Success!

Hello everybody,

I am happy to announce, that Astawa's, Bunter's and Putu's high school fees are all covered!

With the help of their sponsors they can now attend high school. Since those three are the first generation of our kids that reach high school it is a milestone for the Oasis and of cause the foundation for a better future for them.

I would like to thank all the sponsors for their help!

Putu

Astawa

Bunter

 

Tut Ite

The Yayasan Anak Oasis is not a project just for the kids as you might think when reading my blog.

It is actually a project for village development, which is why we are also concerned about all the trash in the village, the insufficient sewer systems and everything else that influences the living standard in Jagaraga.

A couple of months ago, we were asked for help by some of the kids in the Oasis.

A man, a relative of one of the children, had a very heavy accident and is now from the chest down paralyzed.

For a person that lives in a village like Jagaraga, death would have been a better option.

While in Germany paralyzed people can still live a somewhat normal live, paralyzed people here are pretty much left to die.

The Oasis felt the need to help this person in his misery, especially since his wife was at the same time pregnant with their first child.

This man's name is Tut Ite.

After the accident he spend some time in the hospital, but since nobody took care of him he had soon gotten bedsores on the back. He had an open wound on his lower back the size of a football.

So the hospital decided to send Tut Ite home because the risc of infection in the hospital is too high and he had already started to rot. They sent him back home, where nobody ever does any other cleaning but sweeping, because the doctors said it is cleaner than the hospital. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Tut Ite with his wife infront of their 'house'.

So thats how we found Tut Ite. Rotting in his tiny room, while no one takes care of the wounds or himself. 

You need to understand, that the people in Jagaraga are very poor. They live from one day to the other, and having to feed and take care of a man that needs medical care and diapers and is not able to contribute anything by himself is just a great bother to anyone and better off dead.

The Oasis found sponsors for Tut Ite to pay for his medical care and for a nurse.

Everyday some kids from the Oasis visit him together with a leader from the Oasis to do physiotherapy with him.

This has been going on for a few months now and Tut Ite is a lot better now!

We even had enough donations to buy him a wheelchair and since a couple of weeks he is strong enough to visit the Oasis once or twice a week.

The physiotherapy as instructed by German physiotherapists via e-mail.

His first excursion with the new wheelchair. He was so excited to be able to get out of the room which he hadn't left in months.

And then, as if this man's life wasn't already hard enough, his baby died 10 hours after birth. 

The reason why I really wanted to talk about this subject on my blog is because I have great news from Tut Ite.

He actually starts feeling something in his legs again!!!

It comes really slowly but there is definitely a chance that everything will turn out better for him and his wife!

We were euphoric when we heard the news. Even if he might not be able to walk again, which we really hope he will, the Oasis gave this man his life back. 

This is a wonderful feeling and definitely worth sharing!

Tut Ite gets a lot of visitors now. My parants also dropped by his place when they came to visit me and the Oasis.

 

Tut Ite loves to come to the Oasis and play with the kids. It gives him something to do and is a good way to get out of his room from time to time.

Eating, European style!

We  have a chef that comes to the Oasis every Thursday to teach the children how to cook.

Last week Om Alvin gave them a lesson in 'How to eat in a restaurant' instead of cooking.

Turns out it was a good idea - I don't think anyone of them has ever used a knife and a fork  before!

Most of the people here eat with their hands. It's usually only the foreigners that are used to using cutlery.

Om Alvin explains Budi how to use the fork and how to use the knife.

It was so hilarious to watch the kids. They had to wear a bib cause they are still pretty messy eaters when using cutlery! :D

Dion

Om Alvin with Astawa. He has to explain, that this knife has a sharp side which is used to cut the food in pieces.

Bunter

Putu - She was actually quite good! 

Of cause we didn't let the kids starve. 

After 5 minutes of practicing everybody was allowed to use their hands!

They are very happy that they don't have to eat with a fork and a knife.

I am not sure if they understand why anybody would even bother using anything else but their hands to eat. :D

The new fence

This is our new colourfull fence.

Since our old fence was partly destroyed by the weather and partly used as firewood by some of the villagers, we decided it is time to fix that old shabby thing and make the Oasis a little more colourfull. 

The kids made the new fence almost all by themselves. The little ones even got to saw the wooden planks, which is why they turned out a little uneven...
Afterwards, me and the SMP kids painted the fence together. 

