The Wandering Potato

Well I have officially been here for 7 days and it feels like 7 years. It's amazing how easily the transition has been really. On my first day off the plane I started working on Jacobs family's farm. For those of you who don't know what the hell I am talking about , I'll start from the beginning, I met Bonnie, Jacob and Marlon when I was living in Fernie and they have been friends forever and grew up together, I met them when they were overseas living in Fernie and we are like family. Now I am living with them in Australia as well as with another boy, yoshi who they also have been friends with forever, and he's a really great guy too (weird as hell name though , am I right? ) Jacobs family has a sprouting farm where they go from planting the sprouts which are mostly sunflowers, to harvesting and preparing and bagging them. All the way to selling them to local businesses and farmers markets. It's a really really beautiful farm, and Bons, Jacob and I are taking it...

Okay.. Out of all the airports in the world I've cried in the Denpasar airport one too many times now. I spent the day on a motorbike.. Family.. It's okay I wore a helmet.. friends.. I know I'm awesome ;) I went around the south of Bali to the beaches and had some "lasts"  Last Bingtang, last mango slices, and just soaking up the amazing people, who have been so incredibly friendly and who I have shared laughs and smiles with me that will fuel me through any future bad days. The only downfall of my day was my driver who came early to get me... Great for him for being punctual but at that very moment my Bali best friend was coming from padang padang to surprise me.. And as I was driving away he got there and we completely and utterly missed each other. Isn't it crazy how if just one thing goes differently the series of events that follow are changed?  I didn't find out until I got to the airport and yup. Cried. I will miss him so much!  It JUST hi...

I don't think I could have planned a better last few days if I tried. I wouldn't trade the last 72 hours for anything.. We didn't have another teaching day instead we went and whatched children of all ages do a 5 kilometre March through the main road of Tulemben. Independence Day is on the 17th of August, and the kids have been spending a lot of their time preparing for this. They walked in single file, no smiling, and dressed the same clothes (best outfits win a prize) which was amazing because no way Canadian kids have that kind of discipline at that age to do anything like that.. Then we went out for a dinner and drank a fair amount of Araq and everybody was pretty loosy goosy, but we had an amazing night together. The owner has an unreal singing voice and played for us and we all sang together and then the guitar got passed over to me and the other volunteers went nuts for "free falling ". We headed back at around 1 am and two oth...

Today was my first official day of teaching 😬😬 It went a whole lot better than I could have imagined, Tristan was a huge help. I feel like even though he says he's stuck here due to his internship, I can tell that he secretly loves it, and the kids definetly love him too. Today we worked on sentences, like who/what/where/when and so on, as well as healthy and un-healthy foods. The kids didn't pick up on the sentences as much as the food, thanks to a fun hands on game. The children are brilliant.. All of them so accepting and loving I'm so sad I only get a short week with them. And today I had a new class too, computer classes. Tristan made me nervous for it because he said the kids still can't even open Microsoft word after him teaching them for 7 weeks.. But they weren't that bad. It was fun, except for the one cutie who kept writing "Hannah loves Tristan, Tristan loves Hannah, Canada and France forever" on her computer and showing it to us every time.....

I had my final night in PadangPadang, which couldnt have been more perfect.. But stung to say my final goodbyes. I woke up early yesterday morning and drove back to Ubud, where I had my orenintation and got to meet the three other girls who I was going into the program with, one of which is Indonesian named Mishie and she is just so Asian and 4ft of cute. None of them have been to Bali before so it was cool showing them around and they were all super interested in me and what I'm doing and are great girls! Then this morning we all headed to Tulamben to go to the "top secret location" where the program is located. They don't disclose where it is and ask you not too as well to protect the safety of the volunteers and children. (Fair enough.) and when we got here it was... Awkward. The man who runs the program wasn't here today so we weren't really told what was happening for the first hour and felt out of place, but then we got our rooms which we are all sha...

Sometimes... A lot of the time... as most people know I struggle with sleeping. Primarily falling asleep. I really have a hard time turning my mind off. And tonight at 2 in the morning I think I'm awake due to a bit of a sad heart. One of the hardest parts of travelling for me has been the goodbyes.. Some Have been a lot harder than others. I really like to believe that everybody who you meet on your journey (of life) are sent there for some reason or another, and I've met some really wonderful people, and it's tough when you and another person just brush each others life's and know there's a 99% chance you will Never see each other again.. Yes there's always that 1% chance because life is funny and today with social media it's Pretty damn easy to "stay in touch", but it's just not the same.  And as hard as it is I am so grateful and thankful for all these people  and feel priveleged just to have gotten the chance to have made...

So I have finally gotten the confirmation email for volunteering 🎉🎉 I am officially starting on the 10th and am really excited to spend my last week here giving back. And then I after that I am flying out to Australia on the 16th of August, and can promise you I will be running and jumping into my friends arms.  After a few lovely days on my own in Ubud, finding cute places like the most amazing macaroons I have ever had . And doing a little shopping for appropriate clothes for teaching and maybe a few nicer-ish things for Aus. Went on some long hot walks, even though it was raining every morning the afternoon always Garunteed sunshine.  After Ubud, I had to head down to immigration in Denpasar, major city. And that immigration of craziness I was told to dress completely covered and act very professional and was expecting a Canadian type government office maybe even harsher but nope, people running around, smoking indoors and even a chicken in a cage so the...