Jimbo, I had posted this post up one week ago and was suprised that no one had heard anything about VIBE in Ubud, including Roy who has lived there for 10 yrs. I thought some of the expats that work in Bali and use this forum would be familiar with this organization since it is involved with education and community life in villages all around the island as well as being based in Ubud. I know there are many NGO's and other organizations on Bali but considering that bali is a small island with centralized areas and many things carry by word of mouth on the island I thought i would get more responses and general interest about an important organization that helps educate the young children of many of Bali's villages.
I have already been accepted into their program for english teachers next year and I am pretty sure we will take the two week Bahasa Indonesia immersion course before the teaching begins. I have been in contact with the coordinators of the program but i also wanted to gain insight into the organization from people who dont work for it, ie. expats and english teachers from the west who live on bali. We will be spending the better part of a year in Bali next year and want to get involved and give back to the communities while living there and this seems like the perfect org. to do that with. The teaching program begins in mid Feb. '07 and runs till the summer time (around june), so around 4 months. Then the second teaching program begins in August '07 and goes till december '07. If anyone is interested in this program feel free to contact me or go to their website at vibefoundation.org