1. Children are inspirational: They are resilient and whatever life throws at them, they take it in stride. They also look towards the future rather than harping on the past.
2. When it comes to team work – whether it’s an IT project, moving dirt and sand, or wall-painting at a construction site – the total is greater than the sum of the individual efforts.
3. Always have a plan B, or maybe even a plan C ready no matter what. [Read more...]

The building adjacent to our guesthouse in Bali is owned by a local church.  From afar, its majestic columns and polished tile stand in stark contrast to the rice fields that surround most of the island’s interior.  Much like Bali itself though, there are constant reminders that this is purely aesthetic.  Small rodents call this building home, and share the space with roaches and a family of birds, who disappear into the light fixtures each night. This duality is essentially why we chose Bali as our project location. 

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I stood looking at several mounds of sand; slightly shorter than all 5’8” of me and about five feet round. “We’re supposed to do what?” I asked. I had actually heard right the first time, but I was stalling for time. Just enough time to store up energy for the long day ahead. We were at a construction site, helping to re-build an orphanage. I say helping rather loosely since seventy percent of the building had already been constructed. Plus the fact that none of us had much experience in constructing buildings. This also meant that our group was tasked with the grunt work; transporting one of the sand piles to the second story of the building. [Read more...]