I guess this is going to happen over and over again as I tweak the itinerary to fit in as much as possible. Plus there are still people I want to catch up with who I haven’t contacted yet!
Several things though, have happened to change aspects of the itinerary all of which are very exciting and have made me look forward to this adventure more and more.
The first tweak will be within my visit to Jakarta. Last weekend at the Balinese Community of SA Nyepi/ Galungan/ Kuningan/ Easter picnic I luckily met 2 teachers on their last day in Australia who come from a kindegarten – year 12 school in Jakarta. This is their school.They were equally excited to meet me because they too have been searching for a school interested in setting up a sister school (kerjasama) agreement. The fact that they have all ages at their school and are not solely a high school as most schools interested in a sister school agreement tend to be, I happily swapped email addresses and facebook details! They were also delighted to hear of my plans to visit Jakarta in June to visit Bu Valentina’s school for exactly the same reason! So, I am now visiting 2 schools in Jakarta and will not worry about following up any others. I think it makes far more sense to have both in the same city. I have just had a very formal letter from their principal which I will need to reply with my newly acquired grasp of formal Indonesian (many thanks to Pak B IALF) however I will definitely ask someone to check my letter beforehand just in case.
My next itinerary change is for Bali in July. I have booked to spend 2 nights in Lovina with my cousin Penny and her daughter Kaitlyn who will be visiting their sponsor child before heading back to Seminyak for some well deserved R & R (Penny is an early years teacher!) I am looking forward to this for many reasons, most of all seeing Penny who lives interstate and therefore I rarely get the chance to have a decent catch up with her. Being teachers as well as cousins, we always have heaps to talk about!! I am also very interested in her sponsor child program and how that is managed from Australia. Love to set up something like that for other poor families that I know. I also hope I can help with any translating that maybe needed.
In October, my Dad & I have planned to travel together, something I haven’t done in Indonesia with him since 1976! We had originally thought we would explore Sumatra together but then he got very excited about returning to Ternate yet now he has changed his mind again but hasn’t decided yet where he’d like to go. I absolutely don’t mind at all where we go. I am just so excited about spending some time in Indonesia traveling with my Dad because he travels the way I do. As cheaply as possible and with heaps of flexibility. We both love being impulsive while travelling.
The final major change to my plans involves my daughter. I had a brilliant idea which when put to her, she loved too! As my father did for me, for her year 12 graduation present I am flying her out to Indonesia to meet me! (That was the time he met my wonderful stepmother, Ketut! I was with them the first night they met!) Bec will fly out the day after her final exam and we will head to Northern Sulawesi for a dive course on Bunaken Island!! We will then travel southwards exploring other dive areas before hopefully timing it well so we can catch a pelni ship home to Bali!
Have a look at all the amazing dive spots around Sulawesi:
Jalan Jalan with Bu Cathy 