What we leave behind and what we take with us

April 8, 2024

Students are now on their way either home or to new adventures, and it feels a little unreal that 2024 Indonesian SST is over. We spent this last weekend with a mix of activities. We toured a Hindu temple and a coffee plantation, walked through the monkey forest, enjoyed babi guling (a Balinese specialty) and other great food, walked the beach, listened to presentations and told stories. It was a good time.

We could probably all write volumes about the past 3 days (as well as the past 3 months), but this blog is going to feature pictures over words.

The Hindu temple tour:

Flower offerings were a common sight in Bali, replenished each morning.

Tying on temple sashes before entering the temple.

Preparations were underway for an upcoming ceremony.

After the tour, most of us took a turn attempting a swing on the vines of a huge tree just outside the temple. Garrett, our temple tour guide, assured us that this particular tree was not sacred and it was fine for us to swing.

We had some pretty amazing babi guling for lunch. This traditional pork dish is well-known in Bali.

And then we visited a coffee plantation, learning about the process and having a taste test (quite good, really).

The testers– tea testing in the foreground and coffee in the back.

Outside the shop where some of us bought coffee and/or chocolate.

We visited the monkey forest:

Galuh, one of our Indonesian partners,, watches a monkey.

That is indeed my waterbottle. The monkey snatched it out of Ben’s backpack. We got it back with the help of one of the monkey guardians at the forest.

On our final day, students shared presentations of their community-engaged project. I had asked them to each have a creative/interactive element and they did not disappoint. We played a game of Connections (like the NY Times daily puzzle), sang songs, and placed ourselves on continuums regarding our religious history. Sadly, I didn’t think to get pictures until close to the end of the day, so you will not see the amazing creativity of these students. I will just post a couple here: Peri taught us to tie knots like they learned to do in Scouting class in the high school and Franz taught us a Sadie Gustafson-Zook song that he dedicated to his host family (“Your love makes me smile”). Johanna brought the issue of infant/child stunting to the class.

We had some free time to roam the beach, then met at sunset for a short closing circle. We talked about reverse culture shock, and thought about what we take with us and what we leave behind. Every student wrote a letter to themselves that I will deliver to them next month. We enjoyed dinner at a restaurant right on the water. The food was good, the company relaxed, and we all just lived right into this final evening in Indonesia together.

Sunday morning came, as Sunday mornings will, and we all loaded up:

At the airport, Ben & I said farewell to the students, and sent them on to Jakarta to catch connections to Istanbul and Vietnam. What a great group of students. They have engaged with the Indonesian culture with great creativity, compassion, curiosity, and courage, and I am filled with gratitude for our time here.