Lots of Questions, Not Enough Answers.

in bali: oh look at our cute little faces! :)

Oh, what do you know? I get the terrific honor of being one of the first bloggers on this trip, along with Miss Rachel. Pretty exciting stuff -- I love to blog! It's currently miserable outside: dark and pouring rain. In other words, a perfect time for blogging. Currently, GIEU Indonesia is in Yogyakarta, a central province on the island of Java.  After a few days of orientation in Bali, here we are, ready to explore Indonesia's complex culture.

Today, we visited Yayasan Gaia and the Lembaga Ombudsman Swasta. Yayasan Gaia is an NGO that provides scholarships to selected street children to allow them to attend school. These scholarships can be renewed if the student makes the effort to go to class and makes good grades. (Pretty reasonable, right? There are so many children in Indonesia who could use the scholarship money.) We checked out their gorgeous campground which the foundation uses to raise money for their scholarships through team-building and ropes course programs.

Not going to lie, I was terribly disappointed at first. From the earlier descriptions given to us, I was expecting an almost orphanage atmosphere where we could hang out with street children. Literally, my first thought was, "this is... it?" After asking a gazillion questions, I did lose some of my initial grumpiness -- Ari, a short adorable worker, really described the processes of the institution. It was just cool talking to her in general, and communicating in our broken languages about our backgrounds and stuff. They are doing good work with limited resources. Initially, they worked with the Indonesian government with providing housing to street children, but it didn't work out. The kids hated the structure after years of freedom on the streets. As a consequence, Yayasan Gaia shifted its focuses from housing to education, free health clinics, and disaster relief.

It's interesting to note the role of NGOs like Yayasan Gaia in Indonesia. We later went to the Ombudsmen's office -- a group of five people who listen to complaints, investigate, and recommend solutions to mediate problems. There, one of the ombudsmen emphasized the critical tie with NGOs as a way to put pressure on authorities to act ethically. In Yogyakarta, it seems, the NGOs really take an activist role in putting pressure on issues - very much like America. In Bali on the other hand, after a brief conversation with a maternal health clinic's fundraising coordinator, I saw a different side: the NGO as a passive entity, working around the problems rather than attempting to fix the system. The director said flatly that non-governmental groups in the role of advocacy are not effective. I had a problem with that, since I'm all about Action! Direct Communication! Change from the bottom up! -- actions that have been effective in the US.

These two contrasts between islands are very interesting to me. Why is Yogyakarta more activist compared to Bali? Why is Bali hesitant to criticize the system? These are some questions I'll have to think about on the rest of the trip.

Until next time!

- Nina