Goodbye Oasis

After several more farewell activities (I just kept coming back, and they had to keep throwing farewell parties, barbeques and waterfights), I am back in Germany.

It took me 38 hours to get here though!

My parents and my brother picked me up from the airport.

Oh how I missed them. :D

The rest of the family came for a visit later that night. It was so great seeing everyone again.

My cousin!

My dad and my grandmother

We watched videos of the Oasis.

Right on the next day I visited my (hopefully) future University in Maastricht, the Netherlands, with my parents. On saturday I will move there for a dutch course. 

My first dutch french fries! So good!

My mom and I

The dutch did prepare well for the European championship. They didn't stand a chance against Germany anyway! :)

I've been back for about a week now and I can't believe how comfortable we live in Germany.

After living in Lombok for 9 months you see everything in a different light!

This was my last post.

For 9 months I have been posting in this blog. All in all I made 61 posts to make western people understand Indonesia, or rather Lombok, and the Yayasan Anak Oasis (children's oasis of Lombok) a wee bit better. I do think, people who followed this blog might have gotten a pretty good insight view on these things.

To me, these 9 months were extraordinary. Only very few people can claim to have made similar experiances like me, wether they were good or bad. I learned a lot during this time and will always remember the precious time I had with the Anak Oasis.

The kids at the Oasis are so wonderful, nobody could ever forget them and I really hope I can return as soon as possible. I wish these kids a happy and successfull future, they deserve every bit of it!   

I really admire the heads of the Yayasan Anak Oasis. They are doing such a great job despite the many difficulties that keep popping up. They patiently manage to overcome every crisis where I would have probably given up already. I couldn't imagine someone doing the job any better!

Thank you for the wonderful time Anak Oasis!

Sleepover

Since this was my last free weekend I sleept over at the Oasis, together with my kids.

We ate nasi goreng and looots of candy, watched spiderman and stick it and played dodgeball, werewolf and other fun games.

The weekend was great, everyone had fun and the kids behaved exemplary!

I'm going to miss those kids very much!

They had a surprise for me so I wasn't allowed to look. I was so excited. :)

And this was the surprise. They decorated the entry for me, with plants, a big cloth saying: 'We love Lara' and colorful lights, which you can't see in the picture because it isn't dark yet. :)

As long as it was still light outside we played fun games and

as soon as it was dark we watched the movies.

This is where we slept...it wasn't as comfortable as it looked. :D And it was pretty cold during the night. I know what you think, but I did come prepared! I brought a jacket and a sarong but when I wanted to go to bed(floor) Itin was already asleep, wearing my jacket, and Astawa was already curled up in my sarong. But no worries, the constant buzzing of mosquitos in my ear quickly made me fall asleep....

 After waking up at about 6 (!!!!! usually they get up at 5..this was only because they stayed up late! But hey, good thing I'm a morning person..) we played werewolf all morning.

 They didn't want to go home at all.

The kids in my class:

Ani

Budi

Mayang

Ida Wayan

Eka

Ayu and Bunter

Itin

Dion

Astawa

Eka, Putu, Ani, Itin, Moni, Mayang and I

Putu and Budi

Made G, Wk, Ida Wayan

 WK

After the first ones started to fall asleep again around noon (..thats what you get for waking up so freaking early!) I decided it was time for everyone to go home. :)

First Goodbyes

Last Friday was my official farewell party at the Oasis. It was an amazing day, I loved it!

The kids and I decorated everything together and we ate lots of delicious food. The kids danced and sang for me and I got all sorts of little farewell gifts.

I only have about a week left in Indonesia and at the Oasis...the clock is ticking. :(

Budi festooning the assembly hall.

Dion and Budi

Moni and Mayang

Made G

Itin, Bunter, Mayang, Moni and Gede Macal while hanging up the balloons.

Rai

Ida Ketut and I

The party started at 2 o'clock, as usual. Each one of my SMP kids had written a review about me and my teaching and the time we had spend together and Ade made me read them out aloud.

They were wonderful...I couldn't even get through half of them before I choked up and almost burst out crying like a baby. They are so sweet! :)

Afterwards there was a quiz:

Team A were Defi and Made G.

Team B, Ilu and Eka.

And team C, Itin and Kadek.

Defi, Ilu and Kadek are in 6th grade and had to participate in the quiz about their studies at the Oasis to get their schoolarship.

The jury were the SMP kids of cause. :)

After the quiz, Ida Wayan, WK, Astawa and Made G played music and sang. They are really good!

And the girls danced traditional balinese dances. In the balinese/hindu culture, flowers play a big role. They use flowers for offerings, the prayers, and the traditional dancing. They also use the flowers for their hair.

Behind the scenes, I wasn't allowed to see it because the dancing was a surprise, they prepared the flowers for the dances and their hair.

This is what it looks like when they decorate their hair with therm. Pretty, right?

 

The 4th graders dancing.

They dance with the flowers on the plates.

And I got a flower necklace! A real one, not one with those crappy plastic flowers. They smelled like apricot...so nice! :)

Bunter and

Putu dancing. I love to watch them dance, they are really good.

Afterwards, Defi, Ilu and Bunter sang while Made G, Astawa, WK and I accompanied them with guitars and drums.

When they sang the alien song, the song from the film they made, Gremos started dancing. He is so cute! In the movie he plays the small alien.

He's got the moves!!! :D

The Oasis made me a book with all the songs we always sing.

Me and the girls after the dancing.

Ade and Bunter

Om Alwi came and cooked for all the children at the Oasis. He is the chef that teaches the SMPs in cooking class.

The master at work.

Kadek and I doing the chopping.

Sooo much food!

The food counter, run by Sam, Kadek and Panca.

And the kids loved it of cause. They looove Nasi. Om Alwi cooked cap cay with tofu, tempe, chicken and of cause, as always, with rice.

Ide Ketut, the English teacher and his wife, Dwi, a math teacher at the Oasis, with their son Ida Wayan Troya.

And aaaaaall of us together. :)

A great day! 

I thank the Oasis, the staff and of cause the children, for this wonderfull day! :)