We reluctantly left Ubud after 5 nights and headed up to Lovina for 2 nights so that I could visit my sponsor child. There is not much to do in Lovina and the restaurants aren't that flash, so 2 nights was more than enough especially as it is such a long way to go.
Transport from Ubud to Lovina cost 400,000rp and it took about 3 hours. We stayed at Rambutan Cottages which was your typical Balinese style hotel. The room was simple but clean and it was set amoungst some large and beautiful gardens. I think we paid about $50 per night.
Anyway, the point of this visit was to visit my sponsor child Agus who is 13yo. I started sponsoring him about a year ago through the Helen Flavel Foundation, which costs about $150 a year to pay for all his education costs.
John from the foundation picked us up and we went straight to visit Agus at his house. His family were waiting out the front for us and took us into their humble house. We were given some small treats and a drink and sat around to have a chat. John was great at interpreting for us and telling us about their circumstances, and my friend is an Indonesian teacher so that also helped :)
I gave Agus a bag of stationery for school and also a Geelong Cats cap which was far too big for his little head! We then took Agus and his father to the local market and I gave John a budget so that he could arrange for the family to get some provisions. They ended up with a massive sack of rice and a couple of sacks of other food which would last them a few weeks.
We said our goodbyes and then John took us to the Learning Centre, which is a fantastic initiative. We were taken for a tour by the boarders - they were the most polite and well-mannered children I have ever met! Their english was excellent and they has so many questions.
It was great to see the fantastic job that this foundation is doing to help the children in the north of Bali. I feel very humbled that my small sponsorship is giving a young person an opportunity to get an education, and it is nice to give something back to a country that has given me so much joy.
Next stop is the fabulous Seminyak!