Week Without Walls {WWW}

Way back in November, our school had its annual Week Without Walls. This is one of my favorite times of the year because it means the whole school steps outside of our school building and serves the local community in some way. The students split up into groups and participate in a wide variety of projects. Then at the end of the week we come back together and share what we have seen and experienced and learned. Everyone from Preschool up thru 12th grade. This year I was supposed to participate in a project in my neighborhood but that ended up getting canceled. So they switched me into the kampung school group to go back and teach English like I had done last year. Then at the last minute they needed an adult to sub for another staff members who was sick. So this year for WWW I ended up joining the Desa Project group. We teamed up with some local workers and went out to a village in southern Bandung. We visited a community development site where they build water filters for those in villages without access to clean water. We built a bamboo fence (hard work!) for the property to keep it safe. The night before we came all their chickens had been stolen because there land was open for anyone to come onto. So our work building the fense really helped bring more security to the property. We also worked with the school next door, a local school for kids with disabilities. We painted a mural at the school. We also spent a morning playing with the kids. I really enjoyed getting to know the kids and watching them interact with one another. They were a wide variety of ages and had all sorts of different disabilities- some were deaf, others had serebral palsy, others were down syndrome, and more. One night we slept down at the site so we wouldn't have to make the long drive back home. We had a lot of fun being together, experiencing how local Indonesians live in the village. We stayed with a host family and slept all around on their floor. The students were great and worked really hard. They had great attitudes and really learned a lot from the kids at the school. We were all blessed by our interactions with the students with disabilities. Here are some pictures of my experience. We had such a great time. We laughed a lot, worked hard, loved on a lot of kids, build strong relationships amongst our team, and more.

Playing in the courtyard of the school.

Lena and Luke showing off their stilt skills.

Playing with the kids.

Lena with a mom and her daughter.

New friends.

Kelly and I working hard at our mural project.

Taking a break in the heat of the day to enjoy some watermelon.

The night we slept over, we enjoyed a special Indonesian meal. These giant leaves served as our plates.

We sat around on the floor and ate with our hands, like local Indonesians do.

After dinner we sat around and played games and talked and laughed lots.

Me with my beautiful friend, Monica.

The next day we finished our murals! So much detail... they were lots of work.

Our painting team in front of the other mural.

Our girls with some of the students at the school.

The boys with some of the students in their new pink uniforms.

Saying goodbye.