flow

Selemat siang everybody, saya tingal di penestanan, ubud! Me no communicado/live americana

This will officially be my first blog post in my lifetime and probably my final one as well so I will try to predict my present and future perspective accurately (no offense to you people or this online space ~ it just isn’t quite my style/ although I am excited to listen to your stories and also be able to share a little bit of my experience these days). What a great idea! Can all of you post your email sometime soon?

As you all probably remember I left school and went backpacking in Europe for the summer with my brother. We went on too many boats in Stockholm, ate too many weinerschitzels in berlin, spent too many hours in the Budapest baths, got too much sun in Dubrovnik and cinque terre, and exercised my legs too much in the obernese highlands (gimmelwald for all you hiking junkies out there…phenomenal!) I overdosed on techno and have since been listening to very mellow melodies. 

From there I picked up my precious life-bag of gear and flew to bali. I had a two month internship with Reef Artisan Collaborative of Indonesia (www.raciproject.org check us out!) which was very interesting. The mission of the NGO based out of DC is to develop sustainable livelihoods for local Indonesian communities in marine protected areas – in the hopes that these other economic opportunities diversifies income – leads to less coral bombing and overfishing – and therefore preserves present and future coral reef environments. Some of the small business opportunities include local artist studio space for the creation and selling of their crafts, hydroponic loan/share programs as well as a local/international school education program with dormitory to teach about sustainability and coral reef environments.

Since my internship I have been promoted to the internship coordinator and RACI has expanded its focus. We are now setting up a volunteer network for environmental organizations around Indonesia – so I will be acting as a funnel moving volunteers from around the world to 8 of our selected partners doing reef restoration, sustainable livelihood development projects like I had talked about previously, as well as some environmental education – mostly in bali and north/south Sulawesi. Here is a pic of my office:

Since I now have a larger job with lots of uncharted steps to take, I have moved to bali until at least may 2011. I live in a nice wooden house owned by ebu putu, a nice grandmother figure which looks after me in this foreign place – but not to worry, the Balinese are a special people, happy and satisfied with everything they do. Who knows, I might take up the three common past times; kite flying, stoop sitting, and rooster comparison. Here is the view from my house..

If any of you are in a transition period of your life or are simply traveling through se asia, please get in touch with me at jakobschenker@gmail.com and I would love to put you up. Rent is also very affordable and big meals are only $1,  so maybe a long term stay could be for you. This is a good place for thinking, expanding/exploring your interests, spirituality and of course letting yourself flow.

cheers,

jakob