My name is Sophie and I am one of the former YCM volunteers. My adventure started in October last year and became definitely one of the best I ever had.
I stayed six month at YCM and never regret the decision to come to Indonesia. Of course in the beginning it was not always easy to stay miles away from your family and friends, to get used to new conditions and to settle down in a kind of new world but YCM helped me from beginning on to feel comfortable and to become part of that wonderful family!
From Monday to Friday I was teaching the different internship programs or the YCM- starter (children between 9 and 15) two sessions a day. Because of the non existing curricula I had the chance to feel completely free in what I was doing. Of course I tried to focus on the English language but little games, role plays, songs, outside activities or research tasks made it much easier to entertain the students while learning.
Every day at 5 pm the lessons are done and than it’s time to play volleyball, to sing and play music in the lovely garden house or just to relax with the students. Often I stayed at YCM until late in the night because I enjoyed the calm and friendly atmosphere there. On the weekend is time for waterfall trips, partying, sports, gathering or spending time with your host family. During six month I never felt homesick because at YCM is always something to do or amazing people to be surrounded by.
The students are really grateful and full of spirit to learn something new. After a couple of weeks students became very good friends and I can’t imagine to live without them anymore. Even though I just left YCM to weeks ago I miss them every day. (in my mind I am already planning my next trip to Bogor in summer next year. Hope my parents are fine with it) I could go on writing and writing for hours about all the things I learned at YCM, wonderful experiences I did and new friends I got. But what I can say for sure is that I had the best time of my life there! Thank you YCM for everything! I am so proud to became part of your family.