Experience:
Organisation:
Name: Ellie
Hometown: London
Destination: Borneo (Malaysian - Sarawak). Remote jungle village
Project type: Teaching English
Organisation: Trekforce Worldwide
What were your impressions of your destination?
The village was 4 hour drive from the nearest town along logging roads, so not the most comfortable journey! The village was on one side of the river with the school (boarding) on the other. The people in the village were very friendly, though there weren't many of them. The teachers were lovely too, and the kids were great fun. Some of the kids were from nomadic tribes, so you could never tell who was going to turn up to school. The school was surrounded by jungle which was amazing.
Was the work interesting and challenging?
We were teaching for 2 months (with a week training) which was definately worth it - the kids only started getting comfortable with us after around 3 weeks, and by the end some of them were in tears when we left. It was definately a challenge teaching classes of 12 year olds when some generally were ok at English, and others couldn't read or write. But very quickly you learn how to teach 2/3 lessons at once! We had classes to ourselves, teaching English, Maths and Science and some sports lessons. In the afternoon/evening we'd prepare lessons and spend time playing with the kids - football, volleyball, even hockey!, guitar, twister! Anything really.
What was your accommodation like? Did you feel comfortable and welcome at all times?
We (there were 2 of us in each village) stayed in teachers accomodation which was brilliant - we had an apartment to ourselves. The kids brought us our meals (they wouldn't let us eat with them!), though occasionally we cooked ourselves with food we'd bought in town.
Were you happy with the organisation and the staff that were responsible for you during your stay?
As the village was so remote (not even a phone out of it), Trekforce gave us a satellite phone so we could call in at least every week. Through the phone calls to fieldbase, we even managed to arrange meeting up with people teaching in other villages a couple of times. The Trekforce guys took a lot of care in putting the right teaching buddies together, and in the schools people go to. And if anything goes wrong they have contingencies for getting you out or getting help to you.
Do you feel that you got value for money on the project?
Absolutely. It was the best way to get to understand the culture. One of the teachers even took us hunting (though it wasn't strictly encouraged by Trekforce!). We ate meals with the village (including monkey and monitor lizard) and the whole 2 months was an invaluable experience.
Would you recommend the project to others?
Yes
