patients has been difficult for many of the students, but they felt they had a better grasp of it today. We had dinner at the homebase which was fried rice, yellow watermelon, tofu, fried potato, and spicy chicken. We then wrapped up the day by playing several rounds of mafia. The students are having a great time here, but the thing they are missing most is ice- so have a cold drink ready for them! We are excited to start our day tomorrow by visiting a healer!
– Leah and Stella
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 1
Salamat Sore!
Hello family and friends! Today we met a very wise and fascinating woman, a natural Balinese healer. Six of us were randomly chosen to get our futures and energy read for a problem that we might experience in our future. After meeting the healer, we headed back to home base for lunch and free time where some of us took a nap and some played card games. Then, we headed out for our last day of service. This was a great day for everyone as we all felt more confident speaking to the locals and taking blood pressure! We said goodbye to the Med Students and headed back to homebase to get ready for our dinner outing at a super nice restaurant with a pool. We ended off the night with a fun swim and walk back to home base!
Until next time!
Ava and Grace
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 2
Apa Kabar!
After reflecting on our time here and thanking our homestay family in Ubud; we spent the morning packing up for the second half of our journey in Ahmed. During the drive we stopped at Indomart where we loaded up on Indonesian candy and snacks with a new craze for Mogu Mogu(a sweet drink with nata de coco). Once we arrived, while waiting to check in, we enjoyed some great lunch at a local Thai restaurant paired with delicious drinks! We soon settled in with our new roommates and BEAUTIFUL scenery.
After that, we spent the rest of our afternoon preparing for the workshop we will be teaching tomorrow; playing Marco Polo in the pool; going over ocean protocols before diving in; and getting fitted for snorkeling gear. We also enjoyed our free time playing volleyball, chess, and soccer with our lovely mentors. As we ended the day with some good burgers, we then spent time reflecting and meditating with the comfort of the waves and stars. We now head to bed with promise of a busy but exciting day tomorrow.
Lots of love,
Amelie and Allison
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 3
Heyyy,
It’s Pessia and Riverlin here to report about the day!
We woke up at the crack of dawn to ride the waves at sunrise. We anchored at a coral reef 20 minutes away from our home beach and snorkled. We saw an underwater temple, swam with various schools of fish, got tickeled by jellyfish and floated with bioluminescent plankton. We then returned for a delicious breakfast at the resort and got ready to head over to the local school. At the school we divided into groups and gave workshops to the students about health. Everyone had a good time! There were many laughs, good engagement and the students were troopers about our shaky bahasa. We ended our visit at the school with a certificate ceremony and a group dance to Baby Shark (doo doo doo doo doo doo!!). We had lunch back at the resort. Fried rice never gets old 😛 Next we enjoyed some leisure time. Riverlin and I chilled on chairs in the black sand. Some people got massages! Everyone enjoyed the cool pool. Lastly we had dinner and a cute evening activity created by us. The best one yet ;). We made oragami hearts and wrote compliment letters. We gifted them to the random person we got assigned. Tomorrow we look forward to scuba diving! Riverlin and I are in the afternoon group so we are very excited to sleep in!
Thanks for tuning in! <3
Pessia and Riverlin (shoutout Deborah & Mendy, Rory & Tammy! We love you and miss you! )
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 4
Om Swastiastu!
Today is day 10 of our program and we started off bright and early when the first group woke up at 7:00am to go scuba diving where we met the kindest people at Bali Reef Divers. There, each group started off in the pool first for practice before we made it out to the ocean. We did two 25-minute dives and we were able to see some pretty cool fish and some of us were lucky enough to see sea turtles! The next group went at 11:30 after we all enjoyed lunch. We all reunited at around 6:00pm to have Sunset Circle on the beach and enjoy some music. For dinner we had a delicious local meal organized by Beni and Billy (Thank you guys)! After, we had Mentor groups where we did some exciting activities. Then some participated in a ceremony celebrating our placenta.
Goodnight!
From,
Grace and Charlotte ❤❤
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 5
Hey y’alls!
Although we spent a majority of our 11th GLA day in the car coming home from our adventure in Amed, we still had an amazing day full of experience. Along the way we stopped at the oldest village in Bali to venture on a strenuous, but rewarding hike through the rice fields, village, and jungle. There were many things to admire as well as learn about the history of the culture and foundation of the village. We continued our drive back to the homestay where we had the opportunity to relax and debrief our day so far.
After our relaxing time we met up to do a debate activity in which we learned about medical tourism and used our skills in debate to come to a conclusive agreement that all parties felt happy about. Soon after that we headed out for one of the best nights of our trip where we went to a delicious resturaunt and…… KARAOKE!!! We made a compilation of some of the best songs in history including lots of Beyonce, Rihanna, and of course, the most iconic song that we all (well, most of us) agreed was the star of the night, Dancing Queen from ABBA. While we all sang our hearts out and put everything into our performing, we were exhausted immediately after and slept on the car ride home. Huge thank you to our GLA staff and amazing bus drivers who made the adventures of today possible. See you tomorrow!
Best,
Stella and Fianna
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 6
Hello followers, did you miss us?
Today we went to MagiFarm, a maggot farm, and learned about how maggots can help prevent food waste and help climate change. We saw the farm and a well thought-out presentation. We then were put into groups and had a competition of who could sort the maggots out of their waste. After that we started cooking different side dishes and then got into an assembly line making meals to give out for the workers we were to meet at the landfill.
After having a delectable lunch we headed to the landfill to give out the 200 meals we made. Seeing this landfill and learning that not only do people work here, but live here was hard to see and brought up a lot of emotions. Although the living conditions were not ideal, the people living there were still very grateful and happy. We speak for the whole group when we say that experiencing this made us feel very grateful for our privledged lives. Although today was not the easiest, and even a little anxiety inducing, it was a very eye opening experience that was very important to learn about and a great opportunity.
Signing off!
Toby and Zori
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 7
Hello families and friends who are reading the very last GLA Bali blog!
For our last day all together on our GLA trip we had some pretty fun adventures. It started off with everyone waking up before the sun and piling on a bus at 5:45am. We drove out to the coast for an amazing day of surfing and swimming. Even though it was many peoples first time surfing, everybody did absolutely amazing and is now addicted to the waves. With a delicious last typical Balinese lunch of rice and chicken, we headed to the mall for some souvenir/snack shopping.
Soon after we headed home for some of our very last GLA activities together. One activity, which was called the Appreciation Circle was a group favorite. (Make sure to ask your kids all about it!) While we did many other activities such as reflecting on our time together and what went well and what didn’t, we also passed out letters that every person wrote to everyone else. While the night was sad and many people cried, you could feel the love and appreciation for being able to partake on such an amazing adventure.
After saying goodbye to our amazing mentors and local staff, we did a quick session of the coolest Zumba dances, led by our very own Zumba Mentor, Kristin. Even though saying goodbye has been hard, just being able to meet and experience everything that we have, has been a million times worth it. Make sure to have an icy, delicious drink waiting for your kids when they arrive and remember to always show appreciation!
Signing off for the last time,
Bali Island Health Expedition GLA 2024
