Experiences: Bali Narayan Seva

Narayan Seva Children Home

Adriana Curulla Matosas from Spain spent 5 weeks at Bali Narayan Seva Orphanage, from 26th of June to 3rd of August 2007. She writes of her time below:

Yayasan Narayan Seva is a small children’s home located in the northern part of Bali, near the city of Singaraja. It stands next to the cemetery and it’s quite interesting to see that all the children there believe in ghosts… so sometimes when we went walking at night we thought we would see one!!!

I arrived on June 28th and spent 5 weeks there. The day I first met the children I had to introduce myself. I was really nervous and did not know what to expect or what to say to those 25 apparently shy children who looked at me as if I came from another planet! Their initial shyness soon disappeared and I discovered they all had very different personalities.

During my first two weeks there, the children where on school holidays, so I had the chance to get to know them quite well and we spent a lot of time playing different games together… they love cards, hangman and pictionary. I also studied english and mathematics with them and was very surprised to see that they all really want to learn. Even the weaker ones will ask for more exercises.

On my third week at the home the children started to go the school and suddenly the home was very quiet in the mornings: Only Jaya and Janaki were there because they go to school in the afternoons. So I had the chance to help them in the kitchen and learn how Balinese dishes are cooked.

Between 10 and 11 in the morning, the smaller children came back from school and we studied and played together. In the afternoons I spent time with the older ones, helping with their homework. That was a bit easier, because the older ones are easier to keep focussed, while the smaller ones (especially Ashia) could be really wild sometimes… In fact I remember on some occasions, they really got on my nerves, but they were so sweet you could not be mad at them for too long… and I really miss that now!!

At 4pm it’s cleaning and gardening time in the home. Every child has a different task every day, but they are so cooperative that you never knew which child had to do what! And they were very happy and grateful whenever I offered to help them. On some evenings the children tried to teach me some yoga postures in which I was not very good, although they did not criticise me!! I also was taught some Bahasa Indonesian. They are very good teachers indeed! They made me write down Indonesian words and afterwards checked if I really learned them!!

On some Sundays we went to the beach, where we had so much fun playing in the water (and learning to swim like a dolphin). But of course it was only fun when there were no waves, because some children are afraid of them!

In conclusion I really enjoyed my time in Bali with the children and that now I am back at home I keep thinking about them and missing them a lot. I would like to say thank you to all of them for making me feel like at home during the time I was there and for sharing so many unforgettable moments with me!!
Adriana Curulla Matosas