I thought I would write a quick post about my latest adventure in life. I am currently working on my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certification. Why? Well, despite the fact that I am going through a mid-life crisis (my husband’s words) and have wanted to pursue something new about 20 times over the past year, I actually want to do this for mission and travel opportunities.
So what sparked this weird interest? It all started in the year 2008. My husband and I were planning our annual international travel adventure and I wanted to visit Bali, Indonesia. We found a tour company called Escapes Unlimited that had great deals to Bali so we signed up to go. They sent lots of information about things to do while you were there. One of the things you could do is volunteer for a day at a school and teach English to children. Learning English is important to the people of Bali because tourism is their #1 industry and they must be able to communicate with English-speaking travelers (mostly Australians). We packed a suitcase full of school supplies to donate to the children and told our tour guide we wanted to do to go to a school and teach English. He was a little puzzled and I don’t think he had ever had someone ask to do that before. He decided to take us to the school in the village where he lived. Let me just say that it was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. To see those children’s faces and their interest in the funny-looking Americans, to see how amused they were with our Southern English and to hear them laugh at our English phrases…….I never wanted to leave!!
Fast forward a few years – I would love to do that again but I thought having a TEFL certification would make it more “official” and I would actually know what I was doing the next time I tried to teach English to speakers of other languages. I am pretty sure if I ever get to teach English overseas again I will always think of those children in Bali.
Below are a few pictures we took of them. **Note** – these are NOT professional pictures – as you can tell!!!
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