It was fun, but it was sooo hot that we had to paint in shifts. :)

It looks so much prettier now!

Another plastic- project!

 "How can we make people aware of the 'plastic problem' in this village?"

We are still working on the trash problem in Jagaraga and trying to involve the villagers as well.

The question above is what the kids concentrated on over the last two weeks.

They were split in three groups and had to think of ideas of how to make people aware of the problems in the village, create a concept and realize it by themselves.

We wanted to let the kids think of something by themselves, without us interfering, so they basically managed the entire project by themselves. It was great to see what good things they thought of.

 Two of the groups decided to make banners to hang up in the village and the third group made handbags from plastic trash to keep for themselves and give away to villagers.

For two of the projects they needed trash so they just started by collectiong plastic around the village.

They took the trash to the Oasis and washed it.

 

 

The first group made a banner with plastic trash. They sew the plastic letters on to the white cloth.

When they were done, they hung it up at the bazar of the village for everyone to read.

The banner says something like: "Scared of illnesses? Then you should pay attantion to cleanliness and mind that the trash is dangerous".

Group two decided to make a banner without using trash.

They hung it up in front of the Oasis.

 The banner says something like: 

"Can we keep our village clean? Yes we can, as long as we...

A: don't throw our trash just everywhere.

B: pick up trash if we see it and always throw trash into a trash can."

The third group made the plastic handbags. It was a lot of work!

They had to do a lot of sewing as well...good thing they are so good at it! :)

Those are some of the bags they made.

They turned out really cute, with bows, flowers and all this girly stuff!

Ogo-Ogo

 

The Balinese People have a great Hindu festival called Ogo-Ogo. On this day, they scare away all the evil spirits. Jagaraga, the village of the Oasis is also a Balinese village which is why I experienced it first hand with the children. Every year the people of the village build big paper maché statues and they have to be scary and ugly and sometimes really gory. The scarier the better! These statues are supposed to scare the evil spirits away. After the parade through the village with those huge statues, which is kind of like carnival in Germany, they burn the statues and with them the evil spirits.

It’s a merry festival despite all those scary figures. The kids had been waiting for this day for months and some of them even made their own Ogo-Ogo!

We decorated the Oasis. It was closed on Ogo-Ogo because it is a national holiday.

Most of the decorations are made of bamboo leafes.

This Ogo-Ogo was also made by kids from the Oasis.

This one was made by Ida Wayan, Made G and some of their friends. Ida Wayan and Made G are students of mine at the Oasis.

A very cool Ogo-Ogo fighting a snake.

The scariest one, if you asked me!

Astawa and the mayor of Jagaraga played the drums.

This is a rather modern Ogo-Ogo riding on a motorcycle.

For this special day, the Oasis made a banner for the market place.

Celebrating after the parade.

Help

Bunter (15)

Ani (13)

Pandu (10)

A couple of days ago I witnessed a real tragedy that still upsets me very much. I hope you can spare a few minutes and maybe then you might feel the need to help, too.

Bunter's, Ani's and Pandu's father passed away.

The mother is left alone with six children, the youngest of them 4 years old. She is illiterate, has asthma and doesn't have a job. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like she is in the kind of condition to do any job in the near future. 

Even when the father was still alive and working all day long they had hardly enough money to buy food and on some days they didn't have any at all.

The worst problem right now is for them to get something to eat.

Can you imagine worrying about finding food?

Since there is no way to get money without someone of the family working, Bunter will have to quit school and start working. Child labor is common here.

She is in her last year of middle school and just like her sister Ani one of my students at the Oasis.

Of cause we don't want any of them to quit school and start working, especially not at such a young age!

We already have some ideas of how to support the family so the children won't need to work, for example by rewarding them with rice for every day they attend the Oasis, to make sure they study instead of working.
Of cause we only intent to support them temporarely until the oldest daughter at the age of 18 finishes her school in june and can start working.

Unfortunately those expenses are not in the Oasis' budget!

We really need to find a way to keep the children in school.

And when I am talking about 'we' I include everybody reading this post. The Oasis can only do so much. We are the executives, we figure out what the children here desperately need and develop plans to help. But we need people that support us in what we do!
We can't do it alone.

If you would like to help Bunter, Ani and Pandu, I would personally be very grateful If you would contact me at Lara.Desinger@gmx.net because I would hate to see those three have to leave school and the Oasis and therefore any chance for a better future thy might have had.