When I was leaving Lombok as a volunteer, it never crossed my mind that I would be back a year later. But this time, I wasn’t a volunteer but a Kintari coordinator for Lombok.
As you have already learned in my previous post, I came to Lombok as a volunteer to teach Indonesian children English. It was the ideal time to do so, between finishing University and starting my first full time job.
After my “mission” I returned to the Czech Republic and started to work in Prague in my field as a therapist. Despite loving my job in Prague and having nothing to complain about, I still felt the pull to travel. I didn’t know why.
I believe that you have probably all had that strong unyielding feeling that you were supposed to do something and if you didn’t do it then, then you would never get to it and your path will be forever altered.
That is exactly how I felt. For a long time, I let this feeling take root inside me and didn’t share it much. But it was persistent. A few months later, I was supposed to meet the founder of Kintari, Jana Wolf, to discuss my experience as a volunteer in Lombok. The meeting ended very differently than I expected. We started to talk about a new position in Kintari.
It was a coordinator position for Lombok.
When Jana Wolfova told me I could fill it if I was interested, I was flabbergasted. I left the meeting with a job offer in my beloved Lombok. I had always wanted to work abroad and suddenly, an opportunity to do so presented itself. I was very surprised, because it was so unexpected.
Six moths later, I knew I was leaving my job in Prague and moving to Indonesia for over half a year.
I was ecstatic. My dream was coming true. It had come true before I expected it to. Working as a coordinator in Lombok taught me a lot. I worked with local people, picked up Czech volunteers at the airport and introduced them to local environment and customs. I went to observations in schools, had to communicate with both Czech and Indonesian people. I studied the local language , held Indo-Czech meeting and was in charge of running the project in Lombok.
We were rolling out our program for sponsoring Indonesian schoolgirls at that time.
Every single one found a Czech sponsor. We acquired funding for our Indonesian teachers too so that they could continue their education and broaden their qualifications. Lombok gave me a lot and I believe that I gave a lot in return as well.
It was an amazing experience. One, that was made possible only because I seized the opportunity and didn’t let go.
I believe that you, too, can seize your opportunity.
