When you let yourself see clearly who you were meant to be, and when you encourage yourself to take the next step that is placed in front of you, then this sort of adventure will happen for you….

One of My Most Amazing Days
Today was the second day of the Bali Institute and was, quite simply, one of the best days of my life.

First Amazing Event

Breakfast:  I sat across the table from the former Minister of Culture and Tourism of Bali. I asked him about his ideas on tourism and he told me that it needed to be a tool not a goal of Bali.  I told him about the idea that Dave Seligman shared with me about having villagers gather up plastic, put it in bags, sell it for three dollars, the plastic would get recycled and turned into beautiful building materials.  I added my ideas that the village could receive a play structure for the kids to play on and improve their brains, and we could even work in a little English instruction, and diet education.

He said he loved my ideas. He said, “I want to underline what you just said,” and “I couldn’t agree with you more!” I told him he was the highest ranking person who had ever thought I had great ideas. We hugged at the end of breakfast, and he headed off for a meeting to put into practice some of the ideas we’ve been talking about. Magic, magic, magic.

Second Amazing Event

We went to the Royal Palace and got a personal tour by the Prince. Then we stayed there all day dialoguing and were served a magnificent lunch which was prepared by his wife. It is very clear to me that I do have something to offer this group. No more doubts about that.

We might be the first group of Westerners to ever be invited into the inner sanctum of the palace to have such a meeting. How about that?

Third Amazing Event

We went to the Green School and got a tour by the director. Everything is made out of bamboo. Everything. They even figured out a way to make a dry erase board using bamboo and old car windshields. They have diverted a small part of the river and put in pipes to create a vortex that they can drop the turbine into and generate their own power. They are waiting for a permit and as soon as that happens they will be off the grid. This would be the first water generated turbine in Indonesia. This one simple idea could give power to the villages all over Bali, all over Indonesia. Right now all of Bali’s power comes from Java and is sent under the ocean.

The seventh and eighth graders wanted a place to hang out, so one was built. They had engineers come in to teach them, they had crafters come in and teach them how to put together bamboo, and when the building was going up, the engineers were told to stand by and watch, and to not interfere unless it was a matter of safety. These kids learn by doing.

All of the teachers and students are involved in the rice process. They plant it, tend, harvest, cook, and serve it. All organic, of course.

Eighty percent of the students are international students, 20% are Balinese students on scholarship. If you would like to donate to the scholarship for one of these Balinese children, let me know. They will put up a bamboo pole with your name on it in your honor. Of the 80% of international students, 40% of the students’ families moved to Bali just so their children could participate in the green school. They have built the largest bamboo building in the world. The students love school so much, they come an hour early and have classes down by the river, and stay late. There is an energy and joy at the school that nourishes my soul.

The founder of the school, John Hardy, talked to us after dinner. He said Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” changed him completely. He decided that instead of spending his retirement chasing little white balls around a golf course, which he called a toxic dump, he thought he should do something, whatever he could, to make the world a better place for his children and grandchildren.

I hope I have communicated a small portion of why this was one of the most amazing days of my life. How did I get here? No one in my family read, no one traveled, only two cousins even went to college. And here I am.

Blessings to all of you,

Vicki