Hello! I have been in Indonesia for 6 days, with the School for
International Training (SIT). We had an interesting time meeting each
other at the airport – no one from the program was there to greet us –
so some of the students made their own sign on notebook paper with
highlighter, very official looking.
We are
currently in Kerambitan, staying in a converted palace. We are
attending classes everyday and are having lots of fun exploring the
area. The local market has just about anything we could possibly want.
Add in a convenient store and wa-la.One of our first assignments was to go to the local market and to buy whatever we could for under 10,000 IDR (about .80 cents), to practice the language and our bargaining skills.I was able to buy a roll of green tea bread and a package of fruit pies. Some of the other students bought mangosteen, papaya and incense.
We are trying lots of new (and different) foods, which sometimes,
seem best left untried. Other activities in the area include walking
(lots of walking), eating ice cream and studying. The group favorite is
definitely going to the beach. The beach closest to us is great, but the
waves are too strong to swim in.Wading feels great in this humid
climate!It’s just over an hours walk each way to the shore, and on our first trip a storm broke on our way back. We were walking in fast moving water, flowing against up, calf deep. It was incredibly hard to see in the down pour to navigate our way back, but we survived. The locals cheered us on as we passed them, and offered the advice of “run, run!”.
In our more daily routine, we take morning walks and learn about the
environment around us. We are avid binocular users and constantly trying
new things: from licking ants to picking fruit. On Saturday, we skipped
our typical morning walk and took an excursion to a sacred temple
nearby. Afterwards we visited the rice fields in Tabanan and a monkey
temple.The monkeys were everywhere! Many had babies and lots of them were very curious around visitors. The temple even had flying foxes that we could see. Currently, we are all preparing for our home stay, which will start on Wednesday.
We have all also had preliminary meetings for our individual field projects. Here's an update for you on mine: I have received approval from the UofA Institutional Review Board! I’m so excited to start my research. I am working closely with the SIT Professor to arrange for field opportunities and to figure out the best approach to the project. I will have two weeks set aside at the end of the program specifically for research. I will soon start researching potential participants and sending out / conducting surveys, etc. I’m hoping to start digging in as soon as possible.
In addition to these larger projects, we will each be doing two or three smaller field studies starting this week. Our first one will be over fig trees and the fruit eating birds that depend on them for a food source. More on that to come, later.
Until next time!
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Claire Beach will be traveling to several countries during her International Service Learning Program this summer. Her ultimate destination will be a seven-week stay in Indonesia where she will be observing and conducting research for her project, Community Nature and Conservation, through the Honors College.
Beach is studying economics and international business in Walton College. She is observing and conducting research on the profitability of ecotourism business and environmental preservation in other parts of the globe, particularly developing countries. She will be attending the School of International Training. You can read more from Claire at hogtrailsandtales.wordpress.com.
Find out more about the SIT Indonesia: Community Nature Conservation in Bali (Summer) program at http://studyabroad.sit.edu/programs/summer/summer-2016/abe/
