I’ve had some questions of what I actually do each day that I’m here in Bali. Although each day may vary with different bus rides to fun destinations and varying things done at work, I’ve finally found a groove to do what makes me happy! Sometimes I’m up around 5:45am to catch the sunrise on the third floor overlooking the rice paddies, roosters crowing and all. Off in the distance I can see Mount Batur and rolling clouds surrounding it. If I’m not up for the sunrise, I’m up by 7:30am to grab breakfast at the canteen with my roommates and friends. I don’t have to leave for construction until 12:30 in the afternoon. So us girls that have afternoon shifts usually grab a ride and head off to somewhere in Ubud. That’s where I get all of my adventurous pictures of waterfalls, rice terrace walks, and market stops. We usually make it back in time for lunch then head off to the kindergarten site. A forty minute drive later and we arrive at the school for our work day to start. There’s usually a few kids peaking around and giggling at us working. One little boy, Putu, usually hops over the wall to help us out for a few rupiah to buy himself some candy. I usually end up seeing him riding off with an older girl from the village on a motor bike. Probably taking her on a little candy date. There’s one little girl probably about 2 years old that peers around a door at me while her mom works in the school. I have yet to crack a smile from her but I’m learning a few words in Indonesian to see if I can get a little something when I see her next. The kindergarten that we’re building was in such bad shape. The original plan was to just knock down a few walls and rearrange the layout of the building. But after hitting a few walls down we found that the whole place was falling apart. Now we’re currently building up the new foundation. It’s so incredibly hot some days but it’s great to sweat everything out. The construction workers that occasionally show up are not very advanced. They work barefoot or in sandals and don’t seem have any training in safety. It’s actually pretty scary watching them work after growing up learning from Dad how to stay safe on sites. Things just work a bit differently over here! On our second day, it poured down rain for hours. We were moving concrete bricks from the street to a spot closer to the school. The coordinator thought we were crazy for working in the rain and so did every car and scooter driving past us. They act like the rain is poison but we LOVED it. That was so far the best day at work. When we get home from work we usually shower then run over across the street at Deywa’s Warung to have a beer before they’re all gone. His place sits in the middle of the rice field and gets the best afternoon sun. He also makes a delicious nasi goreng. At night sometimes we will go into town to grab dessert or a few beers at a tiny cafe. Sometimes we watch a movie up on the third floor and it’s pretty common to come up to watch the sunrise the next morning to find all the girls asleep on the floor from movie night. Weekends are free for travel so we usually go to the south for the beaches or island hop around Bali. That’s pretty much the crazy day of living as a volunteer! I’ve slowed down a bit from my first two weeks to actually enjoy the peacefulness of Bali. I’ll throw in some yoga classes here and there or laying by the new pool in the morning.