Two weeks ago, I collaborated with Starbucks Regional Bali to teach kids in Sekolah Gunung Bau (Mount. Bau School) which is located in the village of Kintamani. Starbucks provided all the materials while I taught crafts. We made wind chimes out of the plastic Starbucks cups, strings and accessories. 

We woke up early in the morning to meet at the main Starbucks of Bali. There, we met the rest of the crew, the Starbucks staff members. I was joined by my bestfriend, Shirley, and my family. The drive to the village took about 2 hours including a couple of bathroom breaks. Halfway through, we stopped by to get our bathroom break and was greeted by a swarm of street vendors. We bought lots of fresh fruits. 

When we arrived in Sekolah Gunung Bau, the students lined up in an orderly manner creating a pathway for us and said their greetings as a way to honour our arrival. We were led to the main hall of the school and everyone took their seats. I greeted everyone and started my class. 

I talked about why it was important for us to take care of our environment. I talked about the 3R?s and ways on how we can conserve our environment, making sure that each student had a chance to participate. At the end of my talk, I held a pop quiz where I asked them questions regarding what I said previously. They answered it very well. 

I then did asked ten people to come on stage and 20 people came up instead. Unfortunately, we had to send 10 students back to their seats as we only asked for 10 of them. I asked them for their ?Promise for the Earth?. Most of them answered the same as the other. One of them said ?I will not throw rubbish on the streets? and the next student said ?I will not throw rubbish in the sewage? then the next one said ?I will not throw rubbish in the river?. I gave them pins that I designed myself as their prizes. 

I also gave away my autobiography book for the student that could answer my question which was ?What are the 3R?s? and explain.?. One boy stood up right away and went forward, but he didn?t know the answer. He couldn?t remember what the 3R?s stood for, but he did try and explain. Even though his answer was wrong, I still gave him my book because I appreciated his effort. He was shaking and he looked really nervous. When I gave him the book, he kissed my hand and walked back to his seat where he was then bombarded by his classmates. 

We then proceeded with the craft class, but before we started, I explained to them why we used plastic. I told them that it was because it takes plastic a long time until it decomposes and therefore it is unhealthy for our environment and it is visually unappealing. We allowed the students to go full on creative in their accessories and so one of them made their string full of accessories. 

At the end of the class, Starbucks gave them chocolate croissants and class was dismissed. It was a great experience to have. By the time this ended, it was already time for lunch. Starbucks provided us lunch where we quickly ate because we had to go to the coffee plantation. I saw how coffee beans were cleaned and separated from its fruit. 

We hiked a steep hill to get to the plantation. They plant Arabica Coffee which has 4 different kinds of coffee types Lini S, Ateng, B1, and Kopyor. The Lini S coffee is the smallest one and Kopyor is the more expensive and bigger coffee. We can differentiate them from the number of coffee beans inside one fruit.

It takes the plant 2 years until it is producing its fruits and then another 3 years until it is ready to harvest. The harvest season is usually on the month of June until September and it can be harvested once a year. The plant can live up to 15-20 years. 

The plantation was located in Mr. Kompyang?s coffee plantation in Mount. Bau, Kintamani. His land was around 520 hectares. He harvests about 372 tonnes of coffee in the beginning of June. The first seedling of coffee was from the Coffee and Cacao research centre in Jember around 1980.

This experience was very great and I had so much fun so Thank you so much to Starbucks for giving me this opportunity.