Volunteering with the local community was humbling and valuable to learn to follow your dreams and interests that hard work will pay off. The coordinators were well educated about the sea turtles and showed immense compassion.

I learnt some basic Bahasa (the language spoken in Indonesia) skills, created my own batik painting, strolled in the rice fields, made an offering to the Hindu Gods, attended a cooking class where I learnt the art of Indonesian cuisine, and visited a holy water temple. Yet this discovering of Ubud could unfortunately not last forever and a week later I packed my bags again to move on to the remote island of Nusa Penida for the real volunteering.

A few other places in the world, I felt such at ease and in peace. Such impression was reinforced the following week in the island of Nusa Penida, where while helping to conserve the sea turtles and keep the magnificent beaches clean, you also have the chance to explore spots of untapped natural beauty and engage in happy if humorous conversations with the locals, genuinely curious about your home as much as your life story.

I couldn’t wait to witness the lucky little fella be released at the end of the week. It was so exciting, knowing that one of the turtles that had been in our care was soon going to start his life in the \"big blue.\" I couldn’t hide my anticipation, regardless of the fact that we release a turtle (or two), every week.

Volunteering through Gnarly Troop in Bali is one of the best decisions I have ever made. This summer I traveled to Ubud and Nusa Penida, participating in a sea turtle conservation project that soon became the most rewarding experience of my life. Over the course of two weeks I was introduced to incredible coordinators, awesome traditional food, and friends that I will have for a lifetime. I would highly recommend this trip to any and everyone.

Orientation week was conducted in Ubud. I stayed in a homestay with cottages, family temples and yards. The yards were the playgrounds for the children, the places for making handicrafts as well as the farmhouses for the chickens and dogs. I felt like I was living on a farm! With the cocks crowing nonstop, I got up by 6 am every day! What a countryside living style!

The greatest aspects of the project are two. First of all, you really feel useful as local coordinators need our help to take care of all turtles as they are not enough to do the job alone. Second, compared to Ubud, there are less volunteers (around 25, even if they told us that during the high season it can go up to 70). As you are not a lot, no small groups are done; we are all part of a big group, or even better a big family. You really get close to volunteers and to coordinators and cookers.

I taught healthcare at a school approximately 40 minutes away. The schools were small and minimal and ran by the coordinators and the volunteers. The students were always there and ready to learn before the volunteers arrived. Their English was bad so we had to translate almost everything that we taught but the students remembered the material very well.

The final week consisted of teaching. We volunteers were paired up and sent to classes from various schools around Ubud. The teaching days were fun, exciting, tough, confusing at times, but incredibly rewarding for me. As an ESL teacher, I was able to try different approaches of teaching towards non-English speakers. The children love you from the minute they see you, and they are always trying to show it! I will say that teaching was my favorite part of the whole trip.

The look on my students\' faces when they got the hang of a new English word was priceless. While the sights and sounds of Bali are intoxicating, the real treat is rolling up your sleeves and doing some good in the world. This project has a real positive impact – namely, giving kids a leg up in getting a job later in Indonesia\'s growing tourism industry. If they can speak English, it will be easier for them to make money for themselves. On my last day, I told my students to study hard so that some day I might come back and speak to them in English fluently.

The project I chose to do was teaching English, and me and my partner were assigned 6th grade (10-11 year olds). This proved to be more challenging than I had expected, and the kids made us work hard to gain their attention and trust. Teaching on your own with so little structure taught me patience, the value of effort, and how important it is to work with what you have. It was incredible to see the children grow in their knowledge after just a few short weeks.

It was an amazing week in which we had the chance to meet people from all around the world, plus we were immersing ourselves in a totally new different culture. The purpose of this week was to help us understand and learn about the Balinese culture in preparation to the volunteer project. The Bahasa language and cultural classes were very helpful for the teaching English project.

This first week was an introduction week which was a great way to meet new people and familiarize oneself with the surroundings that I would be living in for a month. During this week we visited the Monkey forest, had a tour around Ubud, went to some rice fields, learnt some Balinese language and cooking and went to the Holy Water temple. It was a jam packed first week but a great way to really embrace the Balinese lifestyle. We also went and watched a Balinese dance show and had a Balinese offering and painting class. All of which contributed to a great first week.

Volunteering in Indonesia was more than a simple experience, it was an opportunity I had to challenge myself as I have never done before. I have met some of the most interesting and passionate people on the planet and shared with them my life, my interests, my pictures and my dreams. Together we had the unique opportunity to discover the country, its people and its amazing environment from the privileged viewpoint of a volunteer.

Our time at turtle camp was capped off by releasing two of ‘our’ turtles into the sea to begin their journey as independent turtles! Hopefully, the love and care provided at the turtle project will ensure these turtles have a greater chance of survival in the big, wide, scary ocean. Go well, little turtle!

My time in Java was unlike any other experience I have ever had. The four weeks I spent at the Wildlife Rescue Center was life-changing and tremendously eye opening...

I volunteered at the Orangutan and Wildlife Rescue Center for two weeks and it was amazing to work with the local staff and learn about the amazing animals here. The mornings begin with a wake up call from gibbons and birds - there is no better way to start the day!