Happy New Year!

First of all Happy New Year, or Selamat Tahun Baru, as we say here in Bali!
A bit belatedly as I have been visiting gorgeous Lombok over the holiday.
I wont go on about that, instead let me tell you about some of the stuff SOS did in the time leading up to Christmas and NY. We were invited to the Bali International School (BIS) down in Sanur to attend their annual Christmas Bazaar. With two days till the bazaar was taking place, we got to work. We already have a lot of merchandise for and heaps of information to bring to these things. Though to draw the kids’ attention to our stall, we had to crank it up a notch so we quickly built a tombola and packed the orangutan suit.
A couple of days before we had another volunteer join our team, so in total there were five of us heading down. In both Norway and England tombola’s are a part of every faith or bazaar, but here in Bali this was a foreign concept to most. Therefore we quickly found ourselves chatting away to old and young, explaining what to do and how the money we raised goes towards saving the Sumatran orangutans and their rainforest home. We had some nice prizes up for grabs, including a stay for two in a plush hotel and were happy to see a young couple on holiday win this.
All in all it was a pretty good day, we met loads of interesting people – including some of the pupils who are currently studying rainforest conservation and working towards buying a big patch of rainforest. We are hoping to start a pilot scheme with BIS where we will work with some of the pupils on a regular basis and educate them about their Indonesian rainforest. Hopefully this is something that can go on for years to come and in several different schools once we have enough resources to keep this going.

Ok, I hope you all have a lovely 2010- hopefully we will be able to spread the word about the orangutans even further this year.